Vaughan developers pump cash into King councillors' campaigns

Yorkregion.com
April 1, 2015
By Kim Champion

A local councillor who received more than half his 2014 election campaign donations from businesses or individuals from outside King township defended those contributions Tuesday.

Schomberg Councillor Bill Cober, re-elected last October by a wide margin over repeat challenger Greg Locke, said his election contributions reflect the community as a whole and come from a cross-section of donors.

“They reflect the whole electorate from individual residents, to the business community, to landowners,” he said.

But close scrutiny of those contributions tells a different story.

The Milani family, prominent developers in Vaughan, who reportedly have interests in King Township, gave Cober four donations of the maximum allowable of $750 each from family members Cam, Lucia, Lucrezia and Randi. None of the family members or their businesses list King addresses on Cober’s campaign documents.

King Township planning director Stephen Kitchen confirmed Cam Milani has been to a recent King Township Official Plan consultation meeting.

“He’s (Cam Milani) on our circulation list and he has inquired about properties in the King City area,” Kitchen said Tuesday afternoon.

“We have had discussions about properties in King, in particular in the King City area,” said Kitchen about Milani.

Cam Milani was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Signature Communities and Four Valleys Excavating and Grading, both of Concord in Vaughan and owned by Anthony Di Battista and Nick Cortelucci respectively, each gave Cober $750. Another $750 came from Compact Constructors of Tottenham, just outside King.

The total donations from outside King amount to $5,520 of the $9,659.17 Cober raised for his 2014 municipal election campaign.

Cober said his integrity over the years has been objective.

“No matter what campaign contributions anyone has made, I always am a very objective councillor,” he said.

“I’ve never ever had anything like that (campaign donations) influence any decision-making. My decision-making’s always fair and objective and based on fact and the work that needs to be done,” Cober said.

Self-financed

For Councillor Avia Eek, who easily won her northeast King Township ward over challenger Simon Lloyd, and who self-financed her campaign, development money is not welcome in municipal politics.

Eek said she would have trouble voting on a proposal at council put forward by a developer whose family had contributed $3,000 to her campaign.

“I would probably talk to one of our township solicitors and consider declaring a conflict (of interest); it’s just the perception, ‘Oh, she probably voted that way because they supported her,’” said Eek, who signed a pledge to not take development money before the campaign.

King City Councillor Debbie Schaefer, who beat back two challengers to win, also signed a pledge to not accept donations from developers.

Schaefer said she “would not be comfortable” dealing with an application that involved a developer she had taken some $3,000 in family money from.

“If I were to vote against the application, I would be concerned about what I would say to the developer after the meeting, as presumably the substantial donation was given because we have similar values or see things the same way.

“If I were to vote in support of the application, I would be questioning myself as to whether I really thought/believed it was the right development for King or whether I was being influenced by the substantial donation.

“And I would wonder if I really could explain my vote to my constituents in a manner that would maintain my integrity,” Schaefer said.

Cober wasn’t the only successful returnee to council to receive substantial developer money, including money from outside King.

Nobleton-area Councillor Linda Pabst also got a substantial amount of her election campaign contributions from outside King Township.

Of her $7,450 in campaign contributions, $4,250 can be attributed to companies that have addresses outside King Township, including three for the maximum of $750 in Woodbridge or Concord (Vaughan), one in Markham for $750 and two for $750 each in Toronto.

The rest of Pabst’s contributions were mostly from businesses in Nobleton or Schomberg.

When reached by telephone Tuesday afternoon, Pabst declined to comment about her election campaign filings.

The other successful candidate on election night, firefighter David Boyd, raised almost all of his money through individual donations and spent about $2,000 of his own money on his campaign.

He had several corporate donations, three from Nobleton businesses and a $250 contribution from a Woodbridge business.

Meanwhile, Robert MacDermid, an associate professor of political science at York University, believes development money is a problem in politics.

“I’ve argued in the past that corporations should not be able to contribute at all (to candidates),” said MacDermid.

“It’s happened at the federal level, and in four provinces you can’t donate. But in Ontario, you still can. The City of Toronto has been given special powers under the City of Toronto Act and hasn’t allowed corporate donations in the last two elections. It’s time to reform this at the municipal level,” said MacDermid.

He added that candidates should let the public know who is contributing to their campaigns, before voters head to the polls.

“The province has brought that in for provincial elections and at the federal level, MPs are required to report quarterly. In Toronto, some candidates disclosed who gave them what money up to two weeks before the campaign.

“I think that would be a good idea for candidates to tell people who had contributed. It tells you a lot about who has contributed,” said MacDermid.