Council members in North Cowichan will now have to pay a financial price if found guilty of contravening the municipality’s new standards of conduct policy.
In 2018, the municipality adopted the policy which set out the expectation for council members to adhere to when carrying out their duties and functions on behalf of North Cowichan.
If a council member is accused of harassment, bullying, intimidation, violence, and/or discrimination during these times, the municipality is mandated under the policy to hire a third-party investigator to determine the validity of the accusations.
RELATED STORY: JOYCE BEHNSEN DISCIPLINED FOR BULLYING AND HARASSING MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEE
The hiring of an investigator can be a significant expense, and council decided at its meeting on Oct. 21 that when a member of council has been found to have breached the policy, he or she must contribute towards the costs of the investigation.
For the first offence, council members will receive a 10 per cent pay reduction for 12 months, which is approximately $3,000 for a councillor and $8,000 for the mayor.
A second offence will result in a 15 per cent pay reduction, but if there is any overlap between the first offence and second offence, the offending council member will see a pay reduction of 25 per cent while those periods coincide.
Council members will face a 25 per cent reduction in pay for 12 months for the third and subsequent offences, and overlapping offences within those 12 months could result in reductions of 50 per cent where there are three concurrent offences, 75 per cent for four concurrent offences, or even 100 per cent if there are five or more concurrent offences.
RELATED STORY: NORTH COWICHAN COUNCIL TO SET STANDARDS OF CONDUCT
Mayor Al Siebring said some may say that the financial penalties are overkill, but they are a good deterrent to bad behaviour of council members.
“Without this, our code of conduct would be just symbolic, but this will add some enforcement to it,” he said.
Coun. Kate Marsh said she was impressed with the repercussions council members could face when exhibiting bad behaviour.
“One of the challenging things about the code of conduct is consequences, and a cut in pay will add teeth to it,” she said.
robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
