Andre Chabot says integrity commissioner not needed for Calgary city council

A citycouncilloris criticizingplans to hire an integrity commissioner to investigate allegations of wrong-doing on council.

• Calgary city hall booze allegations spur calls for apologies

This week thepriorities and financecommittee approved terms of reference for the new integrity boss.

Under the new set up, the integrity commissioner will investigate complaints and file reports to city council which will be publicly available.

That is amajor departure from the current set-up where the city auditor can investigate and then leave it up to council to decide if the information is released.

Coun. Andre Chabot says he can't support the new system.

"Essentially what they're asking for is a babysitter that we have on staff, that's being paid to watch and investigate, you know, any claims of or allegations of misconduct, which could end up leading to nothing," he said.

"We currently can do that through the auditor."

According to the mayor, there have been three substantiated allegations of misconduct against council members, but no names have been released and it's not known what they did wrong.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi says council approved this new job and he rejects the babysitter label.

"If they really think that someone who can provide advice on ethical issues and who can investigate citizen complaints is just a babysitter, well that's a challenge for me."

If council approves the terms of reference, a report on recruiting an integrity commissioner will be presented to members ofcouncil by the end of July.