Mission’s council resolved to censure Coun. Ken Herar on Nov. 1 for conduct unbecoming of a councillor.
The resolution comes due to a breach of the city’s Code of Responsible Conduct policy. As part of the censure, council requests that Herar pledge immediate and ongoing compliance with the Code of Conduct.
It also requires Herar to attend one-on-one coaching or “other training respecting the nuances of the role of city councillor.”
Council also resolved to issue Herar a formal warning letter and remove him from the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee for one year.
“Council took the matter seriously and assures the community that due process and procedural fairness were followed,” a city news release reads.
“In particular, the matter was independently investigated by an experienced third party. Councillor Herar was provided with a fair opportunity to participate in the process and to respond to the allegations prior to council’s consideration of the censure motion.”
In a statement, Herar says while he remains appreciative of his colleague’s efforts, there are serious shortcomings with the way the complaint was handled that call the resolutions into question.
“Many significant mistakes have been made in the bringing, conduct, and outcome of this process. I have been denied to know who the complainant actually is and still do not know who it is. I have no idea exactly what the complained conduct is because I do not know who complained and therefore what the complaint means. This complaint is nothing but a ‘he said, she said, that they said, that he said’ with no ability to know who the various ‘he, they, shes’ are or what they said,” Herar said.
Herar says he is often asked about the complaint and demands an explanation on both his behalf and the public’s. His lawyer will also offer a statement in the coming week.
“I expect to be filing a judicial review in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in the coming days or weeks seeking to set aside this certainly well-meaning but mistaken and unjust resolution of my colleagues on a false and baseless complaint if ever we are permitted to know who the complainant truly is,” Herar said.
Herar filed a notice of civil claim in September against Mayor Paul Horn, chief administrative officer Mike Younie, parks director Louis Dauphin, the City of Mission and two anonymous people.
According to the court documents, the complaint stems from a pair of situations which occurred earlier in 2023.
The first situation involved Herar taking a picture with kids at the Mission Youth Centre to commemorate Hands Up Against Racism Day and ordering pizza for all of the youth present, according to the notice of civil claim. The documents say the Youth Centre manager later objected to the photo being taken and requested it not be published.
The second situation involved a password complaint. Court documents state that Herar and his wife, Pamela, went to city hall for help in accessing his municipal account. When a city employee asked Herar if he had his city password, he responded that “we” had it, “implying that Ms. Herar knew where the password was, not that she knew it.”
According to the notice of civil claim, Horn filed a complaint with Younie of “code of conduct” violations that stated Herar “attempted to use pizza to ‘resolve a situation’ with the children at the youth centre,” “breached confidentiality and disclosed unauthorized access” and “behaved dishonestly.”
The court documents state that the investigation into the complaint found Herar breached the code by attending the Youth Centre “in the manner he did” and by “sharing his password for the network with his spouse by having her attend a councillor training session”.
However, the report also found the password was not shared with his spouse and the purpose of his Youth Centre visit was for his foundation (Spinning for Diversity). The court documents also say no complaints from the youth or their parents have been received by the city.
Councillors are unable to discuss details due to privacy legislation, the City of Mission news release reads.
-With Files From Vikki Hopes
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