Calgary city councillor Dan McLean is being asked to issue a letter of apology to Calgarians within 30 days, stemming from a golf outing earlier this summer.

The reprimand, approved in Tuesday’s Regular Meeting of Council, addressed an integrity commissioner complaint alleging that Coun. Dan McLean was in attendance at a golf tournament on July 26 during a public hearing meeting of council, and did not follow proper remote meeting protocol.

The Integrity Commissioner’s ruling purports that a screenshot photo of Calgary city council’s Microsoft Teams dashboard showing McLean in a golf cart during the meeting was posted to social media. According to evidence presented to the integrity commissioner, at 2:40 p.m. Coun. McLean’s Teams video feed displayed a moving golf cart with two people in it and someone wearing a golf glove. 

The full integrity commissioner report is at the bottom of the story.

In the report, Integrity Commissioner Ellen-Anne O’Donnell said she didn’t believe city business was involved here.

“I do not accept Councillor McLean’s submission that attending the golf tournament was in the realm of conducting City business,” she wrote in her decision.

“This was leisure/ social event that was not as important as attendance and participation at Council Chambers for the Council Meeting.

Outside of council chambers, Coun. McLean said he felt a double standard was being applied to him, as he claimed other members of council were at the same golf tournament, also participating remotely. He said it was an industry event geared toward building more homes and addressing affordability in the city.

“I was there with other city councillors,” McLean said.

“I’ve seen other city councillors participate remotely at events. I’m not saying that’s right, and I won’t do that again. But again, I think this is a double standard. I think it’s political. I think I’m very critical sometimes of the mayor and councillors criticisms and this is maybe a timely distraction.”

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said that the majority of council agreed with the sanctions prescribed by the city’s integrity commissioner.

“I think it’s important to read the report of the Integrity Commissioner and understand that council wholeheartedly supported what she had to say and the recommendations that she provided,” she said.

Early in his term, McLean stepped back from Boards, Committees and Commissions work after a video surfaced showing him mocking Indigenous people. The Ward 13 Coun. also got into hot water with Elections Alberta and was fined $500.

Remote participation at meetings

Remote participation in meetings was brought in during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing city council to conduct business when public health measures prevented in-person contact.

It remained post-pandemic, largely due to the convenience it offered councillors in being mobile while they still attended meetings. Councillors did decide earlier this year to try to ensure members were in person at council when possible.

In this case, according to Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, the integrity commissioner’s report shows several late votes and an inability to respond for roll call during the public hearing.

“I think there’s multiple instances of members of council participating in council meetings, operating remotely, not necessarily from an office environment, in some cases from an automobile, or even instances of members of council walking while participating in a council meeting,” said Chabot.

“I don’t think he’s wrong necessarily, but as far as undivided attention, that is, I guess something that was determined to be not necessarily… that he wasn’t necessarily fully engaged in the discussion.”

Councillors are regularly disengaged from discussions in meetings, on their laptops, or on their cellphones in chambers. When pressed on it being a case of undivided attention, Chabot agreed that while using a phone is multi-tasking, it’s also not being fully attentive to meetings.

“Ultimately, you want to make sure that you’re at least aware of situationally aware of what’s happening, which would imply that you should be able to hit your mic button at a moment’s notice and I guess that’s what was in question here,” he said.

“It wasn’t that he was asked once. He was asked multiple times to respond, and he didn’t respond in a timely fashion. I guess ultimately, that’s what it comes down to.”

Chabot said he’d be in favour of returning to the past where you had to be in your seat in order to vote.

Meanwhile, McLean apologized for his actions.

“I do apologize if I offended anybody, especially someone at the city that thought that you were playing instead of working,” he said.

“When I see somebody walking their dog or one guy’s out in Italy, on vacation, or he’s in New York, taking things remote or I see people driving the car picking their kids up or going to a hockey game all the time people missing votes or being absent, maybe I got the wrong idea that this was probably possible. City Council, we hammered all this out about two months ago, not to do that, and I agree with that. We should all spend more time in city council do our jobs.”