New Vernon councillor hasn’t “had time to think about” dropping conflicting role

After three attempts to win a seat on Vernon council, Dawn Tucker has finally been elected, but now faces the difficult decision of how to moderate two Facebook groups with a combined 33,500 members.

As the moderator of two popular Facebook forums, Vernon & Area Community Forum and Vernon & Area Political Discussion Forum, Tucker has the power to decide who participates and who doesn’t, and what’s acceptable and what isn’t. The role creates an obvious conflict of interest now that Tucker is a politician.

“I haven’t had time to think about (the Facebook groups),” Tucker told iNFOnews.ca when asked about what she planned to do. “(I’ve) been pretty much on the go since the election.”

It’s not a new issue for Tucker. In a previous campaign, Tucker famously sparred with then-councillor, now-MP Scott Anderson over what he called an unfair advantage because Tucker kept moderating throughout the campaign.

Even before Tucker won the election, there was chatter about being a candidate and a moderator and how the two could co-exist.

While Tucker considers, there’s plenty of precedent around our coverage area, with varying results.

City of Penticton councillor Ryan Graham moderated a Facebook forum before being elected in 2022 and opted to keep it as councillor. Two years later, that would put him in direct conflict with then fellow councillor Amelia Boultbee. He said he was being pressured to remove comments and posts and complained from his council seat that his “integrity as a moderator” was called into question.

Social media moderators might be new to the game, but some legacy news titles also walked the conflict of interest tightrope.

Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal editor Barbara Roden has been the mayor of Ashcroft since 2018, and just won her third term.

In 2021, now disgraced convicted child sex offender James Miller defended his position not to stand down from being the Penticton Herald’s managing editor when he was elected to council. The paper was largely absent from coverage after he was charged and then convicted of historic sex crimes.