Turf spat leads Calgary councillors to adopt rules on campaigning in others' wards
After a spat over turf erupted earlier this year, Calgary has adopted new rules for councillors who want to go knocking on doors outside of their own wards.
Council approved the new ethical guidelines Monday following a dispute over the summer between Coun. Sean Chu and Coun. Druh Farrell.
The brouhaha began when Farrell discovered Chu had been showing up at private doorsteps in Ward 7, a central section of the city that she represents, handing out business cards and inviting residents to contact him with any questions.
Chu represents Ward 4, which borders Ward 7 to the north, but looming changes to the electoral boundaries mean some communities currently in the central district with end up in the more northern district as of the October 2017 municipal election.
That led Farrell to accuse Chu of pre-emptively wading into his future pool of potential voters, which she said is not only confusing to current residents but also amounts to campaigning using city resources [his business cards].
Chu said he was "not doing campaigning whatsoever" and was simply introducing himself to residents in the area.
'Significant issue of confusion'
The incident led the city's newly appointed ethics advisor to come up with rules to clarify what's acceptable when it comes to out-of-ward activities.
"With the ward boundary changes there is a significant issue of confusion here if someone comes in and knocks on a door as the non-representing councillor," Alice Woolley told council Monday.
"The person at the door, they don't have these fine distinctions in their mind. They just think the person is now their councillor and they get confused. And, to my mind, the major incentive for that activity most of the time, in those communities, is going to be campaigning and it's best to treat it as such."
Under the new rules, councillors knocking on doors or sending mailouts to homes outside their current wards must notify the councillor who represents the area.
If that contact results in residents raising any concerns or questions relating to the local ward, the outside councillor must refer them to the representing councillor.
Chu raises concerns about 'spying'
Chu ultimately voted in favour of the ethics guidelines but not before raising concerns that the notification requirement could prompt current councillors to take counter-measures, of sorts, when they learn that outside councillors are door-knocking in their wards.
"If that's the case, it could be argued that the representing councillor right away would pick up the phone and say 'Hey, so and so, that councillor is doing this — you might want to do it, too.' Basically, spying," he said.
Woolley, however, said it was unlikely to be a problem.
"That strikes me as a relatively remote possibility to be addressed in the guidelines," she said.
"And, to be clear here, it doesn't actually say you have to notify them in advance."
'Common courtesy and appropriate behaviour'
The new guidelines were approved by a majority of council, with only Couns. Andre Chabot and Diane Colley-Urquhart voting against them.
Coun. Brian Pincott supported the guidelines but said they shouldn't really be necessary.
"I find it unfortunate that we, once again, are having to put guidelines in place that essentially deal with common courtesy and appropriate behaviour," he said.
The guidelines only apply until May 31, 2017, when the usual pre-election "blackout" kicks in, restricting the types of official communication incumbent councillors can have with constituents ahead of the October 2017 vote.
