Jeff Burgar
Transparency and accountability is alive and well! Now, mark one up for the City of Edmonton!
Recently, Edmonton was routinely reviewing its code of conduct policy. City lawyers and administrators decided it was a good idea to bring a new code to council. No doubt they were happy. For the public, the new code went backwards. It removed a section that required any integrity commission investigation findings to be made public.
To their credit, not only did some councillors read the new code, they were shocked by the deletion. So was the mayor.
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi says, “I don’t know how keeping a report private about a violation of code of conduct increases transparency. It does not.”
He added, “Transparency is very, very important, that as elected officials we are held to a very high standard through the code of conduct. If we are not living up to that standard, I think the public needs to know.”
Of course, it isn’t just ‘code of conduct’ complaints that need transparency. Councils across Canada continue to talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk. The main issue here is an ever-increasing use of NDAs, Non Disclosure Agreements – a confidentiality agreement.
These days, any lawyer who claims to be worth his or her salt thinks it entirely appropriate to end negotiations with the paperwork including the secret NDA clause. “It’s really quite common,” they say.
Well, yes it is! In business and in private affairs NDAs are very, very common. Trade secrets. Divorce settlements. Business finances. Deals to buy and sell. All private.
According to the website thecut.com, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie argued constantly in their divorce who could make the other sign the toughest NDA. In Vermont, a martial arts instructor had his students sign an NDA so they wouldn’t run off with his training techniques. Singer Billie Eilish has a song called NDA about the life of a celebrity.
And according to the author of thecut story, he was at a wedding where roommates from his college were invited to talk about the groom. Somebody from the back shouted, “Didn’t y’all sign an NDA?”
There is much, much more. As the author reports, this is now one of the most common signed contracts in the world. Tiger Woods had his ex-wife signed a 30-page NDA. A comedian asked every person in his audience sign such a paper. David Bowie and Mick Jagger in bed together? It was covered after a NDA expired.
But the main point is, no matter how salacious, secret or damaging the events are, it is all, in the end, private with private money.
In politics, so-called national security is waived all the time. But no matter what, it is taxpayer’s money that is at stake. Keeping a secret, like a payout to a fired staffer or a secret deal with a voting bloc that might embarrass someone in power, is no place for secrets.
There are quite a few governments, big and small in Alberta, that either have yet to realize this, or simply figure it doesn’t apply to them. Edmonton, it appears, isn’t one of them.