Committee Recommends Several Amendments to Burlington's Updated Use of Corporate Resources During an Election Policy

*ADMINISTRATOR'S NOTE (MARCH 23, 2022 UPDATE): At the March 22 meeting, Burlington City Council approved committee's recommended changes to the Use of Corporate Resources During an Election policy.

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MY TAKE:The policy aims to ensure that elected councillors and City staff do not use any City resources for election campaign purposes, while allowing us all to continue to do our jobs serving our community during the campaign period, and remain accessible, transparent and accountable to residents. The updates to the policy, along with the additional clarity from staff and Council through the amendments, are a true collaborative effort that will help us strike the appropriate balance.

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At our Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk and Accountability (CSSRA) Committee Meeting on March 2, we carried several recommended amendments to the updated Use of Corporate Resources During an Election Policy that was presented by staff. This will head for ratification at our March 22 Council meeting.The public can still delegate and share their feedback by emailing clerks@burlington.caThe City's Clerks Department did an extensive public survey that informed the updated policies in the staff report.Links to related documents are below:

• Original Staff Report: CL-05-22 Use of Corporate Resources Policy
• Appendices:
  • CL-05-22 Appendix A Proposed Use of Corporate Resources During an Election Policy
  • CL-05-22 Appendix B Existing Use of Corporate Resources During an Election Policy
• Committee & Council Meeting Minutes:
  • Post-Meeting Minutes - CSSRA Committee_March02_2022
  • Link to the March 22 Council Minutes will be provided when published by City at burlington.ca/calendar

Recommendation that was approved:

Approve the Use of Corporate Resources During an Election Policy attached as appendix A, and as amended at CSSRA Committee, to office of the city clerk report CL-05-22; and

Repeal the Use of Corporate Resources During an Election Policy, adopted on October 30, 2017, attached as appendix B to office of the city clerk report CL-05-22.

I brought forward several amendments and a staff direction with the majority being unanimously approved at Committee.AMENDMENTS & ANALYSIS: The principles we're trying to achieve through our municipal resources are three-fold:

• “prohibit a municipality from making a contribution to an election campaign.” (Report CL-05-22, pg 1, under Purpose)
• applies to municipal, provincial and federal elections and candidates, and third party advertisers.
• Page 1, Appendix A: Policy Statement: “Nothing contained in this Policy shall limit or constrain a Member of Council from exercising their statutory functions, or from limiting the Mayor from exercising their duties as the head of council and the chief executive officer of the City.”

Some of the original wording in the updated policy had the effect (if not the intent) of:

• “limiting or constraining a Member of Council from exercising their statutory functions”;
• hampering council member’s abilities to fulfill their obligation for transparency to the community, per Sec. 11 of the Code of Good Governance; and
• going beyond the scope of the policy, which is to prevent the use of corporate resources for campaign purposes.

The modifications and clarity I brought forward through my amendments were formed to help resolve these matters. The nine amendments, and one staff direction, were developed in collaboration and conversation with staff from the City's Clerks, Communications and Parks and Recreation departments.AMENDMENTS TO REPORT CL-05-22:City facilities -- Section: 2(a): Election campaigningDelete 2(a) as it stood and replace with:2(a) Municipally-operated facilities/properties can only be used for any election related purpose if there is a rental fee established corporately and the rental is available to all candidates and third parties. No facility/property shall be rented or used for any municipal election related purpose during any day that voting is taking place on the property including set-up, hosting or take-down activities.(b) Use of rentals are subject to the following conditions:

1. all election campaign materials must only be displayed within the allotted rental period in the allotted rented area designated in the rental agreement; and
2. rentals for campaign related activities are not permitted from the first date of advance voting to the day after voting day; and
3. the City reserves the right to refuse or cancel a rental contract at any time, in accordance with the terms of the contract, should it conflict with the City’s corporate values or established policies or procedures, or presents a health and safety concern.”
4. No rentals permitted under the Lobby rental category

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BYOD -- Section 3(h): Use of Corporate Identifiers and ResourcesDelete 3(h) entirely.RATIONALE:

• It's redundant. Staff own their own phones and are compensated ONLY for a portion (not the entire amount) for the work-related costs. They are not compensated for personal use, so if that use relates to a campaign, there is no contribution from the City to a campaign for that personal use.

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Business cards -- Section 4(a)(ii): Restrictions during the Campaign Period, Design resourcesReplace 4(a)(ii) with (in bold):City business cards and promotional materials prepared by Creative and Digital Services shall not be used for any campaign purposes or at any campaign events, and can only be distributed in the normal course of a candidate’s performance of their official duties (eg. Distributed during an AMO or FCM conference a member is attending in their official capacity)

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Media Requests -- Section 4(b)(i)(i)): Restrictions during the Campaign Period, Communications, Media RequestsMODIFY 4(b)(i)(i) with:4(b)(i)(i) - Media requests to City staff during the campaign period shall be directed for response by the City through the Manager of Communications.ADD:4(b)(i)(ii) -- Sitting council members will continue to be available to media at all times to comment on matters related to the performance of their duties and decision-making, respecting their obligations under the Code of Good Governance Sec 11: “We will communicate information to the public in ways that are accurate, timely, and in the interest of the corporation. We will respect that the Mayor, as head of council, is the primary spokesperson for Council.”4(b)(i)(iii) -- Official city press releases will not feature quotes from any member of council during the election blackout period from midnight the day of the last council meeting of the term, until midnight of election day; except in an emergency situation or exceptional circumstances as determined by the City Manager, Clerk & Communications.

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Newsletters -- Section 4(b)(iii)(i): Restrictions during the Campaign Period, Communications, City Talk Issues and NewslettersReplace 4(b)(iii) with:Printing and distribution of hard copy newsletters for members of Council will be discontinued from the day nominations open to midnight of Election Day unless utilizing the City of Burlington approved and adopted campaign period newsletter template.Printed and electronic newsletters whose printing and distribution is paid for with city resources shall not contain campaign information, other than links to general election information (eg. voting locations, key election dates, links to registered candidates)RATIONALE:

• The policy’s purpose is to ensure that corporate resources are not used for campaign purposes. This can be resolved simply by ensuring that newsletters produced with city resources do not include campaign information.
• The effect of clause 4(b)(iii)(i) is to limit a council member’s ability to engage, inform and be accountable and transparent to their constituents, in contravention of the goals stated elsewhere in the policy itself which states: “Nothing in this policy shall limit or constrain a Member of Council form exercising their statutory functions, or from limiting the Mayor from exercising their duties as the head of council and the chief executive officer of the city.”
• The effect of clause 4(b)(iii)(i) further violates a council member’s obligations under the Code of Good Governance, Sec 11: “We will communicate information to the public in ways that are accurate, timely, and in the interest of the corporation. We will respect that the Mayor, as head of council, is the primary spokesperson for Council.”
• During the period while council is still in session in May, June, July and September, constituents must be able to receive relevant information from their elected representatives, including about decisions coming before committee and council, especially when said constituents have opted-in to receive that information by signing up for the newsletters and can unsubscribe at any time.
• Clause 4(b)(iii)(i) disregards the recent statistically valid Community Survey that saw a 34% increase in residents finding out city business from the Mayor and Ward Councillor.
• There are reputational risks to the city if council members are constrained from their ability to tell constituents about important decisions coming to council about which residents may wish to delegate, comment on or keep track of how their representative voted for the purpose of holding their representatives accountable.

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Ward Meetings/Ads -- Section 4(c)(i): Restrictions during the Campaign Period, ExpendituresREPLACE 4(c)(i) with:Council advertising of ward meetings will not include the council member's name and photo; and will only include the general ward contact information, starting nomination day until midnight on Election Day.Any meetings hosted by members of Council and paid for by the City must be regarding City business only and may not include any campaigning or distribution of campaign materials.RATIONALE:

• Ward meetings are an important opportunity for residents to connect directly with their elected representative, especially on matters before the council while the council is still in session, which extends up to and including the last council meeting of the term.
• The policy already includes language that prevents any member of council from using such meetings for campaign purposes, while allowing the council member to continue to perform their duties to the public to be accountable and transparent.
• The policy, as originally written, would prevent a council member, who is also a candidate, from holding a campaign meeting with residents that the councillor pays for from their own campaign budget. This is beyond the scope of the policy, which is to ensure that city resources are not used for campaign purposes. Election campaign finance rules govern the rules that all candidates must adhere to for campaign spending and meetings.

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Branding -- Section 5(d): City StaffMODIFY 5(d) to Replace the words “owned and leased” with “branded”:City staff shall not canvass nor actively campaign in support of or in opposition to a candidate or party while wearing a City uniform, badge, crest or other item identifying them as a City of Burlington employee, or while using a City branded vehicle.RATIONALE:

• Some employees have a city leased vehicle as part of their compensation package. Such vehicle is a taxable benefit, for which the employee pays for the “personal” portion of the vehicle, similar to a BYOD. As such, whatever the personal uses of the vehicle, these are already paid for by the individual, not the corporation. Further such vehicles do not have city “branding” on them to identify them as a city vehicle which avoids any public conclusion that a city resource is being used for campaign purposes.

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Social Media -- Section 4(b)(ii)(i): Restrictions during the Campaign Period, Communications, Social MediaREPLACE 4(b)(ii)(i) with:Members of Council are required to remove the City logo, crest, official photo or title from their social media bios, but can say they are running for re-election.RATIONALE:

• Council members continue to perform their elected duties until their term ends, and the public has a right to know who they are and have them publicly and transparently identified on all social media accounts.
• This also helps to avoid confusion from potential “fake” or anonymous accounts purporting to be the council member.
• Personal social media accounts are not city resources. If they are used for campaigning, that is not a corporate contribution.
• It is not feasible to remove job titles from some social media (eg. LinkedIn requires current occupation; Facebook Pages once established in someone’s name/title can’t be changed.)

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STAFF DIRECTION RELATED TO REPORT CL-05-22:Direct the City Clerk to work with the Integrity Commissioner to review and report back by end of Q2 on the feasibility of aligning the policies governing Advisory Committees or local boards with the Use of Corporate Resources during an Election Policy for city staff and council, so there is a single policy applicable to staff, council and volunteers.

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An amendment brought forward by Ward 2 Counc. Lisa Kearns was also approved by a 4-3 majority vote at committee. Please see below:

Add:

4(b)(iv) - No rentals permitted under the Lobby rental category or at Civic Square at City Hall.