Vancouver — A conflict of interest complaint filed against a Vancouver city councillor who continues to work for a public relations and lobbying firm has merit, says the co-founder of a national democracy watchdog group.

Democracy Watch co-founder Duff Conacher said NPA Coun. Hector Bremner’s position working public relations for two developers while proposing to densify Vancouver’s West Point Grey neighbourhood does raise concerns about the appearance of a conflict of interest.

“If he is part of the company that represents those clients and is getting paid, then he has an indirect financial interest in furthering those clients’ interest and that’s all you need to cross the line,” said Conacher, an adjunct professor of law and political studies at the University of Ottawa.

The conflict of interest complaint was filed by fellow NPA member Raza Mirza to Vancouver’s mayor, Gregor Robertson, and city manager Sadhu Johnston on April 11. In email correspondence with StarMetro, Mirza says he filed the complaint as a private citizen.

In an April 16 interview, Bremner, who hopes to become the NPA’s mayoral candidate, said the complaint is baseless and characterized it as dirty politics.

Bremner is vice-president of PACE Group, a PR firm that represents prominent real estate developers Aquilini Investment Group and Intracorp. In his complaint, Mirza said that Bremner failed to disclose his business relationship with these companies while proposing a policy to densify West Point Grey and a meeting to discuss the Northeast False Creek Plan; both of which could benefit Aquilini, Mirza alleged.

“Last year there was a project they were doing and there was a website and a campaign that our writing team did some writing for,” Bremner said of the work Pace Group had done for the Aquilini Investment Group.

“This is the whole point, is that I don’t work with developers and I am not conflicted. It’s being brought up by political people for political reasons.”

The issue came to light when Randy Helten, a former mayoral candidate, wrote an April 16 blog post arguing that Bremner should also recuse himself from an April 17 public hearing in which councillors would consider amending a bylaw to allow liquor stores in grocery stores.

On his City Hall Watch blog, Helten pointed out that Bremner had done work for Overwaitea Food Group and the BC Wine Institute while employed with Pace Group.

The day after the blog post appeared, Bremner said he would recuse himself from the public hearing.

Conacher said it doesn’t matter whether Bremner is actually receiving a benefit: the perception that he could be in conflict is what matters.

“That’s why the conflict of interest rule is that you have to step aside if you have even the appearance of a conflict, because no one can do a Vulcan mind meld and tell how your brain is making the decision,” Conacher said.

In an email sent to StarMetro via his public relations adviser, Bremner said while city councillor is considered a part-time position, if he does become mayor he will quit his job with Pace.

He also pointed out that his NPA colleague, Coun. George Affleck, also has ties to a public relations firm: Affleck is CEO of Curve Communications.

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Reached by phone Tuesday, Affleck said it’s up to individual councillors to determine when they should disclose business relationships or recuse themselves from sessions, and he tends to be overly cautious when it comes to potential conflicts of interest. Councillors need to think about how the public will perceive even the appearance of a conflict, he said.

Correction-April 25, 2018: The second paragraph of this story was modified to clarify that it was Hector Bremner, not the developers, who proposed to densify Vancouver’s West Point Grey neighbourhood.

Jen St. Denis is a general assignment reporter based in Vancouver. Follow her on Twitter: @jenstden

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