Clock runs out for probe on Summerland Council expense

James Miller 2010-01-10 Kelowna Courier:
A request for a formal RCMP investigation from 15 citizens in Summerland into allegations of irregular election expenses made by mayor and council in the 2008 municipal election has been denied due to a statute of limitations. Although a statute of limitations is not mentioned in the official B.C. Municipal Elections Act, according to spokesman Cpl. Dan Moskaluk, “when the provincial act doesn‘t have a section on a statute of limitations, it defaults to the offence act, which is a basic six months.” Moskaluk quoted section 3(2) of the Offence Act. Retired orchardist Frank Martens, along with 14 others, filed an official complaint with RCMP on Dec. 14 that all six councillors plus the mayor were in violation of several infractions.

In their official complaint they outlined three major concerns:
• The alleged acceptance by the mayor and councillors of anonymous donations in excess of $50 contrary to the act.
• Groups which spent over $500 on endorsement ads yet failed to register or file a financial disclosure statement
• Additional advertisements in the Summerland Review and other local newspapers that may have exceeded the $500 benchmark requiring campaign organizers to register with the Chief Electoral Officer and file a financial disclosure.

Councillors stated that they sought advice of CEO Gillian Matthew on disclosure and were always honest in their declarations. They listed donations of more than $50 as anonymous only because they directly benefited from advertisements from unnamed citizen‘s group but had no idea who they were. The case was immediately moved out of Summerland and was handled in Vancouver by Andrew Koczeruk of the Commercial Crimes section. “I‘m not happy about the result, but I‘m certainly not unhappy with the fact that we had requested the investigation,” Martens said. “I don‘t believe the people involved have been entirely exonerated because it‘s been declined basically on a technicality. I don‘t believe there should have been such a brief time-line in place, but that‘s not our call to make.” Martens noted that candidates have three months from the time of the election to declare their financial statements and the public is not allowed access to those documents until that time, thus meaning citizens don‘t truly have a six-month period to complain. Martens said there is still the option of challenging in court, but he doubts that will happen due to the tremendous costs involved. “There‘s now a task force in place because there were similar occurrences throughout the province and maybe other places that haven‘t bothered to raise questions.”

Coun. Gordon Clark, who was acting mayor at the time questions were first brought forward, declined comment, Saturday. Phone messages were left with both Mayor Janice Perrino and Coun. Ken Roberghe, who did not reply by press time.