Updating the Council Member-Organized Community Events Policy

It was adopted by Council in 2008. A public health emergency was declared in March 2020 and, as a result, in-person community events have been either been prohibited or discouraged for public safety purposes until now. The upcoming year, 2022, is an election year. The current policy prohibits members from seeking any donations for their community events in an election year if they have not held a similar event in the previous two years. The current policy does not account for the fact that in-person community events could not be held for most of the last two years. The current policy includes a $10,000 cap on donations a member may receive each year. It should be updated because the size of Wards and the number of constituents per Ward almost doubled when the size of Council was reduced in 2018. The Integrity Commissioner recommends that Council update the Council Member-Organized Community Events Policy to address these matters.

the per member cap on all donations received in a calendar year for community events be increased from $10,000 to $20,000 in recognition of the fact that the size of Wards nearly doubled in 2018.