Calgary Minute: Conduct Policies, Judicial Recount, and Another Transit Incident

Calgary Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Calgary politics

This Week In Calgary:

• There will be a Public Hearing Meeting of Council on Tuesday at 9:30 am. There are many land use amendments on the agenda. Also up for discussion at the hearing is an initial suite of climate mitigation and adaptation-focused Land Use Bylaw amendments that would make it so Calgarians could complete exterior insulation retrofits without a development permit.
  
  
• On Wednesday, at 9:30 am, there will be a meeting of the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. On the agenda are updates on the City’s advocacy work with Alberta Municipalities, and from the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board’s Land Use and Servicing Committee.
  
  
• The Calgary Planning Commission will meet on Thursday at 1:00 pm. There are a few land use amendments to be discussed, as well as a confidential item regarding the Inglewood Brewery Site Redevelopment Application.

Last Week In Calgary:

• Just a few short days after Mayor Jyoti Gondek decided to “prove” that transit is now safer by going on a ride-along with members of the media, Calgary Police Officers, and Transit Peace Officers, a hatchet-wielding individual boarded a CTrain and threatened passengers. The individual got on at the Martindale station in broad daylight, and while no injuries occurred, several swings of the hatchet were taken at passengers before the attacker was arrested. Transit safety is clearly still a massive problem. If you agree, please add your signature to our petition calling for a transit safety emergency. It’s time for this to end!
  
  
• The City Auditor presented a long list of concerns about the City’s Code of Conduct Policy for employees, along with 10 detailed recommendations to fix the issues. To be clear, these issues pertain to City staff - there is a separate policy governing the conduct of elected officials. The Auditor’s report noted that there are 21 different ways to report a suspected violation of the Code, including calling 311, talking to a union representative, lodging a complaint with a supervisor, and more. Complaints that make it through the unwieldy initial process can then be channeled through one of five different systems, each with different investigative procedures. Many of the policies have not been reviewed or updated in several years.
  
  
• The United Conservative Party has filed for a judicial recount in two Calgary ridings. The votes were so close initially that they triggered automatic recounts - both of those races were then called for the NDP. The races came down to 25 votes in Calgary-Acadia and 42 votes in Calgary-Glenmore. If the application for the recount is approved, all ballots, including those cast during advanced polling (which weren't recounted during the automatic recount), will be recounted in front of a judge.

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