“A public disguise”: Sean Chu was not added to any Calgary city committee – Calgary

Ailing Calgary city councilor Sean Chu will not sit on any city committee for the next year or so, following a council decision.

But that does not prevent him from attending meetings and voting on items.

Councilors are normally required to be members of at least one standing policy committee under the city’s procedure by-law.

An amendment introduced by Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra allowed the selection committee to bypass this part of the rules for a year.

Only councilors Peter Demong, Dan McLean, Sonya Sharp, Terry Wong, Andre Chabot and Sean Chu voted against Carra’s amendment by 9-6.

This is one of the few things the city council could do following reports that Ward 4 incumbent Sean Chu has been convicted of improper conduct involving inappropriate relations with a minor – allegations that were published a few days before election day, October 18.

“We have very limited capacities and powers as a council, (but) we exercised one today,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek told reporters.

City attorney Jill Floen warned council it was “very, very important that council make a decision that is reasonable in the circumstances.”

Floen also urged the board to “carefully consider” the needs of committees and determine who would be the best members to serve on those committees.

2:53Calgary council and mayor sworn in amid Sean Chu controversy

Joining remotely, Chu apologized to his fellow advisers “that we have to go through this now.”

“I didn’t mean any harm at all,” he said.

But he did not offer his resignation.

“I am duly elected by the residents of Ward 4,” Chu said. “My intention has always been to serve the residents of Ward 4 and the citizens of Calgary to the best of my ability. “

Chabot endorsed the work he saw in Chu during their first terms.

“During these four years, my personal experience with Coun. Chu was nothing but exemplary and flawless, ”the Ward 10 councilor said.

During his opening remarks, Carra said he was bringing the matter to council for four reasons: systemic issues with the police investigation, balancing the letter and the spirit of the law, the lack of information about Chu’s history that voters had during advance voting periods and allegations of impropriety with a minor which Chu publicly commented on but which has not been proven in court.

Carra apologized to Chu on Floen’s advice.

“If I made any comments in my opening that somehow suggested the Council. Chu had been found in violation of the letter of any law – whether it was the rules of procedure, whether it was a court – I didn’t mean that, I didn’t say it at all, ”Carra said.

When asked by Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp, Floen said the only obligations of councilors as defined in city government are to attend and vote at council meetings.

Floen also said that if a city has committees, participation is not mandatory and councilors can be excluded under the powers of the Municipal Government Act.

Duane Bratt, professor of political science at Mount Royal University, said Monday’s decision was a continuation of a theme after the mayor had not sworn in Chu the week before.

“It’s really a public disguise that he got on day one on the job,” Bratt said.

“What the council is saying is that we don’t want this person to be involved in the work of the city council and we don’t trust that person to do the work of the city council.”

The political scientist said that Chu can still represent the residents of Ward 4.

1:32‘They have a job to do’: HR professional intervenes in Calgary council controversy

“He’s still able to do it if he chooses to do it, but what that says, it will be very difficult for him to work with other board members,” Bratt said. “It’s clear that for nine of them, it’s going to be impossible. The other six, maybe he can do it on a case-by-case basis.

“The councilor himself said he was duly elected,” the mayor said, “and I would expect providing service to his constituents to be a priority.”

Fewer committees to sit

Following a reorganization in September, the standing political committees were reduced from four to two: the Community Development Committee and the Infrastructure and Planning Committee.

Committees do much of the policy-making work of the board before presenting their recommendations to a joint board meeting.

Carra has been nominated to both and has been chosen as chair of the infrastructure and planning committee.

In addition to Carra, Councilors Raj Dhaliwal, Richard Pootmans, Courtney Walcott, Wong and Jennifer Wyness have been appointed to the Community Development Committee, along with Coun. Kourtney Penner as President.

Joining Carra, Councilors Chabot, Demong, McLean, Jasmine Mian, Sharp and Evan Spencer form the Infrastructure and Planning Committee.

Chabot and Chu voted against the formation of the temporary selection committee which decided on the composition of the standing policy committees.

Later in the organizing council meeting on Monday, it was revealed that Chu was not appointed to any of the city councils, committees or commissions that had councilor members. He has also not been appointed to any of the boards of directors of the city’s wholly owned subsidiaries.

The mayoress is a member of all committees by virtue of this function and also chairs the executive committee and the intergovernmental affairs committee.

‘Pass’

After asking whether the province should vote on the matter – on which the mayor noted that the Minister of Municipal Affairs had sought outside legal advice – Wong said he had been “affected” by a situation similar to the allegations of Chu, and took “great care” to support the victim.

Wong said the case still bothered him, but it happened “years ago.”

“I learned to move on and as this victim learned to move on, but I think our responsibility, if we judge the behavior of a fellow counselor today, should be relevant today. ‘hui and we can make judgments today, ”said the representative of Ward 7.

4:55Removing Sean Chu could be very difficult and time consuming: Duane Bratt

“If that were to happen today, I would definitely censor one of our members today. But something that happened some time ago that the company and the advisers here thought about and the person we’re talking about also thought about, I would like to think we would move on.

The comments sparked reactions online, with some calling it a “bad look”, a “bad catch” and that “victims cannot” move on “until justice is served.”

Walcott said asking anyone to “pass” ignores the issue of transparency.

“It is in this lack of knowledge that we must understand that our past choices impact the decisions we make today,” said Walcott.

“And so the continued choice to prevent the public from accessing this information, or at least the choice to no longer let people know so that we can make effective choices in our voting records, as well as how we work with the people next to us – these are today’s issues.

Walcott used the example of someone using racial slurs and then sitting on a board with a commitment to work against racism.

“It impacts my ability to actually understand the perspectives they’re coming from,” Walcott said. “So this affects us today – this transparency is important today. “

Earlier, Walcott cautioned against the logical fallacy of the “slippery slope” given the decision being considered by the board.

“We’re not doing anything other than adjusting our ability to hold each other accountable,” the Ward 8 councilor said.

“And at the end of the day, that’s the most important thing I think we can think about: is that we have very little opportunity to hold ourselves to account through our actions, throughout history. , through transparency, through integrity – and This is one of them. “