Sampson grant fails sniff test

Coun. Kyle Sampson is in a boiling pot of political hot water but he’s the one who leaped without looking. Fellow city councillor Brian Skakun wants to have a public discussion at a city council meeting about how Sampson received a $157,000 provincial grant to put on this past weekend’s country music festival at Exhibition Park. Specifically, Skakun wants to know why Mayor Lyn Hall and senior city administrators wrote letters of support for Sampson’s business without some input from the rest of city council.

Sampson can complain that Skakun made it “a political thing” by bringing it up two months before this fall’s municipal elections but it doesn’t change the fact that, on principle, Skakun has a point and is doing his job as a city councillor to bring it forward.

Whether Sampson is donating proceeds to charity, whether this outdoor concert is good for the city, whether it makes money or not for Sampson, and what Skakun’s private motives might be are side issues that have nothing to do with the key matter.

When mayor and council discuss this issue, they should look at city council’s code of conduct.

Section 11 (Use of Public Resources) states: “Members shall not use City public resources such as staff time, equipment, supplies or facilities, for private gain or personal purposes.” Did Sampson do that while asking for and receiving his letters of support from Mayor Hall and the City of Prince George?

Sampson could have avoided this problem if he had applied for the provincial grant without city support, going with the other letters from local groups and a note in his application saying he did not seek a support letter from the city to avoid any perceived conflict of interest and undue use of political influence to benefit his private business. And if he felt a support letter from the city was essential to his application, he could have taken the initiative by asking the rest of council at a public meeting to approve or deny his request for a letter.

The issue here isn’t Sampson’s integrity. It’s if he violated, intentionally or unintentionally, in a minor or major way, city council’s code of conduct.

In this case, there are 157,000 reasons why a sitting city councillor urging the mayor and senior staff to support his bid for provincial government funds to benefit his private business doesn’t meet the sniff test of conflict of interest and undue influence.