Elections BC has cleared Mayor Kennedy Stewart and his Forward Together party of any violations of the law that governs campaign financing in relation to a donor list found on a sidewalk last month by a homeless man.
Melanie Hull, communicators advisor for Elections BC, said Thursday in an email that the agency found no contraventions of the Local Campaign Financing Act and considers its review of the matter complete.
“Our review found that the spreadsheet is a planning document related to fundraising,” Hull said. “It documents the efforts of fundraising captains. The contributions listed in the document do not indicate individual contributions, but rather fundraising goals and achievements for each captain.”
The two-page document found by Stanley Q. Woodvine Sept. 13 on a sidewalk near city hall is in spreadsheet form and list names of various high-profile business people and the amount of their contribution in 2022.
Francesco Aquilini a fundraising 'captain'
Among the 41 names are Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Canucks’ owner and property developer Francesco Aquilini ($64,350), Wayne Pai of Landa Global Properties ($22,489), Ajay Dilawri of auto retailer Dilawri Group of Companies ($20,153), real estate veteran Bob Rennie ($12,500), Dak Molnar of the Molnar Group ($11,200), Concord Pacific CEO Terry Hui ($8,200) and Kerry Bonnis of Bonnis Properties ($3,750).
Each person on the list appears under the heading “captain” and each has a fundraising goal. For example, Aquilini’s goal is $110,000, Dilawri’s is $50,000 and Hui’s is $31,250.
“We have confirmed that the captains themselves are properly appointed by the elector organization’s financial agent, and that they are aware of the contributor eligibility rules as well as the contribution limit of $1,250,” Hull said.
“We have also confirmed that all contributions reflected in this spreadsheet have been reviewed and processed by the financial agent, and the correct source of the contribution has been recorded appropriately.”
In response to Elections BC’s ruling, Stewart said in an email that he was “pleased” the agency confirmed his party was in full compliance with campaign financing rules.
“We were the first and remain one of the few parties to have disclosed our list of donors, which goes above and beyond what we are required to do by Elections BC,” Stewart said.
'Spirit of the law'
Housing advocate Rohana Rezel and TEAM for a Livable Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»were two of the complainants who requested Elections BC investigate the document. Both raised concerns that the amounts recorded on the document exceeded the allowable $1,250 per person.
Reached Thursday by telephone, Rezel said he was disappointed with Elections BC’s ruling.
“It seems that [Forward Together] have been abiding by the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law,” he said.
The law, he said, allows what amounts to a loophole whereby captains — “who are essentially bagmen” — can raise more than the allowable $1,250 by seeking funds from family, friends and wealthy business people in their network.
“When you appoint these rich developers and other corporate people as captains, you have a massive advantage,” Rezel said. “And these people can easily outraise their opponents who choose to abide by both the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.”
'Doesn't smell right'
Bill Tieleman, a council candidate with TEAM, said he was glad to know the rules are being followed by Stewart and his party. But he echoed Rezel’s concerns about the spirit of the Act not being followed by having heads of development companies and other corporations acting as fundraising captains.
“It creates the perception of a conflict of interest when the fundamental role of a city council is to regulate the development industry as a whole,” said Tieleman, citing concerns over a donors later coming to council for approval of a development project.
“People who give enormous amounts of money and collect enormous amounts of money to get people elected, then have multimillion dollar projects approved by the same people doesn't smell right.”
TEAM, which released its list of donors this week, does not accept donations from developers.
Integrity commissioner investigation
Meanwhile, a separate request from TEAM to have the city’s integrity commissioner Lisa Southern investigate whether Stewart’s chief of staff Neil Monckton and director of communications Alvin Singh were in a conflict-of-interest over their involvement in Forward Together’s fundraising campaign has not begun.
Their first names appear on the document found by Woodvine. The party has told Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» that Monckton took a leave of absence from city hall Sept. 10 and Singh, who is a council candidate, Aug. 22.
Southern and a representative from her office said in emails this week that the city’s code of conduct requires the commissioner to reject any complaints received regarding a council member seeking re-election in the period from the last day of the nomination period to general voting day, which is Oct. 15.
The last day of the nomination period was Sept. 9, 2022.
Southern said once a complaint is rejected, she cannot revive it and it must be refiled.
"Beginning October 16, 2022, the integrity commissioner will be in a position to consider complaints involving elected council members that fall within the integrity commissioner’s jurisdiction and have been filed within 180 days of the alleged breach as set out in Part 6 of the Code of Conduct By-Law," Southern said in an email Friday. "Note, if the subject of the complaint is not re-elected, the Code provides that we must dismiss the complaint."
Stewart told Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³» at an earlier news conference that members of his staff have not participated in soliciting donations while employed by the city, saying “we’ve made sure we’ve kept the lines clear there.”
Recent polling shows Stewart, who was elected in 2018, is in a tight race with ABC Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»mayoral candidate Ken Sim.
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