St. Albert city council voted unanimously Monday to dismiss three code of conduct complaints against members of council who travelled outside of the city during the pandemic.
On Monday, council went in camera to discuss the matter before coming back out to listen to six residents, who all asked council to dismiss the complaints. The speakers were restricted to talking about whether the trips violated the code of conduct.
One involved Coun. Sheena Hughes for travelling by air to Mexico over the Christmas holidays. The other two complaints involved travel within Canada earlier in 2020. Coun. Jacquie Hansen travelled to B.C. for her son's wedding in July, while Mayor Cathy Heron travelled to Canmore with her spouse in October.
The complainants alleged all three councillors breached Section 7 (c) and (d) of the code of conduct bylaw, which speak to a council member's "ethical conduct" and serving "the welfare and interests of the city as a whole and the community at large."
Each decision was read separately, with Coun. Wes Brodhead reading the decision for Hughes first. Hughes travelled during a time when public health officials asked people to avoid international travel, though there was no legal requirement in place. Hughes also apologized in public for the decision.
Councillors are bound by the code of conduct to work for the best interests of the community, and Hughes "over the course of her term of office has done so, and has done so well," Brodhead said.
"Coun. Hughes over the last little while has had to read statements about her ... I would not wish on anyone," he said.
"People within our community get caught up in their hurt, caught up in their pain, and they use language that is not right in any sense to be levelled against another human being. If people want some punishment on Coun. Hughes, be it understood that she has felt it. None of it says she actually contravened the code of conduct. My motion before you is that the formal complaint should be dismissed."
Coun. Natalie Joly said opposing viewpoints are welcome at the council table, and she agreed the complaint is not a violation of the code of conduct. Joly also denounced the verbal abuse faced by Hughes and Heron over the last few weeks.
"To those who have sent horrible, vulgar, threatening messages to councillor Hughes and her family – how dare you? Our community is better than that, and none of us sign up for that kind of abuse, and it is unacceptable for that to be happening to anyone," she said.
Heron said she is tired of the perception that herself and Hughes are from different political camps. There have been hurdles they have had to overcome, but they were still able to foster a working relationship, she said.
"Her and I talked on the phone while this was coming out to the public, and we talked about our options. I told her if she chose to resign, it would be a loss for this council. I don't think people realized what a key factor she was in our annexation negotiations – she adds a lot to this council," Heron said, tears in her eyes.
"Let's put some of this pain behind us. This community, before 'travelgate' even hit, is hurting and we need avenues to express our frustration, to express our fears, but that avenue should not be behind a keyboard, on social media, or sending those vulgar messages to any one of the members of council."
Hughes recused herself during the council discussion. After council voted to dismiss the complaint, Hughes came back into the meeting and spoke to the public about the decision.
"These actions were never meant to minimize what has gone on in this community. Every single person has suffered, every single person has taken sacrifices," she said, with emotion in her voice. "I understand this pain has been real for everyone, and the uncertainty of when it's going to end is also really painful. I wanted to acknowledge these actions were not meant to minimize what everyone has gone through."
Domestic travel
Next was a complaint against Hansen for attending her son's wedding in B.C. last July. Hansen declined to go back in camera for the discussions so it would be open to the public, and removed herself from the discussion. Joly put the motion to dismiss the complaint on the floor, which passed unanimously.
"The code of conduct is not meant to be used as a weapon, and that's really what it feels like in this case. I don't think I received any emails about this saying there was an issue, this appears to be done in response to the previous code of conduct complaint," Joly said.
"Think of how many hours we've spent dealing with this, how many dollars have been spent from our lawyers giving us advice ... this is not a good use for our time."
The Gazette has put in a request with the city to detail how much money was spent to deal with these complaints. Coun. Ken MacKay, who voted against getting rid of the city's integrity commissioner last year, noted the process would have been a cleaner one had the city kept its lawyer on call.
Before the discussion on a complaint against Mayor Cathy Heron, Heron corrected that her trip to Canmore was not done with friends, as alleged in the complaint, but with her spouse alone. She said the travel advisory stated in the complaint was for international travel, not within the province. Heron said she didn't dispute the complaint because it would cost the city more time and money to go through the investigation process. She also chose not to go in camera.
Once Heron left debate, council voted unanimously to dismiss the complaint.
Coun. Ray Watkins said the complaints served as a reminder to council to hold a higher level of ethical and moral standard when it comes to COVID-19 regulations.
"I know it's hard coming from me, the guy who dropped the f-bomb in a meeting, but we have to really hold ourselves to a higher level. Whether it's legally right or wrong, we have to really look – is it ethically or morally true in our heart that we should be violating these things, even if they are only recommendations or guidelines," he said. "We have to put this behind us."
