NOT the result that politicians Mark Taylor, Eli El-Chantiry and Allan Hubley expected to see at the July 10, 2015 meeting of the appointed election compliance audit committee!
Many citizens are tired of politicians who cheat, lie and abuse the taxpayer.
Usually they get away with it, but not always.
Mark Taylor had to face the music yesterday – he seemed shocked when the “special citizen committee” ordered an audit of all of his campaign expenses.
He stands to lose his seat on council and could even be jailed.
Eli El-Chantiry is in the same boat – I had to feel sorry for him when he apologized to the committee and begged them to let him off the hook.
Shad Qadri got off on a technicality.
“Nice work guys – raises all round!”
Steve Blais and Mathieu Fleury had an expensive team of slick top-drawer lawyers – they were visibly relieved when the committee decided that their errors were “accidental.”
Blais and Fleury congratulate each other: “Phew! That was a close one!”
The public gallery was filled with politicians, lawyers, accountants, political staffers and community association honchos – all of them very nervous.
Eli seemed shocked by the “guilty” verdict – he rushed out of the room, followed by Blais, Tierney and political aides.
They patted him on the back and tried to comfort him.
Ordinary citizen Pat Ready took a huge risk by requesting the audits – if the committee had dismissed all of his allegations as not worthy of investigation he could have been billed many thousands of dollars in costs. This seems unlikely now, but he still expects “nasty payback and retaliation” from outraged corrupt politicians.
Ready explained his motives to the media – he feels he’s just doing his duty as a citizen.
It’s left up to citizens and journalists to call out shady politicians – no one else has the job of checking the politicians’ finances!
Too bad no one asked for an audit of Rick and Jim’s 2010 or 2014 campaign expenses – it could have cost them their careers, but it’s too late now.
Ready also said that he was disturbed by this Ottawa Citizen article – even if corporations are caught breaking the rules in their rush to finance friendly politicians there are usually no consequences.
tweeted details from Alistair Steele, CBC journalist
***
tweeted details from OttWatch
***
Ottawa Sun: The 2014 campaign finances of two councillors will be audited, as ordered Friday by a special citizen committee.
The election compliance audit committee voted in favour of seeking audits for Bay Coun. Mark Taylor and West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry.
Resident Patrick Ready filed applications to audit the councillors, prompting the committee to convene and consider ordering the investigations.
Ready questioned Taylor’s reporting of a campaign deficit and El-Chantiry’s costing of campaign signs.
Ready also asked the committee to audit Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais, Stittsville Coun. Shad Qadri, Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury and River Coun. Riley Brockington.
The committee rejected the audit applications for Blais, Qadri and Fleury and adjourned Brockington’s case to give him time to produce an additional evidence.
The committee will reconvene Wednesday to rule on the application against Brockington and appoint an auditor.
When the audits come back, the committee must decide if election laws were broken and whether the councillors should face legal proceedings.
If no law was broken and the committee doesn’t believe there were reasonable grounds for the applications, council could order Ready to pay for the audits.
The chair of the five-person committee is Jean-Pierre Kingsley, the former longtime chief electoral officer of Canada. The 2014 campaign finances of two councillors will be audited, as ordered Friday by a special citizen committee.
The election compliance audit committee voted in favour of seeking audits for Bay Coun. Mark Taylor and West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry.
Resident Patrick Ready filed applications to audit the councillors, prompting the committee to convene and consider ordering the investigations.
Ready questioned Taylor’s reporting of a campaign deficit and El-Chantiry’s costing of campaign signs.
Ready also asked the committee to audit Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais, Stittsville Coun. Shad Qadri, Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury and River Coun. Riley Brockington.
The committee rejected the audit applications for Blais, Qadri and Fleury and adjourned Brockington’s case to give him time to produce an additional evidence.
The committee will reconvene Wednesday to rule on the application against Brockington and appoint an auditor.
When the audits come back, the committee must decide if election laws were broken and whether the councillors should face legal proceedings.
If no law was broken and the committee doesn’t believe there were reasonable grounds for the applications, council could order Ready to pay for the audits.
The chair of the five-person committee is Jean-Pierre Kingsley, the former longtime chief electoral officer of Canada.
****
Ottawa Sun: The city has received its first requests this term for election compliance audits, triggering a meeting of a special committee to hear the cases.
The deadline for voters to request an audit of candidates’ preliminary campaign finances is June 25. The request deadline for supplementary filings is Dec. 24.
Any eligible voter with “reasonable grounds” can request a compliance audit of municipal candidates’ campaign expenses. It’s up to the election compliance audit committee.
The municipal election was Oct. 27, 2014.
What’s up with these audit requests?
Resident Patrick Ready filed three audit requests related to campaign finances of councillors Riley Brockington, Shad Qadri and Mark Taylor.
Ready alleges Taylor didn’t accurately report deficits and surpluses, and he claims Qadri inappropriately refunded personal campaign expenses to himself. Ready alleges Brockington accepted ineligible corporate donations.
The allegations have not been proven.
Ready is a former election candidate himself. He ran for public school board trustee last October, finishing third out of three candidates in Zone 8.
How do people know what candidates spent on their campaigns?
The financial documents are public and posted on the city’s website. Candidates must disclose the donations they received and how they spent the money.
What is the election audit compliance committee?
The five-member committee must decide if an audit of a candidate’s campaign finances should be ordered. The members generally have a good background in process. For example, Jean-Pierre Kingsley is a former chief elections officer for Elections Canada. Douglas Wallace is a former meetings investigator for the City of Ottawa. The previous committee for the 2010-2014 term rejected the only two audit requests it received.
What happens now?
The city will set a date for the committee to meet. The committee must decide by July 16 if it should order audits, based on the applications. If the committee orders audits, it will then review the completed audit reports to see if municipal election laws were broken. An audit that determines there was compliance could result in the audit requester receiving a bill for the audit if the committee finds there were no “reasonable grounds” in the first place. If an audit shows a law was broken, the committee must decide if there should be legal proceedings against the candidate.
***
Ottawa Metro: An auditor will be combing through the campaign finances of two Ottawa city councillors.
On Friday, a city election compliance committee decided to further investigate the money West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry and Bay Ward Coun. Mark Taylor spent on their 2014 election campaigns.
Riley Brockington, who represents River Ward, had his campaign finances deferred to a second audit committee on Wednesday, pending more information.
Three other councillors – Rideau-Vanier rep Mathieu Fleury, Stittsville’s Shad Qadri and Cumberland’s Stephen Blais – were also under the audit committee’s microscope, but were let off the hook. In other words, they will not be audited.
The committee – chaired by Jean-Pierre Kingsley, former Chief Electoral Officer for Elections Canada – did not decide whether these councillors contravened the Municipal Elections Act. Rather, the group decided whether to refer the campaign finances to an auditor for further investigation.
Pat Ready, who formerly ran for a school trustee position, filed each application against the six councillors.
Of his allegations against El-Chantiry, it was the councillor’s expenses for campaign signs that were largely called into question at the committee.
Ready alleged the councillor of 12 years overspent on his signs.
Thinking he was in the clear, El-Chantiry said he did not bother bringing a lawyer or an auditor to the committee, instead having his chief financial officer represent him.
He said he will now re-count the dollar figures.
“I will be complying with what they ask from me,” he later told Metro.
Taylor was accused of reporting a deficit, when he should have filed a surplus.
If an auditor decides the two councillors have contravened the Municipal Elections Act, he or she can then decide whether to start legal proceedings or if there were even any reasonable grounds for their applications.
***
Some of Ready’s allegations:
• Blais and El-Chantiry each accepted a $750 donation from Gilmac Partnership. Ready claims these are not corporate donations, but from a partnership.
• Ready also claims Fleury accepted a $750 donation from Ecole Secondaire Public de la Salle, but that it’s against the rules for a local board to donate.
• Ready alleges Blais and El-Chantiry sent contributions back to their donors. But that is only allowed, he said, if donations are found to have contravened the Municipal Elections Act. Otherwise, they must be deposited to the campaign account.
• Brockington allegedly accepted two $750 donations from the same company, which was Linden Developments Inc. Another of his donors, DCR Phoenix Development, allegedly made contributions exceeding a total of $5,000 to two or more candidates.
The election compliance audit committee has yet to prove these allegations.
According to the Municipal Elections Act, “An elector who is entitled to vote in an election and believes on reasonable grounds that a candidate has contravened a provision of this Act relating to election campaign finances may apply for a compliance audit of the candidate’s election campaign finances.”
The deadline for electors to file for applications was last month.
***
Rick Chiarelli campaign expenses 2010
Rick Chiarelli campaign expenses 2014
***
It’s great for democracy that self-serving dishonest politicians are outed. Corrupt secretive Bells Corners unelected community association board members from Westcliffe and Lynwood Village only pay lip service to the importance of transparency, accountability and honesty, but sleazy dishonest politicians like Tristan Maack must be worried – they have a lot to hide.
bellscorners 