Police called over campaign donations
By Susan McIver special to the Penticton Herald December 30, 2009
Questions about campaign finances of the Summerland mayor and councillors led a group of concerned residents to request a police investigation.
Earlier this month, 15 Summerland residents formally requested that the RCMP conduct an investigation into the controversy over financial disclosure statements from the 2008 municipal election.
The request came on the heels of widespread media coverage of alleged wrongdoings.
At issue are numerous anonymous advertisements that appeared in local newspapers during the 2008 campaign in support of the current councillors and mayor.
In the official complaint, the residents say they are particularly concerned about these anonymous donations in excess of $50, contrary to Section 87 of the Local Government Act.
All council members stated in their campaign financing disclosure statements that they took donations from unnamed individuals, groups or corporations for newspaper ads that exceeded the legal threshold. They listed these anonymous contributions as "in-kind" when, in fact, they were cash transactions.
For the newspaper ads to be considered "in-kind" donations, they would have had to be provided at no cost by the newspapers‘ owners - in which case they would not be anonymous.
Some council members publicly said they exercised due diligence by seeking advice from the chief electoral officer before completing their disclosure statements.
Chief electoral officers provide information to candidates, including the candidate‘s guide to local elections, but they are not responsible for detailed interpretations of regulations or the accuracy of financial statements.
The candidate‘s guide states that disclosure rules exist to provide information about who is financially supporting each candidate and how much candidates spend on their campaigns.
The Summerland residents are also concerned about the two groups, perhaps more, that promoted candidates and viewpoints in the 2008 municipal elections and spent more than $500 doing so.
Individuals or groups spending more than $500 are legally required to register with the local chief elector officer.
The day after a front page opinion piece appeared in the Vancouver Sun with the headline Illegal Donations Mean Summerland has no legitimate Council, area resident Mark Ziebarth said he alone was behind the Citizens for Smart Governance.
Smart Governance ran advertisements endorsing the current mayor and councillors in local newspapers.
A Penticton businessman, Ziebarth said because he did not collect funds from other people, he did not qualify as a campaign organizer.
The provincial guide for campaign organizers says any person or group becomes a campaign organizer when they engage in an election campaign that augments or operates in place of a candidate‘s campaign.
In an interview with CBC Radio, 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.
When asked if he would do it again, Ziebarth replied, "I‘d do it with double barrels - twice as many ads, twice as much fun."
Unlike the Summerland candidates, at least two candidates facing a similar situation in the West Vancouver municipal election publicly dissociated themselves from anonymous ads.
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