Citizens ask RCMP to investigate Summerland election donations
Fifteen citizens have asked the RCMP to investigate whether the Summerland mayor and city councillors breached the Local Government Act by accepting anonymous donations of newspaper advertising, pamphlets and cards during the 2008 election.
Under the act, it is illegal to both give and receive anonymous contributions valued at more than $50.
The penalty for candidates is disqualification from holding office and from running again until after the next general election. The penalty for donors is disqualification from participating until after the next general election.
Everyone on Summerland council, including Mayor Janice Perrino, claimed at least one anonymous donation worth more than $50 in financial disclosures filed last March. If the complaints are upheld in court, a new election could be ordered.
In a thick packet delivered Thursday, the citizens also asked RCMP to investigate who was behind newspaper ads that -- among other things --accused slow-growth advocates of being anti-family.
They noted that no groups or individuals registered as either elector organizers or campaign organizations, as the act requires, and none filed the required financial disclosures.
Frank Martens is one of the 15 citizens. He called the whole election "a farce" with no attempt by the council members to disclose who was funding their campaign, even though they all seemed to know how much the ads, pamphlets and cards were worth.
But Martens said, "I don't expect anything to happen. Look what happened in Central Saanich."
He might well have added Langley and West Vancouver. In all three, individuals have complained to police because strangely, the act leaves it up to citizens to enforce the election rules.
RCMP investigations in Langley and Central Saanich concluded. In Central Saanich, RCMP recommended 19 charges be laid. But the attorney-general's criminal justice branch decided against it, saying there was not a substantial likelihood of conviction and it was not in the public interest.
No charges were recommended in Langley, where among other things, two B.C. cabinet ministers endorsed a slate of candidates.
Insp. Lesley Bain wrote the complainant in June saying: "The RCMP has been assured that Crown counsel and the ministry of community and rural development are aware of the difficulties that have arisen in the 2008 municipal elections and are considering options that will ensure a better awareness and application of the law in the next local election."
Bain also noted that a senior member of the commercial crime section had been asked to prepare a report outlining some of the issues identified with the act during the course of the investigation.
(The B.C. government recently appointed a task force that has until May 30, 2010 to recommend changes aimed at improving the "fairness, accountability, transparency and public participation" in local government elections.)
But it's the West Vancouver complaint that most closely resembles the one in Summerland. West Vancouver Police investigated Low Tax, Low Growth, which ran four ads endorsing a slate of candidates. It never registered as an elector organization or campaign organizer or filed a financial statement. No one knows who was behind it, including Coun. Michael Lewis, who received an endorsement.
Unlike the Summerland candidates, Lewis did not list the anonymous endorsement in his financial disclosure. Instead, he immediately went to the media to dissociate himself from the ad and after the election, he and campaign manager, David Marley went to police.
West Vancouver Police investigated and recommended charges. Again, the Crown prosecutor refused to go ahead. Lewis and Marley have asked Attorney-General Mike de Jong to review the decision.
No one has yet admitted being behind the shadowy group, unlike what happened in Summerland. There, Penticton businessman Mark Ziebarth sent out a letter last week saying he was the only person behind Citizens for Smart Governance, which ran four ads in the Summerland Review and one in the Penticton Herald endorsing Mayor Perrino and the successful council candidates.
"In order to have some fun at the expense of the antediluvian Smart Growth crowd, I named myself Citizens for Smart Governance and published my ads under that banner," Ziebarth said in a letter to the editor published in the Review.
In a subsequent radio interview (http://tiny.cc/VIEID), Ziebarth said that, as an American, spending $2,000 on endorsement ads was the only way he could participate and influence the election's outcome.
Asked why he didn't do it under his own name, Ziebarth replied: "I wanted to see if it would get a rise out of people and apparently it did."
Named Penticton's business leader of the year in 2007, Ziebarth was active in U.S. politics before moving to Canada.
According to AllBusiness.com, Ziebarth spent five years as a fundraiser for the conservative Heritage Foundation before moving on to publish business and political newsletters. His company, Bonegarde Media, publishes training and education material for businesses and is Penticton's fourth largest employer.
Only a few days earlier, the District of Summerland issued a press release saying that "in an effort to be open, honest and transparent" council members disclosed the value of the ads placed by an anonymous party. It went on to say that council members "advise [that] these anonymous ads were placed by a third party without their knowledge, involvement or consent."
Yet two councillors --Gordon Clark and Bruce Hallquist -- wrote on their disclosures that the donors were anonymous "for reasons of privacy."
Martens is probably right that nothing will happen. But he is right that municipal elections have become a farce in this province because there is no proper oversight, no proper enforcement and no regard for a process that's at the root of democracy.
Subscribe to Daphne Bramham's newsfeed at: http://tinyurl.com/bramhamnewsfeed or look for her stories at http://tinyurl.com/bramhamindex
1 comment:
If you're in search of the best Bitcoin advertising network, visit MellowAds.
Post a Comment