Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

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dfinnis
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Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by dfinnis »

The issue of campaign expenditures during the 2008 municipal election has entered the news recently with a number of articles by Susan McIver and two editorials by editor James Millar appearing in the Penticton Herald. As Daphne Bramham has reported in the Vancouver Sun similar situations occurred in other communities around the province. Central Saanich was one where the RCMP actually recommended charges, but the Crown did not proceed. Some of the issues include the possibility that anonymous donations exceeding $50 were received and not remitted to the municipality as required by the legislation. And the Citizens for Smart Governance never filed a financial disclosure form. As James Millar mentioned during his questioning of Councillors Clark and Elia at the last Summerland Council meeting this group conservatively spent over $3000 on election ads. Which is far in excess of the $500 threshold for having to register as a campaign organizer.
Here is a link to some photos of the various ads placed in the Summerland Review during October and November 2008. Some of these ads also appeared in the Penticton Herald and the Penticton Western. http://picasaweb.google.com/Kerrisfordp ... directlink
And here is a You Tube clip of James Millar asking questions at the November 9, 2009 Council meeting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVP349ZoNXY
dfinnis
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by dfinnis »

Audit should be ordered by mayor
Penticton Herald
Friday, November 13, 2009
Although the issue of the election expenditures in Summerland may seem trivial on the surface, it is incredibly important when viewed through a wider lens.
After hearing rumblings that some citizens might file an official complaint to the provincial government about the strange declarations made during the 2008 municipal election, our news team conducted exhaustive research. It‘s obvious after reviewing the Local Government Act as well as the candidate‘s
expense forms that several procedures were broken. At the very least, clarrification must be provided.
After probing the declarations in neighbouring Penticton, we found everything was above board. One school board candidate in Penticton was fined for filing 48 hours late. We checked the statements of Summerland‘s two successful school board candidates. Again, everything was properly presented.
While many of our discoveries could be considered nit-picking or harmless oversights, something as important as following the Elections Act shouldn‘t be taken trivially.
This is especially disturbing considering Summerland has mostly experienced people on its council. They should know proper procedure. If they didn‘t, Summerland Town Hall has a competent staff which is trained and could answer questions.
Among the issues is the Smart Governance group. All of the councillors in attendance at Monday night‘s meeting said they are definitely not part of this organization. Many said they knew very little about this group.
I‘ll take everybody at their word but most people who run for office would inquire as to who was behind an organization giving such glowing references in print.
The whole slate thing stunk.
The councillors elected have all made extremely notable contributions to their community prior to the election. They all could have won on their own merit. There appears to be a person or persons in the community who definitely wanted to see these seven individuals elected.
I also wonder why a group that‘s so concerned about the well-being of its community wouldn‘t offer suggestions on who to vote for the school board. After all, isn‘t the education and safety of our children and grandchildren equally as important as to who determines water rates and policies on sewage treatment?
Anonymous donations are fine up to a certain point. However, when the citizens are not given the entire list of contributors to the dime, it strikes at the very heart of democracy.
I‘ll make a comparison to business.
Let‘s say a restaurant owner discovers his best teenage employee failed to wash his hands after going to the bathroom. Do you fire the kid even though he‘s your greatest asset? Maybe not, but you‘d certainly issue a week‘s suspension or, at the very least, a harsh disciplinary letter. Perhaps keep him around if he voluntarily apologizes.
Once Mayor Janice Perrino returns to her job (she‘s recovering from surgery), the best thing she could do is call for an immediate and independent audit of election expenses.
This would either put an immediate end to false assumptions and allow council to get on with its business, or, it could expose those who made a mockery out of the process our veterans fought and died for.
-James Miller, managing editor
http://www.pentictonherald.ca/stories.p ... ed41299de6
dfinnis
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

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Questions asked about Summerland election
Penticton Herald
Wednesday, November 11, 2009

By Susan McIver
Special to the Herald
Summerland--Careful scrutiny of campaign financials led to questions for Summerland council and casts a shadow over the 2008 municipal elections.
The consistent theme of the questions Penticton Herald editor James Miller asked councillors Monday evening concerned their relationship to the group calling itself Citizens for Smart Governance.
"I identified myself with that group as did a number of others to take a position during that election," acting mayor Gordon Clark said, when Miller asked about his standing was with the group.
Earlier Clark said "It doesn‘t raise a signal for me" when asked if he was aware of the group.
After Miller reminded him of the series of ads sponsored by the Smart Governance group which endorsed everyone at the council table Clark said, "Yes, I am aware of it (the group)."
During the 2008 campaign, the Smart Governance group ran ads in the Penticton Herald, Summerland Review and Penticton Western News in support of the successful mayoralty candidate and winning slate of councillors.
Miller noted that $3,000 was a conservative estimate for the total amount spent on newspaper ads by the group.
An ad sponsored by Smart Governance in the Penticton Herald on Nov. 14, 2008, the day before the municipal election, cost just over $1,000.
Any person or group spending $500 or more is legally required to register with the chief electoral officer as either a campaign organizer or an elector organization and file financial statements within four months of the elections. Neither Good Governance nor any other group or individual registered with Summerland‘s chief electoral officer.
Failure to register can carry a maximum penalty of a jail sentence and disqualification of elected officials who benefited.
In his campaign financial disclosure statement, Clark reported receipt of an anonymous donation of $207.89 for payment of an ad in the Herald on Nov. 14, 2008.
He also noted that this was one-seventh of the total cost.
There are six seats for councillors at the Summerland council table plus one for the mayor.
A stand-alone ad for Clark did not appear in the November 14 issue of the Herald which prompted Miller to ask, "Is it safe to assume that it (the $207.89) was a contribution to the Smart Governance ad."
"I presume it was," Clark replied.
Clark also noted in his statement having received five other anonymous donations, all over $50 and all noted as one-seventh of the total cost, for ads in the Summerland Review and expenses associated with printing and mailing of cards and flyers.
Coun. Sam Elia declared a cash contribution of $207.85 from Mark Ziebarth on Nov.14, 2008.
"No, I don‘t think it is a safe assumption," Elia responded when Miller asked if it would be safe to assume that the $207.85 was a contribution to the Smart Governance ad.
When Miller said there was no stand alone ad for Elia in the Nov. 14 Herald and again asked if the $207.85 was a contribution to the joint Good Governance ad, Elia replied, "I am not sure I have an answer to that question."
Elia denied being a member of the Smart Governance group as Clark did a few minutes earlier.
According to Clark, the group is not a ‘body corporate‘ and therefore membership is irrelevant.
Clark also said he did not recall knowing of any formally appointed chair or president of the group.
"I am not sure what that term endorsement means," Elia replied to Miller‘s question if he was aware that he was being endorsed by the group.
Mayor Janice Perrino declared a contribution of $207.85 from an anonymous source for an ad on Nov. 14 ad in the Herald.
There was a stand alone ad for Perrino in that issue with no indication of it being sponsored by Smart Governance.
This ad would have cost slightly over $400.
Interestingly, the cost of the ad sponsored by Smart Governance plus that of the Perrino ad equals within a few dollars seven times $207 or $1,442.
Listing cash contributions as in-kind donations, often as from anonymous sources, is a common thread in the financial disclosure statements by the current councillors and mayor.
"This ad paid for by a generous donation" appeared at the bottom of a full page ad in support of Perrino which was published in the Summerland Review on Nov. 13. 2008.
Perrino declared a cash donation of $842.09, the cost of a full page ad in the Review, from a B. Friesen on Lakeshore Drive as an in-kind donation.
In total Perrino declared $2,109 worth of cash contributions from four named donors, including Friesen, and nine anonymous sources as in-kind donations for expenses associated with newspaper ads, flyers and cards.
Such cash transactions are not permitted to be designated as in-kind donations in Penticton municipal elections.
An in-kind donation is a donation paid or given in goods, commodity or services instead of money, as defined by dictionary.com.
The six councillors declared a total of in-kind and/or anonymous donations totalling just over $3,000.
Neither the unsuccessful mayoralty candidate nor any of the seven defeated candidates for council reported any in-kind or anonymous donations.
The Local Government Act limits each anonymous donation to $50.
Perrino and her council members, however, listed numerous cash donations of over $50 from anonymous sources as in-kind donations.
Intended or not, this gives the appearance of attempting to thwart the public‘s right to know who paid for their campaigns.
Rather than providing the details of amount, date and other information required by the Local Government Act, four councillors gave only a total amount for their anonymous contributions.
Councillors Bruce Hallquist, Jim Kyluik and Lloyd Christopherson each reported having a received a total $506.72 in anonymous donations during the months of October and November 2008 for newspaper ads, cards and flyers.
Coun. Ken Roberge declared an estimated amount of $650 in anonymous donations without stating any time period for donation of the funds or their use.
Adherence to the provisions of the Local Government Act, especially as related to sources of campaign financing is crucial to the credibility of elected municipal officials.
Perrino was unavailable for comment. Clark has been appointed acting mayor in her absence as she‘s presently recovering from surgery.
Campaign financing disclosure statements are available for public viewing at the Municipal Hall on Henry Avenue.
The November 9, 2009 council meeting can be seen on Shaw TV Friday, November 13 at 11 am. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVP349ZoNXY
http://www.pentictonherald.ca/stories.p ... c8b2c8b6ec
dfinnis
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by dfinnis »

Municipal election reform long overdue, but timely change unlikely


BY DAPHNE BRAMHAM, VANCOUVER SUN NOVEMBER 7, 2009


More than a month after Premier Gordon Campbell announced that a task force would be formed to make recommendations for modernizing and improving municipal election rules by May 30, 2010, nothing has been done.

There are no terms of reference. There is no budget.

Only two members have been appointed -- Harry Nyce, president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, and Bill Bennett, minister of community and rural development. It's not even clear whether the task force reports to Bennett or the premier.

The task force's scope is wide, according to the premier's press release. It is supposed to "consider opportunities to adapt the principles of the provincial Election Act to local elections such as disclosure requirements and changes that will improve fairness, accountability, transparency and public participation."

It may also consider the frequency of elections and whether voting rights ought to be extended to business and companies that pay taxes.

It's a writhing can of worms that Campbell wants the task force to subdue in less than five months -- five months that are interrupted by Christmas and the Olympics.

What's clear is that reform is long overdue since the unprecedented spending during the 2008 provincewide vote was followed by an unusually large number of citizens complaints and police investigations into election malfeasance.

(No charges have been laid even though in Central Saanich RCMP recommended 19 charges be laid. In Langley, RCMP found one example of where disclosure regulations were broken, but recommended against charges because investigators decided the group hadn't intended to break the law.)

Candidates' election spending in 15 Metro Vancouver municipalities alone was $7.9 million -- $1.6 million more than the New Democrats spent in the last provincial election.

The reason there's so much money sloshing about is that no other level of government provides as big a bang-for-your-buck.

It takes only six votes on city council to get property rezoned, which can be a windfall worth millions of dollars for developers; six votes to approve lucrative union contracts.

With no serious opponents, Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, for example, spent more than any other Metro mayoralty candidate. He raised $244,836 (much of it from the development industry) and he had $135,790 left over from the previous election.

But that unprecedented $7.9 million doesn't account for spending on nomination bids, only the contributions and spending within the election period. Raymond Louie, for example, spent $244,000 in his unsuccessful bid to be Vision Vancouver's mayoralty candidate.

Determining what kind of limits might be appropriate is difficult since B.C. is unique in maintaining the municipal at-large system. So, there are few working models to draw on.

Seattle -- the only other large city in North America without a ward system -- limits donations by individuals, corporations, unions and groups to no more than $700 over four years. By limiting the size of donations and specifying the time period, it ensures contributors can't secretly fill up political coffers in off-election years.

The Canadian government limits contributions to individuals. According to a recent Yale University study, in some jurisdictions that strategy has the added benefit of increasing voter turnout.

Still, there's the question of whether all individuals are eligible to contribute. Vision Vancouver had a number of large American donors in 2008. Should non-residents be allowed to contribute? And if the task force is looking at residency requirements for donors, shouldn't it also consider whether it's right that candidates don't have to live in the municipalities they want to run?

The task force may also consider extending voting rights to tax-paying corporations and businesses. If it does, is it fair that multinational corporations might be able to vote, but not donate to campaigns?

Then, there's the transparency question.

Candidates are required to file financial disclosure statements, but public access to those filings varies widely.

Langley District forbids photocopying and allows people to view the documents for only an hour at a time. Vancouver's disclosure forms are on the city's website. Surrey put the disclosures on its website, but only for a limited time. Port Coquitlam destroyed all of its disclosures prior to 2008.

Another gaping legislative hole is that the disclosure rules do not apply to referendum votes even though campaigns can cost tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars because a lot can be at stake -- the Olympics, for example. Or, as Cranbrook voters will decide later this month, the annexation of land that will more than double the city's current footprint and massively enrich the property owners.

If the task force can agree on election finance reform, it will be useless without better oversight, enforcement and stiffer penalties.

The premier says Elections BC will take that on. But that too requires legislation. And Elections BC can't do the work without more money and, likely, more staff. Yet, there's been no hint that the money is available.

It will be near miraculous if the task force can deal with all of those issues and it will still have only scratched the surface of electoral reform. Still it would be a good start. But time's short, premier. You need to get this task force going.

[email protected]

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Daphne Bramham is a columnist who has written a series of articles in the Vancouver Sun regarding questionable election expenses in various B.C. municipalities including Summerland. This is her latest article from the November 7, 2009 Vancouver Sun.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Munici ... story.html
dfinnis
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

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The banana republics of B.C. politics

Citizens are left on their own to guard against electoral irregularities in municipal elections

BY DAPHNE BRAMHAM, VANCOUVER SUN MARCH 21, 2009

Even the provincial minister responsible for municipal legislation did not believe that citizens would have to spend their own money to overturn an unfair election but he learned he was misinformed.
Photograph by: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun, Files, Vancouver Sun
The B.C. Liberal government has gone far beyond convention in silencing opposition during the May election campaign with its gag law on third-party advertising. Yet the same Liberal government allows a virtual free-for-all during municipal elections.

Civic elections are "the Wild West," says Simon Fraser University political scientist Patrick Smith, who has concluded that more than four times as much money per voter is spent than in provincial or federal elections.

Yet, it's left up to citizens to enforce the electoral rules. There is no independent oversight, which gives municipal elections in British Columbia some of the hallmarks of voting in banana republics.

The Liberals did amend the Local Government Act a few months before the November civic elections. For the first time, groups and individuals supporting candidates or slates of candidates were required to register. But the legislation has no enforcement mechanism. No one is responsible for policing it. If citizens believe there are electoral irregularities, they have to spend their own money to ensure that unfair elections are overturned and transgressors either lose their seats or are banned from participating in the next election.

It's a serious oversight that renders the legislation so lame that even former community development minister Blair Lekstrom couldn't believe it.

In an interview the day before the Nov. 15 provincewide elections, Lekstrom assured me that his department had it wrong. Lekstrom, a former mayor, said it couldn't possibly be that it would be left up to citizens to police and prosecute any election irregularities. He said that is the role of the police.

Over in West Vancouver, Kash Heed, who recently resigned as chief constable, agreed. Police are continuing their investigation into complaints of election irregularities including the failure of at least one lobby group -- Low Taxes, Low Growth Association -- to register as a campaign organizer even though it spent thousands of dollars attempting to get a slate of candidates elected. It also didn't file a financial disclosure by the March 16 deadline.

However, mayoral candidate Vivian Vaughan noted on her financial disclosure form that the association donated $1,000 to her campaign.

Another group, Preserve West Vancouver, filed a financial disclosure claiming to have raised $3,550. Vaughan is listed as having contributed $1,200 to it and two council candidates -- Carolanne Reynolds and Danielle Charlton -- donated $500 and $300 respectively.

But Preserve West Vancouver's listed expenditures do not include a $3,200 donation to Charlton that she lists on her financial disclosure.

Apparently, Lekstrom -- who has since moved on to become the energy minister -- was set straight by his staff after the elections were over. In an e-mail to David Wilson, a Central Saanich resident who alleges irregularities in that municipality's election, Lekstrom said Wilson should take his concerns to court.

But there may be no better illustration of the ramifications of this electoral regulatory gap than Central Saanich. The local co-op was heavily involved in endorsing and stumping for council candidates, who would look favourably on a rezoning needed for its new store.

During the election, Peninsula Co-op sent out letters to all of the candidates asking if they would support a rezoning of four residential lots to allow construction of a 27,000-square-foot grocery store adjacent to its gas centre. It told the candidates that their responses would be distributed to its membership.

Without seeking the permission of its membership, the co-op sent out letters to some, if not all, of its 28,000 members urging them to vote for the candidates who would support the rezoning. It had posters printed and prominently displayed in its grocery store listing the candidates who supported and those who opposed it.

Formal investigation sought

Peninsula Co-op registered as campaign organizer on Nov. 6, only nine days before the election, even though its campaign began weeks earlier and even though Central Saanich chief electoral officer Sara Ribeiro says that groups and individuals must register as soon as they have spent $500.

The Co-op spent a total of $16,488 endorsing and stumping for council candidates.

David Wilson, the resident whom Lekstrom corresponded with, recently wrote to Attorney-General Wally Oppal and Solicitor-General John van Dongen, asking for an formal investigation into the co-op to determine whether it acted improperly both under the Local Government Act, the B.C. Co-operatives Act and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act by spending more than $500 and using the co-op's membership list to try to influence the election's outcome -- all without ever having sought the approval of the members.

"Normally, I would officially file this complaint with the local police department in Central Saanich," Wilson wrote. "But unfortunately, Chief Constable Paul Hames is a member of the Peninsula Co-operative's board . . . . How can the chief constable investigate a local organization's action, when he is part of that organization's executive board? If I ask Chief Hames to investigate, there is a potential for a conflict of interest."

Hames is on the co-op's finance, membership and community relations committees. Cathie Ounstad, one of the members of the police board, is also on the co-op board.

Wilson goes on to say that he's concerned about his safety and that of his family, having raised his concerns with the mayor, the municipality's chief electoral officer, the co-op's general manager and the police chief. Other concerned citizens, he alleges, have been threatened with lawsuits.

He then goes on to state what seems to be obvious: "If the law has been broken, it needs to be investigated by unbiased law enforcement officials and our democratic rights as citizens should be protected without threat of persecution."

The concerns don't end with Central Saanich and West Vancouver where the police investigation is continuing.

Not a single campaign organizer or elector organization registered in Summerland. Yet, there were at least 15, quarter- and half-page ads that ran in the Summerland Review. Similar ads also ran in the Penticton Herald and the Western News.

"Some concerned residents and business owners of Summerland urge you to please get involved and support candidates who are not against some growth in this town . . . . Please get out and support those whose politics will not result in anti-business, anti-family and anti-Summerland by way of their anti-growth, one perspective politics!" says one ad, which gives no indication of who the concerned residents or business owners are or who paid for the ad.

Citizens for Smart Governance ran ads in support of mayoral candidate Janice Perrino. Only two days before the election, there was a full-page ad for Perrino that was paid for "by a generous donation" as well as two quarter-page ads opposing smart growth that had no indication of who had paid for them.

There was also a quarter-page ad endorsing the Perrino slate that included the names of 90 supporters, including a number of realtors and developers.

Some of those supporters' names were also among a longer list of names on a pamphlet endorsing the Perrino slate. The entire slate was elected.

A full-page ad in the Review is $856.52 plus GST; a half-page is $459.62 and a quarter-page is $225.12 plus GST.

So, even in smaller municipalities, it doesn't take long to run up a $500 tab. And $500 is the threshold amount. Any person or group spending $500 or more is legally required to register with the chief electoral officer as either a campaign organizer or an elector organization and file financial statements within four months of the election.

But no one is responsible or legally required to check up on them. Except citizens. And, as Wilson noted, in small communities standing up and complaining can be an uncomfortable, lonely and even frightening proposition.

'Mistakes were made'

Brian Sadler is one of those citizens. Sadler and another unsuccessful candidate for Gibsons' town council, along with two other residents did go to B.C. Supreme Court after last November's municipal election, asking for the election to be declared invalid.

They alleged all kinds of irregularities in the vote-counting -- the most serious of which was that 327 votes suddenly appeared two days after the election during a recount that was done without scrutineers and without the knowledge of any of the candidates.

Even though Justice Bruce Cohen disagreed with the complainants, he did note in his written judgment, "It is far from clear who opened the ballot boxes" when the deputy chief electoral officer did a "review" of the ballots two days after the election.

He even wrote, "Certainly mistakes were made in tabulating and calculating the election results. However . . . there is no evidence of bad faith, only inadvertence and the errors made were discovered and corrected before the official election results were declared."

Cohen concluded that rather than asking for the election to be declared invalid, the complainants should have asked for a judicial recount.

But Sadler contends that a judicial recount wouldn't have solved the mystery of where those extra 327 votes came from. It wouldn't change the fact that there was no voters' list and volunteers at polling stations weren't even given electoral maps to determine whether voters' addresses fell within the municipal boundaries.

The court case cost close to $20,000 and, for the citizens' trouble, Sadler says they have been "bad-mouthed around town."

They considered an appeal. Not only was the cost prohibitive, Sadler says it would have paralyzed the town council for most of this year and as a taxpayer and resident he didn't want to do that.

Still, the case did result in some positives. In exchange for Sadler and the others dropping their appeal, the town agreed not to sue them for costs. Plus, the council unanimously agreed at its March 3 meeting to do a complete electoral process review.

It's a step. But as Sadler says, it's up to the provincial government to fill the vacuum that exists because of no formal monitoring of the due process required in elections.

"This is crap. We have a banana republic going on right here," Sadler says. He knows a thing or two about that. He spent five years in Bosnia as a political officer for the United Nations and election oversight was included in his duties.

[email protected]

- - -
Online: Visit The Vancouver Sun's database of municipal campaign spending to find out how much money each mayoral and council candidate spent on the 2008 municipal election for 15 Lower Mainland municipalities. www.vancouversun.com/campaignfinance

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
totoramona
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by totoramona »

The Citzens for Smart Governance group really had an impact on the election in Summerland. I remember seeing lots of those little slate cut outs from the Review on the floor when I went to vote. I guess the people who paid for the ads didn't want anyone to know who they were. It can't be much of a secret though, small town and all.
dfinnis
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by dfinnis »

But why did they go to such lengths to remain "anonymous"? Were they embarrassed by the nasty, negative tone of some of the ads (ie the "anti-family ads)? How much really was given "anonymously"? The election rules require anonymous donations over $50 to be remitted to the local government.
A contribution is not really anonymous if anyone associated with the campaign knows who gave it. A donor cannot request that their contribution be anonymous. If the source of an anonymous contribution is or becomes known, the identity of the individual or organization making the campaign contribution must be recorded as soon as possible. The names of the donors who contributed less than $100 do not need to be disclosed in the campaign financing disclosure statement, but information about the contribution must be recorded in order to calculate the total contributions from that donor when the disclosure statement is prepared.
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fluffy
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by fluffy »

It's looking like there may be some skulduggery afoot. It's going to be interesting to see how this one plays out, and which councilors will be dancing the "political two-step".
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alley-kat
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by alley-kat »

This is all very very fishy. Perhaps these anonamous donations were to ensure certain people were elected so that certain things were gauranteed to happen???? I wonder who they are??
It appears the deck was stacked in that election.
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by alley-kat »

HAHAHAHA. You have to watch the movie! Those were some hard hitting questions.
And few answers.
totoramona
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by totoramona »

That You-Tube clip is great. Thank-you to Mr. Millar for his investigative reporting and willingness to ask the tough questions. Everyone in Summerland should see this:

James Millar asking questions at the November 9, 2009 Council meeting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVP349ZoNXY
dfinnis
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by dfinnis »

But why did the people placing the ads try to remain "anonymous". The law is clear any anonymous donation over $50 must be remitted to the local government. http://www.cd.gov.bc.ca/lgd/gov_structu ... _guide.pdf
And with the names secret all the community does is speculate. And perhaps we attribute these ads to the wrong people.....

Here is a link to some photos of various ads placed in the Summerland Review during October and November 2008. Some of these ads also appeared in the Penticton Herald and the Penticton Western. http://picasaweb.google.com/Kerrisfordp ... directlink
Giants Head
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by Giants Head »

This situation that Summerland council finds itself in is a hoot. These were the people that the developers and bussiness owners wanted in because they thought it would be good for their own pockets. They supported the group as a slate and got their candidates elected, the problem is it was probably illegal. What do you think council will do now? I'm sure they will have no comment and just hope it goes away. The correct thing to do would be to clear the air and come clean about who funded their campaign. The voters of Summerland want to know the truth. Thanks to the Penticton Herald for bringing this to everyones attention.
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by summerphlox »

Giants Head wrote:This situation that Summerland council finds itself in is a hoot......What do you think council will do now? I'm sure they will have no comment and just hope it goes away. The correct thing to do would be to clear the air and come clean about who funded their campaign. The voters of Summerland want to know the truth......


I am a Summerlander, and I completely agree with you. Yes, I would like to know what council is going to do about this.... :purefury:
dfinnis
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Re: Summerland municipal campaign financial irregularities

Post by dfinnis »

Illegal donations mean Summerland has no legitimate council - check out Daphne Bramham's front page article on the November 27, 2009 Vancouver Sun
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Il ... story.html
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