Mayor Ken Sim accused of breaching City's conduct code

Courtesy of CBC

Vancouver’s integrity commissioner, Lisa Southern,  recently released a scathing report on Friday regarding Mayor Ken Sim, ruling that he and his ABC Vancouver Councilors had broken the city code of conduct on multiple occasions. 

This report concludes a year-long investigation by Southern, which initially examined the complaint from Councillor Pete Fry that ABC had breached the Vancouver Charter by not conducting city council business in public. Sim and ABC have released a statement, denying the claims. 

The complaint stemmed from accusations that ABC had discussed the careful wording of amendments members would bring forth and how ABC members were expected to vote. This would mean that matters of the city council were handled in private, which is prohibited under the Charter. 

Southern’s investigation yielded what she deemed to be two instances in which she states that Mayor Sim’s ABC party broke the code of conduct. These were the voted rejection of a Climate Justice Charter to guide city staff in managing climate issues and approving a turf field for Moberly Park. Both instances involved leaked emails that confirmed correspondence between ABC members regarding voting on these specific issues. 

She also had further concerns that “the conduct of the respondents was not inadvertent, nor unintentional.”

Further Developments

Courtesy of City of Vancouver

Southern unveiled further email correspondence between Mayor Sim’s own office and other ABC councillors, which confirmed the group had “team voting rules.” The emails from Sim’s office included statements like "ABC team member motions are to be supported" and "opposition motions will be decided on a case-by-case basis through discussion with the group."

Southern said that while these emails do break municipal rules about approaching city council debates with an “open mind,” it does not technically break the Charter. This is because Mayor Sim and ABC claim their voting protocol was a working document that was never officially adopted by the party and that its members are free to vote as they please on municipal matters. 

The Office of the BC Ombudsperson cited several aspects of Southerm’s ongoing report in a letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs in March, prompting discussion that the provincial government could get more involved in this municipal situation. 

Mayor Sim’s office defended the right to caucus and claimed that the complaint from Councillor Fry has cost taxpayers $200,000. “We respect the role of the Integrity Commissioner, but we strongly disagree with elements of this report,” the statement from Sim’s office said.