Following the Court Case in Prince George where Mr. Justice Crawford rejected the request of PG City Councillor Brian Skakun to stop the censure process from proceeding until after the appeal of Mr. Skakun's Privacy Act court case wherein Mr. Skakun was found guility and fined $750 for violating the provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act when he released a "in-camera" document to the CBC in Prince George, PG City Council will be meeting this Friday at 12:00pm to decide next steps, but one wonders with 29 days to the civic election - if PG City Council will just let "sleeping dogs lie" and just defer any action until the new City Council is elected and sworn in... at least, that would be the smart move on their part...will they, we'll know Friday afternoon
See the report of the PG City Manager, Derek Yates, here
Also - if you wish to see the meeting live, you can view that online feed here
Showing posts with label Brian Skakun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian Skakun. Show all posts
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Interesting turn in the Skakun Censure case
In what I would classify as a "interesting turn" in the case of a possible censure against Prince George City Councillor Brian Skakun - Debora Munoz, also a PG City Councillor, has decided not to partcipate in any further censure proceedings against Mr. Skakun - according to documents obtained by the Prince George Citizen
See the PG Citizen story here
See the PG Citizen story here
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
PG City Council to fight one of its' own in Supreme Court
See the video of the PG City Council Special Meeting on this here
From Opinion 250.com:
In a special meeting that lasted less than 12 minutes, City Council for the City of Prince George has voted to postpone it’s planned meeting on September 14th (that would have dealt with the possible censure and sanctions against Councillor Brian Skakun) until after the Court has had an opportunity to hear the petition that has been filed by Skakun’s Lawyer.
The possible censure and sanctions are in response to Councillor Skakun’s admission that he released a confidential document. He was found guilty of breaching the Freedom of information and Protection of Privacy Act and fined $750 dollars.
He is appealing that ruling. Today's meeting, held over the lunch hour, Council, ( Mayor Dan Rogers and City Councillors Garth Frizzell, Dave Wilbur, Don Bassermann, Sheri Green, Cameron Stolz and Murry Krause) voted to oppose the request for orders outlined in the petition. Councillor Brian Skakun was not in attendance, nor was Councillor Deborah Munoz.
Councillor Sheri Green said she was disappointed this matter is dragging on, “Of course I respect the Court’s process and we need to follow that “ but she questioned whether this was a tactic designed to carry over into the upcoming election campaign “I think frankly this is a waste of the Court’s time, and I would like to get on with the business of the City, and this is a delay, I don’t know if it’s a tactic, but certainly it’s going to drag us through the election season which perhaps is the goal.” It has been two years since Councillor Skakun was charged with breaching the Act, and three years since the confidential document in question was released to the CBC and published on their website.
Councillor Cameron Stolz commented that there has been a lot of time and effort spent on this issue and the actual sanctions proposed are no more than a slap on the wrist. “My concern is that we’ve spent a lot of effort time and energy on this, something that is, to be very perfectly candid, a minor slap on the wrist.” He added the censure motion would not prevent Councillor Skakun from taking part in any closed meetings of Council, nor would it restrict his access as a Councillor from being able to sit in Council Chambers, “ It will not fringe upon the duties he was elected to do. It is simply Council saying his actions , we think , were inappropriate and there are some consequences for that.”
In the event the Court can hear the petition and the City’s response soon, that would then set Council back to the drawing board for holding a special meeting to set a date for the censure and sanction hearing. Also at issue, is the court’s jurisdiction on how a municipal government conducts its business. The City believes the Court will rule that it has no jurisdiction in this matter, thereby ruling in the City’s favour. While there have been other communities in B.C. which have censured members of Council, there is no information to suggest those matters were put before the courts.
From Opinion 250.com:
In a special meeting that lasted less than 12 minutes, City Council for the City of Prince George has voted to postpone it’s planned meeting on September 14th (that would have dealt with the possible censure and sanctions against Councillor Brian Skakun) until after the Court has had an opportunity to hear the petition that has been filed by Skakun’s Lawyer.
The possible censure and sanctions are in response to Councillor Skakun’s admission that he released a confidential document. He was found guilty of breaching the Freedom of information and Protection of Privacy Act and fined $750 dollars.
He is appealing that ruling. Today's meeting, held over the lunch hour, Council, ( Mayor Dan Rogers and City Councillors Garth Frizzell, Dave Wilbur, Don Bassermann, Sheri Green, Cameron Stolz and Murry Krause) voted to oppose the request for orders outlined in the petition. Councillor Brian Skakun was not in attendance, nor was Councillor Deborah Munoz.
Councillor Sheri Green said she was disappointed this matter is dragging on, “Of course I respect the Court’s process and we need to follow that “ but she questioned whether this was a tactic designed to carry over into the upcoming election campaign “I think frankly this is a waste of the Court’s time, and I would like to get on with the business of the City, and this is a delay, I don’t know if it’s a tactic, but certainly it’s going to drag us through the election season which perhaps is the goal.” It has been two years since Councillor Skakun was charged with breaching the Act, and three years since the confidential document in question was released to the CBC and published on their website.
Councillor Cameron Stolz commented that there has been a lot of time and effort spent on this issue and the actual sanctions proposed are no more than a slap on the wrist. “My concern is that we’ve spent a lot of effort time and energy on this, something that is, to be very perfectly candid, a minor slap on the wrist.” He added the censure motion would not prevent Councillor Skakun from taking part in any closed meetings of Council, nor would it restrict his access as a Councillor from being able to sit in Council Chambers, “ It will not fringe upon the duties he was elected to do. It is simply Council saying his actions , we think , were inappropriate and there are some consequences for that.”
In the event the Court can hear the petition and the City’s response soon, that would then set Council back to the drawing board for holding a special meeting to set a date for the censure and sanction hearing. Also at issue, is the court’s jurisdiction on how a municipal government conducts its business. The City believes the Court will rule that it has no jurisdiction in this matter, thereby ruling in the City’s favour. While there have been other communities in B.C. which have censured members of Council, there is no information to suggest those matters were put before the courts.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
D-Day for PG City Councillor Brian Skakun Wednesday
Tomorrow, PG City Councillor Brian Skakun or his representative, will face Prince George City Council and debate whether he (Skakun) should be formally reprimanded or censured by his PG City Council colleagues at 12:15pm Wednesday. See a story from the Prince George Citizen here
Coincidentally - you can watch the proceedings live tomorrow - click here
Update - PG Mayor Dan Rogers will ask his Council to delay consideration of a censure motion against Councillor Brian Skakun until after the BC Supreme Court rules on an injunction from PG City Councillor Brian Skakun - see Mayor Dan Rogers report here. See more from Opinion250.com here.
Coincidentally - you can watch the proceedings live tomorrow - click here
Update - PG Mayor Dan Rogers will ask his Council to delay consideration of a censure motion against Councillor Brian Skakun until after the BC Supreme Court rules on an injunction from PG City Councillor Brian Skakun - see Mayor Dan Rogers report here. See more from Opinion250.com here.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
PG City Councillor Brian Skakun seeks court injunction re: Censure Motion
In the latest salvo in the fight between PG City Councillor Brian Skakun and PG City Council over a censure motion relating to Councilllor Skakun's decision to release In-Camera documents to the media over RCMP Staff issues - Mr. Skakun has filed a motion in BC Supreme Court asking it to prohibit Prince George City Council from proceeding on a hearing regarding a censure motion until the Court has heard from Mr. Skakun himself - see the Prince George Citizen article here
In the meantime - Mr. Skakun charges that PG City Councillor Debora Munoz "fabricated evidence" during his Privacy Act trial, held earlier this year and late in 2010 - see here
Guess this means no real chance of reconciliation between Brian Skakun and his PG City Council colleagues...
Finally - there is talk on the Internet about former PG Mayoralty Candidate (2008) Don Zurowski being encouraged to run again for PG Mayor. In 2008 - Mr. Zurowski was defeated by current PG Dan Rogers by a vote of 9,272-6,505. If Mr. Zurowski chooses not to get involved in this fall's civic election in Prince George, I wonder if anyone will decide to challenge Dan Rogers for the Mayor's seat in Prince George by the October 14th deadline ...
SBF
In the meantime - Mr. Skakun charges that PG City Councillor Debora Munoz "fabricated evidence" during his Privacy Act trial, held earlier this year and late in 2010 - see here
Guess this means no real chance of reconciliation between Brian Skakun and his PG City Council colleagues...
Finally - there is talk on the Internet about former PG Mayoralty Candidate (2008) Don Zurowski being encouraged to run again for PG Mayor. In 2008 - Mr. Zurowski was defeated by current PG Dan Rogers by a vote of 9,272-6,505. If Mr. Zurowski chooses not to get involved in this fall's civic election in Prince George, I wonder if anyone will decide to challenge Dan Rogers for the Mayor's seat in Prince George by the October 14th deadline ...
SBF
Monday, July 25, 2011
PG City Council decides to proceed with Censure Motion against PG City Clr Skakun
At a meeting of Prince George City Council tonight - they voted to proceed to a hearing on a censure motion against PG City Councillor Brian Skakun after receiving a report from PG Mayor Dan Rogers and after hearing from Councillor Skakun's legal counsel. It should be noted that Councillor Skakun left PG City Council Chambers during the discussion on this item, at the advice of his legal counsel.
See the Opinion 250.com story here and the Prince George Citizen story here
It should be also noted, contrary to PG City Councillor Murry Krause's comments that this censure motion was the 1st in BC - in fact, it would be the 4th censure motion considered by local governments in BC during this term (2005-2008) of local government but the 1st in Prince George Council history
As well - PG City Council has agreed to consider this censure motion not later than September 14th
Finally - Interesting that, unlike the Township of Langley and the Cities of Fort St John and Quesnel who dealt with censure motions behind closed doors and then ratified in public, PG Council chose to debate the whole series of issues, relating to a possible censure motion, in public. I wonder as well what impact that this will have on the PG City Council election in November, especially for both Councillor Brian Skakun and Mayor Dan Rogers
See the Opinion 250.com story here and the Prince George Citizen story here
It should be also noted, contrary to PG City Councillor Murry Krause's comments that this censure motion was the 1st in BC - in fact, it would be the 4th censure motion considered by local governments in BC during this term (2005-2008) of local government but the 1st in Prince George Council history
As well - PG City Council has agreed to consider this censure motion not later than September 14th
Finally - Interesting that, unlike the Township of Langley and the Cities of Fort St John and Quesnel who dealt with censure motions behind closed doors and then ratified in public, PG Council chose to debate the whole series of issues, relating to a possible censure motion, in public. I wonder as well what impact that this will have on the PG City Council election in November, especially for both Councillor Brian Skakun and Mayor Dan Rogers
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