Byelection ordered after judge disqualifies Harrison Hot Springs councillor

By KEITH FRASER, The ProvinceMarch 1, 2012 1:08 PM

A newly elected councillor in Harrison Hot Springs has been disqualified from holding office and a new byelection ordered.  Richard Frederick Shelley was elected to council in the recent municipal elections after receiving 284 votes, the fourth and final councillor to be elected.  Andrew Baziuk, who placed fifth with 269 votes, filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court seeking to have Shelley disqualified. He argued that Shelley should be removed from office because at the time of the election he was an employee of the municipality and didn’t take the necessary steps to permit him to run for office. Shelley, an employee of Overwaitea Food Group and a sales representative for Sutton Group Showplace Realty Inc., was a volunteer firefighter for the municipality who received $1,772 for his services in 2011. As a nominee for election to local government, he was required to file a financial disclosure form. He did so, but failed to mention his firefighting services or the income he received. After the election, Shelley asked the fire chief to have all of his current and future remuneration donated to charities. In court he argued that he was not an employee of the village, since he was paid by the fire department, not the village, and that he was a pure volunteer who does not receive monetary compensation. But in a ruling released Thursday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Masuhara said he did not accept Shelley’s arguments. The fact that the fire department sends an invoice to the village is simply an accounting/administrative procedure and does not alter the direct relationship of a firefighter to the municipality, said the judge. Furthermore, even though Shelley can be said to have provided volunteer services, he did receive money from the municipality, he said. The offer by Shelley to have his pay donated to charity, while laudable, does not get him off the hook, concluded the judge. “Given the foregoing, I conclude that Mr. Shelley was not qualified to hold office at the time he was elected.” Baziuk, who runs a small business in Harrison Hot Springs, sought to have himself declared to be elected if Shelley was disqualified but the judge said he found that argument unpersuasive and ordered a byelection to be held for the job.