September 14 Council Meeting: Mayor’s Gala Discovery Report and Next Steps

On January 25, 2020, Mayor van den Broek held a gala fundraising event with proceeds going to the Langley Hospital Foundation. The gala may have appeared to be a Langley City event, but it was independently arranged by the mayor.

As a result, Langley City council unanimously passed a motion “that staff prepare a report outlining the following:

• Liability to Langley City;
• Unauthorized use of the Langley City crest;
• Use of the RCMP crest;
• Use of the wording ‘Langley City Mayor’ on marketing and advertising materials for a non-City event; and
• A financial report outlining all material and in-kind costs to Langley City associated with the Mayor’s Gala, including RCMP costs.”

Last night, Langley City council received the “Mayor’s Gala Discovery Review” which was prepared by Paul Gill who is a third-party independent consultant. His full report can be downloaded from Langley City’s website. The recommendations from his report were:

On a go-forward basis, where a member of Council wishes to pursue an initiative like a gala, there should be formal consultation with Council.

Council Policy CO-64, Use of Corporate Identity & Brand, should be reviewed. The focus of the review should be around who can authorize the use of the City’s logo and brand, plus the consequences for not abiding by the policy.

A Council Code of Conduct should be developed and adopted by Council.

Paul Gill found in his discovery that the Officer-In-Charge of the Langley Detachment of the RCMP, Murray Power, acknowledged that “four-hour Overtime (approved by [Murray Power]) is enough to cover the costs for 2 persons” in relationship to the gala. An estimated cost is provided by Paul Gill in the discovery report.

Council passed the following recommendations last night:

THAT Council receive the Interim Report: Mayor’s Gala Discovery Review dated March 15, 2020 from Paul Gill for information.

THAT Council endorse the recommended actions as outlined in the Summary section of this report.

THAT Council direct staff to carry out a more detailed cost analysis to determine the salary and benefits costs and which accounts were charged to for those RCMP members that worked the four-hour overtime shift to cover the cost to purchase two tickets to the gala, and City staff costs.

During the discussions about passing the recommendations, council decided not to move forward with the Council Code of Conduct, or RCMP “expenditure protocol and expectations” for future events, until after the detailed cost analysis has been completed and presented to council.