Penticton council pitches cutting pay of elected officials facing criminal charges

An Okanagan city council that’s one person short is now looking for ways to cut pay from elected officials facing criminal charges.

It was proposed by Penticton city councillor Shannon Stewart and approved after a vote on June 9.

It comes just weeks after Coun. James Miller’s trials came to a conclusion. While he’s waiting on verdicts from two Ontario judges, Miller will continue to be paid his council salary, as he has since he was charged in the summer of 2024.

His name wasn’t mentioned directly during as council debated the motion, but they did acknowledge that council has heard from the public about Miller’s ongoing pay.

“I understand there’s a lot of frustration in regards to… dealing with a councillor that’s on leave,” Coun. Isaac Gilbert said.

He was the only person opposed in a 5-1 vote.

Gilbert said the provincial law, imposed in 2022, is a “balance” between separating a person charged with a crime from representing the public and recognizing that person is innocent until proven guilty.

“I think it’s a dangerous route to go down,” he said, adding that the new law is in improvement from before.

Prior to 2022, a local elected official didn’t have to step away from council duties if they were charged with a crime. While it made the suspension mandatory for local governments, it doesn’t apply to MLAs.

Because a city can’t make the decision on their own, Stewart proposed that Penticton bring the proposal to the Union of BC Municipalities. She said the policy proposal is meant to make witholding pay an option for municipalities, in which case the money could be held in a trust and dispersed upon acquittal.

Mayor Julius Bloomfield wasn’t optimistic the policy would be legally sound, but he also said it should be addressed due to public pressure.

“We know the public sentiment that has been in Penticton over the past year or so, and I think that has to be talked out more thoroughly than around this council table… but to be quite honest, I’m not sure how successful it may be,” he said.

He noted that other provinces don’t have such a process like BC, where local politicians are placed on mandatory suspensions.

“It’s a blanket policy for all municipalities so they don’t run afoul of the law,” he said.

Miller is facing multiple charges for alleged sexual abuses against children more than two decades ago, arising out of his time as a volunteer youth basketball coach in Sarnia, Ont.

He had two separate trials this spring, facing three now-adult accusers. He’ll return to court in September, a month before the municipal election, for his verdicts. Until then, he’s expected to remain on leave from his job has a newspaper editor, but he will continue to be paid his council salary.