A resolution brought forward by the Town of Rocky Mountain House has been adopted by delegates during a busy second day of the Alberta Municipalities (ABmunis) Convention and Trade Show in Red Deer.
Rocky Mountain House Town Councillor Tina Hutchinson says the resolution is designed to have an arm’s length office established to handle code of conduct complaints so local councils don’t get bogged down.
“Every municipality is dealing with the same thing where the council becomes judge and jury,” says Hutchinson. “So if that process went into place, it would kind of give the municipality the ability to do the job that we need to do and effectively move forward in our municipalities instead of having to deal with weeks and weeks and weeks of code of conduct issues.”
The resolution titled ‘Independent Office of Integrity for Local Government’ was read aloud before the delegation of hundreds by Councillor Len Phillips which reads in part:
Councils need to work collaboratively and cooperatively to effectively govern. This requires a concerted effort of working together and becoming a team that is respectful to each other and accepting different opinions. A code of conduct complaint can be counterintuitive to this essential aspect of a council in that it places council members in quasi-judicial role on a peer.
The resolution, which was the first of 27 on the docket, passed with 77.1 per cent of delegates in favor.
Edmonton City Councillor and ABmunis board member Andrew Knack announces voting results for ‘Independent Office of Integrity for Local Government’ resolution Sept. 26 in Red Deer. (Jordan Rein/94.5 Rewind Radio)
Resolutions adopted by delegates aren’t immediately binding, but are positions which will be advocated by ABmunis to the Alberta government.
Having had its share of code of conduct complaints in recent years, Hutchinson agrees the resolution is pertinent to a municipality such Rocky Mountain House.
“You learn after each code of conduct what went wrong and what went right,” says Hutchinson. “If the code of conduct for everybody was the same across the board, then each individual municipality wouldn’t be dealing with interpreting it in a different way.”
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The Town of Rocky Mountain House also seconded a resolution from the City of St. Albert asking the provincial government to once again allow voting tabulators in elections.
That resolution titled ‘Allowance of Automated Vote Counting Systems in Municipal Elections’ was approved by delegates with with 85.5 per cent of the vote.
Hutchinson said she was pleased with the results of the resolution, pointing to high costs for municipalities associated with holding paper ballot elections.
Speaking to reporters following a scheduled address to delegates, Smith said tabulators have unfortunately posed issues, such as when candidate Miranda Rosin appeared to have been elected for the UCP in 2019, and was set to make a victory speech, only for late mobile votes to finally come in and prove she’d lost.
Smith said these kinds of situations are avoidable if hand-counting is used, thus municipalities will continue to have to do it, “the old-fashioned way.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks to delegates at the Alberta Municipalities Convention and Trade Show in Red Deer on Sept. 26, 2024. (Jordan Rein/94.5 Rewind Radio)
Addressing the crowd later in the day, Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi said Smith is giving too much credence to conspiracy theories, adding that the tabulators are not connected to a network and therefore cannot be hacked.
He promised delegates Thursday that if elected premier, he would let municipalities, “use the damn vote counting machines.”
Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi speaks to reporters at the Alberta Municipalities Conference in Red Deer Sept. 26. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)
Huchinson says a highlight for her was being present to witness some of her Town colleagues receiving the ABmunis ‘Dedicated Senior Team Award’ at the outset of the convention.
“It’s quite a prestigious award, and to be honoured to accept that with all of the Town staff, that was probably one of my biggest highlights,” says Hutchinson.
The Alberta Municipalities Convention & Trade runs from Sept 25-27 at Westerner Park in Red Deer.
–with files from rdnewsNOW
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