By Susan McIver
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Penticton Herald
Summerland‘s chief electoral officer acknowledges she advised members of the current council on their election expenses declaration.
“A number of candidates asked me what to do about anonymous contributions,” Gillian Matthews said in an interview with the Penticton Herald.
Matthews‘ comments came as controversy over campaign financing for Summerland council during the 2008 municipal elections drew the attention of the provincial and national media Friday.
Earlier this month, the Herald questioned councillors about their relationship to a group called Citizens for Smart Governance, which did not register as an elector organization in the 2008 elections even though it endorsed candidates.
Any person or group spending $500 or more is legally required to register with the chief electoral officer, and Citizens for Smart Governance allegedly spent thousands of dollars on advertising during the elections.
An article in the Penticton Herald, which reported on questions raised by Herald managing editor James Miller, also revealed that the mayor and councillors had declared cash transactions as in-kind donations and had exceeded the $50 limit for each anonymous donation.
A front-page opinion piece in Friday‘s Vancouver Sun suggested Summerland council has no legitimacy because of illegal donations, quoting a political scientist at Simon Fraser University.
Subsequently, Miller was interviewed by various media outlets Friday, including CBC Radio One‘s As It Happens program.
It is illegal to give anonymous donations of more than $50, and for candidates to accept them.
Matthews said she advised the candidates to acknowledge receipt of these donations on their campaign financial disclosure statements because they had derived benefit from them.
All six councillors and the mayor stated in their campaign financing disclosure statements that they took donations from unnamed individuals, groups or corporations that exceeded the legal threshold for newspaper ads, flyers and cards.
Coun. Bruce Hallquist confirmed Matthews‘ statement in a television interview on Friday.
“We were simply following instructions of the elections officer to be open and honest,” Hallquist told CHBC.
Hallquist also claimed that Matthews had advised him and others to estimate the cost of the ads sponsored by Citizens for Smart Governance and to split it seven ways (six councillors plus the mayor).
During her interview with the Herald, Matthews did not mention whether she had given such advice, but she did say, “Accuracy of this (financial disclosures) is the candidate‘s responsibility.”
Matthews says she provided candidates with extensive information about the conduct of their campaigns, including the candidate‘s guide to local elections.
The identity of the individuals involved in Citizens for Smart Governance and its relationship, if any, to the council and mayor remains unclear.
However, some indications have come to light.
“I identified myself with that group, as did a number of others, to take a position during the election,” acting mayor Gordon Clark said when Miller asked about his standing with the group.
Coun. Sam Elia declared a cash contribution of $207.85 from Summerland resident Mark Ziebarth on Nov. 14, 2008.
Clark and Mayor Janice Perrino declared the same amount on the same date as an anonymous donation for an ad published Nov. 14 in the Penticton Herald.
The other four councillors provided only a total of anonymous donations over the course of their campaign, rather than stating individual amounts and dates.
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.
The candidate‘s guide for the 2008 municipal elections says in-kind contributions are donations of goods or services instead of money.
http://www.pentictonherald.ca/stories.php?i=227490
Penticton Herald November 29, 2009
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