Changes have been made this week to the Town of Collingwood employee code of conduct to address relationships between town staffers, and the code of conduct for councillors will also be reviewed to possibly make similar changes, according to the town clerk.
A new code of conduct for town staff was given initial approval on Feb. 6 at the committee level, however, when it came time to ratify the decision at the Feb. 21 regular meeting of council, Mayor Yvonne Hamlin put forward a motion to refer the new code back to staff to possibly add a clause regarding employee relationships in light of Toronto Mayor John Tory's resignation over an affair with a former staffer.
“There were good questions last week around relationships between staff,” said the town’s Chief Administrative Officer Sonya Skinner during Monday’s meeting. “We went back and looked through other codes of conduct and proposed some changes.”
“Our staff were quite supportive of the changes,” she said.
Changes made to the staff code to address employee relationships include adding a provision that upon hiring, new staff must disclose existing relationships with other employees, and relationships are allowed presuming three factors:
- there is no direct reporting relationship,
- a reasonable person would not consider the situation likely to compromise an individual’s impartiality in the performance of their duties,
- the circumstances are not reasonably believed to create a risk that a decision may be unduly influenced by personal interests.
If a relationship evolves during employment with the town, employees must inform the executive director of customer and corporate services and their department head, if that relationship has potential to “create a real or perceived conflict of interest.”
In her report to councillors, the town clerk, Sara Almas, noted the town does have rules in their human resources recruitment policy with respect to employees who may be in relationships with other employees when there is a direct reporting relationship.
On Feb. 10, Tory announced his resignation from the Toronto mayor’s office after admitting he had an "inappropriate relationship" with a former staffer. The move has sent the city toward a byelection to replace Tory, with multiple candidates throwing their hats in the ring for the seat.
The new Collingwood staff code of conduct is based on the City of Vaughan’s code as a best-practice example. The code applies to all full-time and part-time employees, permanent, contract, seasonal and temporary employees, students, interns and volunteers.
The new document includes rules regarding employee standards, stewardship, conflicts of interest, business meals, functions, oversight, gifts and reporting/investigations.
Collingwood council has its own code of conduct, some of which came from recommendations out of the Collingwood Judicial Inquiry. Council's code of conduct does not expressly mention romantic relationships.
“Staff will be reviewing the Council Code of Conduct to identify any appropriate changes that should be reflected in that policy,” noted Almas in her report.
On Monday, council voted unanimously in favour of approving the new staff code of conduct. Coun. Deb Doherty was absent from the meeting.
