Sarnia's integrity commissioner is recommending city council not accept the invitation to travel to Europe next summer to learn from Dutch cycling cities.
The nuSarnia Foundation has offered private funding to the mayor, each city council member, and key staff members to meet with the Dutch Cycling Embassy at its City Builder’s Symposium.
When council discussed the proposal at its last meeting, Mayor Mike Bradley asked that Paul Watson be consulted first.
"It wasn't anything negative against the group," said Bradley. "I think they're very sincere and well intended, the question is, is there a benefit back directly to the individual councillors, and you can make the case to the staff, and will it influence their future decisions."
In his report, included in Monday's agenda, Watson said he considers offering a fully paid trip to the Netherlands to be a benefit or gift, which is not encouraged in the code of conduct.
"The integrity commissioner has come back and said council should be very wary of moving forward on this," Bradley added. "Given the present circumstances that it could have an impact on their future decision making and it will be up to council now to decide what they want to do."
Mayor Bradley hopes council accepts Watson's decision.
"I hope they would respect the integrity commissioner's ruling, because he's trying to say it doesn't matter who's offering you a benefit, you've got to be extremely careful about the perception with the public that that benefit could come back to influence your decision making."
Watson said council's code of conduct does not apply to City of Sarnia administration.
He said it will be up to council to determine whether or not to accept the offer to send key staff members overseas.
The work study tour is being planned from June 12-16, 2023.
