Prince George, B.C. – The old saying is "you can’t fight City Hall", but more and more communities are doing just that, but with a twist, as municipal  politicians find themselves facing legal  action.

 

Mayor of Quesnel, Mary Sjostrom, and 5 members of Quesnel Council, are the latest muncipal politicians to be facing court action. In this case, the allegation is that Sjostrom and 5 Councillors acted  contrary to the Community Charter  in their approval of a severance package for the former City Manager.

 

The petition calls for the  $170,469 severance to be repaid to the City, saying the   employee resigned and was not entitled to severance.

 

The action is the latest in a string of troubles for Mayors  in Canada. Perhaps the most  widely publicized troubles surround Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford, but   here at home, even Prince George Mayor Shari Green is up against a court battle. Residents of the Haldi Road area have asked the court to determine if she was in conflict when voting on matters surrounding an amendment to the Official Community Plan and a related rezoning application.

 

Municipal governments are seeing more scrutiny today than ever before says UNBC Political Science Professor Dr. Gary Wilson who points to the  establishment of the office of the Auditor for Local Government as one example. “In an era of austerity and budget cutting the government  (provincial) is paying close attention to what goes on at the local level.”

 

Dr. Wilson says keeping tabs is important, “We see lots of it going on, with the Senate now at the federal level all of the scandals around spending, I think Canadians are more aware of this issue now, of what government is doing what elected officials are doing in spending tax money.”

 

But when it comes to residents or municipal taxpayers taking their local elected politicians to court, “I think a lot of that is the Americanization of our legal system, in that people are turning to the legal system as a way of getting justice, litigation is becoming more common.”

 

Dr. Wilson says at the local level, the issues hit home very closely, whether it be potholes, snow removal or garbage pick up and people are very concerned about their property taxes and what kind of value they are getting for their money. “It’s a lot more complicated than that” says Dr. Wilson “Local governments are doing far more than they used to do. They are required to accomplish so many more tasks, like economic development, and they are doing it on the same budget” and so taxes go up to cover the costs of the additional tasks, and residents are not happy about it.

 

Dr. Wilson says it is also important to note the challenging of political decisions has increased since the inception of the Charter of Rights. “Now you have this other avenue to challenge political decisions, you can take decisions to the court and have the court strike down the law if it is found to be unconstitutional and the politicians will have to go back to square one. It kind of creates the legalization of the political system.” He says that is having a ripple effect which is now being seen at the local level “We are now seeing people using the court system to enact political change.”

 

Yet, Dr. Wilson says although municipal politics are very important, people don’t seem to care very much when its election time, “they don’t come out in huge droves to vote in municipal elections, so there’s a lack of interest in the elections, but there seems to be increased activity around these other forms of scrutiny.”

 

That’s not to say politicians should get a free ride once they take office says Dr. Wilson “It’s ok  to  hold politicians feet to the fire and politicians are aware that if they do certain things, someone will call them on it. At the same  time,  it (legal action) disrupts the business of government. If politicians have to deal with all of this and whether its legitimate or not, it’s getting in the way of them getting things done, which is important to communities.” It also eats up tax dollars to fight the allegations.

 

Dr. Wilson says the publicity surrounding cases like the Montreal Mayor’s corruption allegations, or the Rob Ford stories, can also further erode a voter’s confidence “When people hear these kind of stories,  they become very disillusioned with local government, even though the vast majority of people in local government are honest, hard working folks who have the community’s best interest at heart, you get these high profile cases, and people start putting those together and saying ‘well what’s going on with local government, what’s with all this corruption?’ and they start making these kinds of connections that are really a skewed view of local government because the reality is, most people in local government are good people.”

 

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