Some Region of Waterloo councillors are questioning Coun. Rob Deutschmann’s decision to hire two people out of pocket to help him with his council duties, citing an issue of inequality among councillors.

On Tuesday, regional councillors turned to staff to help answer the question of whether councillors can hire their own staff, and if so, what are the rules.

Coun. Colleen James brought the issue forward in an administration and finance meeting on Tuesday, finding support from several members who voiced similar concerns.

“Recently with this new council, we have seen something unprecedented happen, in [that] a directly elected councillor has hired external support,” James told the meeting.

James said she believes there is a need to have some sort of policy in place for this, or if a policy is in place for it to be reviewed.

“I do think there is a need to address this and to create a policy around this if we do see this happen again, and potentially for staff looking into what are other area municipalities [doing] in terms of staff support, what that looks like for directly elected councillors,” said James.

James said she wanted to know where the line was in terms of the support councillors already have versus hiring an external support person.

At first, James did not name who she was referring to, but later said it was Deutschmann.

Coun. Doug Craig said councillors can do whatever they want and this is not an issue that needs to be dealt with at council.

Deutschmann is a personal injury and disability lawyer and has been practicing law for nearly three decades.

He was elected to represent the City of Kitchener at regional council in October 2022. He also served as the mayor of North Dumfries Township from 2010 to 2014.

Deutschmann said he was a bit blindsided by the discussion, noting that he was aware some people had concerns with his hiring of external staff members.

“I think maybe there should be a general review of whether councillors have enough support in order to do what they need to do because, you know, we can’t necessarily go to staff with some lengthy research issues and just say ‘hey, we need something like that,’” said Deutschmann.

Deutschmann said councillors should be looking at if they have enough support to do their jobs.

“I would like consideration of that fact that if someone is employed by the region, and I hire that person on a part-time basis, whether that’s a conflict of interest and that person should no longer be employed by the region,” said Deutschmann.

He added: “I welcome this opportunity. I think it’s a great opportunity to say ‘do we have enough support?’ And if a councillor is going to do something innovative like hire their own staff, what are the rules around that sort of thing.”

Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe said this issue troubled her.

She said when she heard about the hiring of staff it was “quite a surprise."

“What really bothers me with this is the inequity of it,” said McCabe. “You have the wherewithal to hire some staff – most of us don’t – I know certainly I don’t have that kind of financial wherewithal to do it, and I think that sets up a real inequity amongst and between councillors and I am really troubled by that.”

McCabe said she wants the development of a policy surrounding this issue.

Coun. Chantal Huinink agreed that a universal policy on this issue would help reduce inequality.

Coun Sue Foxton said there needs to be clarification on the parameters of hiring outside help, such as does that person have access to emails, and are those emails then relayed back.