Nanaimo resident Robert Fuller wants councillors to consider a new bylaw to deal with the absence of elected officials from council meetings.
Nanaimo city council agreed Monday to get a staff report on council remuneration related to attendance, after Fuller asked council to consider attaching a bylaw to the remuneration policy on the issue of absence from council meetings.
Under the B.C. Community Charter, elected officials can be disqualified from office if they miss 60 consecutive days or four regularly scheduled council meetings, whichever is longer, although the rule doesn’t apply if absence is due to illness or injury.
Fuller, who is Coun. Gord Fuller’s brother, said when one reads the Community Charter and Local Government Act, the takeaway can be that quite a bit of leeway is given before a council member or director can be disqualified from office.
“Without a specific bylaw, an unscrupulous elected official can certainly navigate through this section with virtually little impunity,” said Robert Fuller. “It’s not much of a stretch that a council member could, for example, attend two meetings, miss three, attend one meeting, miss two and so forth throughout their term in office with little to worry about.”
Fuller said it’s the expectation of the electorate that all members of council attend all meetings, engage in matters concerning the city and gather the appropriate information to guide the city. When any member of council neglects their duty, it is not only the elector and taxpayers that are robbed of accountability, but the city itself, he said.
He asked council to consider a bylaw, in the interest of accountability, responsibility for one’s actions and fiscal prudence, so “this transgression of councillors’ responsibility might carry forth in the air of accountability to the electorate.”
Coun. Bill Bestwick made the motion for a staff report.
news@nanaimobulletin.com