A Winnipeg councillor is apologizing after an investigation found he breached conflict of interest rules last year when he voted to push through a development owned by his friend and former campaign manager, despite concerns from city planning officials.
Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River) violated city council’s code of conduct after he “influenced, discussed and voted on a decision regarding a matter in which he had a conflict of interest” last year, city integrity commissioner Sherri Walsh said in a June 6 report.
Last June, Chambers and two other Riel community committee members voted unanimously against changes recommended by planners for a proposed five-storey, 152-unit apartment complex at 180 Creek Bend Rd., which is in his ward.
Chambers, who also serves as deputy mayor and chair of the Winnipeg police board, failed to recuse himself or identify a personal relationship to one of the owners of the development, Amit Bindra, who spoke during a delegation to the committee, the report says.
Council will decide on possible penalties for Chambers when the report is tabled next week, but Walsh recommends he make a public apology. Chambers confirmed to CBC on Saturday that he apologizes for the breach.
The recommendations from city planners that Chambers and the committee voted against would have forced two-thirds of the development’s parking to be moved underground, and called for a six-metre-long landscape buffer to preserve nearby trees and shrubs.
Instead, Chambers introduced a motion to reject the recommendations and approve the development’s plans as submitted, which included nearly half of the 228 parking stalls above ground as well as a 2.4-metre landscape buffer.
A local residents’ association formed in opposition to the project’s size, citing a potential lack of parking, increased noise complaints and traffic congestion, Walsh’s report says.
A member of the public submitted a formal complaint to the integrity commissioner in response to Chambers’s participation in the meeting, saying Bindra is the councillor’s “personal friend, past campaign manager and adviser,” according to Walsh, who became the city’s first integrity commissioner in 2017.
‘Lapse in judgment’: Chambers
Chambers admitted to Walsh that he’s been friends with Bindra for about 15 years, and said their relationship was mainly social and they played golf together semi-regularly, her report says.
Chambers “readily acknowledged that he made a mistake” for his participation and vote in the committee meeting, Walsh says.
“He expressed genuine regret at what he described as a ‘lapse in judgment’ that caused him to participate in the vote notwithstanding that relationship,” she wrote.
Chambers said Bindra spoke to him a handful of times about the development, but the councillor advised him to speak with relevant city officials.
Although his involvement with the development in question goes back beyond Bindra’s purchase of the property, Chambers said the change in ownership resulted in “optics that were not optimal to the outcome of addressing the needs of the community.”
The incident provides a chance for all city councillors to “pay closer attention to situations where a matter involves someone with whom they have a personal relationship,” said Walsh’s report.