Fredericton to review handling of code-of-conduct complaints after spending $15K on one

A code-of-conduct complaint against Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers that cost the city $15,000has prompteda review of how future complaints get dealt with.

At Monday evening's regular council meeting, it was revealed the cityhad to consult outside lawyers to help conclude that the complaint against Rogersand Ward 10 Coun. Cassandra LeBlancwas unfounded.

According to a staff report, Mark D'Arcy made the complaint, allegingthe two failed to be "transparent" during council's consideration of a proposal by ColpittsDevelopment for its property at 390 York St.

The complaint alleged they also failed to be transparent during council's consideration of changes made to the residential town plan secondary municipal plan.

Discussion about the complaint Monday evening led Coun. StevenHicks to ask what the complaint cost the city to deal with.

Steve Hart, the chief administrative officer, said external legal counsel cost about $15,000.

"That is in addition to staff time, which we have not costed for this activity," Hart said.

Deputy Mayor Greg Ericson said the complaint came to him with "hundreds" of pages of documents attached to it, which he felt he didn't have the expertise to make a decision on whether it was founded or not.

Ericson said D'Arcy had also declined any attempts to have the complaint settled informally.

That prompted Ericson to referthe decision to external lawyers.

Ericson said he's now engaged in an "informal" review with the city clerk to find out if there are ways for a "layperson" like himself to be better equipped to determine whether a complaint is founded or not.

"The intent is to create better governance for the city to make sure that when either the mayor or the deputy mayor is ruling at the outset as to whether a code-of-conduct complaint is vexatious or not, that we do it with tools that are [of] better service to the residents than just common sense," he said.

Ericson said the intent of the review is to reduce the chances that external legal counsel will have to be consultedin order to save the city money.

"In time with some more experience, we shouldn't have too much of a problem dismissing without cost, the vexatious and unfounded complaints, because I have a little better experience determining what is, you know, connected to evidence and connected to the violations of our code-of-conduct bylaw."

Complainant stands by allegation

Contacted by phone Monday night, D'Arcy said he was disappointed by the decision to have his complaint deemed unfounded.

D'Arcyalleged Rogers and LeBlancfailed in Januarytorevealinformation to the public that had to do with how the development by Colpitts would impact the Cross Town Trail.

D'Arcy said he had concerns the development would affect the trail, and the two should have been obligated to share what they knew about the future of the uncompleted trail.

"For them to say it's unfounded is ridiculous," D'Arcy said. "We're dealing with a situation that should have been resolved more than 10 years ago."

The city has said an announcement about the completion of the Cross Town Trail will be made later this year.