A White Rock city councillor is disappointed that no progress has been made towards developing a ‘whistleblower policy’ for the city nine months after staff were directed to do so by council.
Coun. Helen Fathers said at last week’s governance and legislation committee meeting that she “had hoped to see the policy,” which was the subject of a unanimous vote, tabled by Fathers at the April 27 council meeting.
The purpose of the policy is to “protect staff and members of council” from retribution should they report any conduct that is illegal, immoral or harmful.
“I was really disappointed to see that it hadn’t been worked on,” Fathers said, noting she understood the heavy workload of staff. “I think everything has to be put into a time and place.”
City manager Dan Bottrill told the committee the policy had not been made a priority by staff.
“The reason why you don’t see (the policy) today is because of the priorities with regards to what is being done and what is coming forward,” Bottrill said. “And I take responsibility for the fact that it isn’t in front of you yet.”
Coun. Grant Meyer echoed Bottrill’s comments that creating the policy was not a council priority.
“I’m not per se against this, I just think we have a long list of priorities,” Meyer said, making note of how busy staff are. “I think we have to stick with our priorities.”
Fathers reiterated how long it had been since the motion was carried, noting there was “a bit of a process question” relating to the policy.
“I could rattle off the last three motions that have been moved that don’t fit in to our corporate priorities,” Fathers said.
“So someone is picking and choosing what goes in, and I’m OK with that, but I don’t want to have lost sight of the fact that this hasn’t been done, and all of us supported it.”