Oak Ridges councillor appealing audit over controversial mailout

Resident 'disappointed' appeal will involve more taxpayer funds

Yorkregion.com
July 30, 2015
By Kim Zarzour

Richmond Hill Councillor Greg Beros is appealing a decision by the Joint Compliance Audit Committee to investigate his campaign finances from last year’s municipal election.

The Oak Ridges councillor has filed notice of appeal via Bay Street legal firm Aird & Berlis against the committee’s July 15 decision to grant a request for a compliance audit.

Beros is asking that the request be set aside, because he claims he did not contravene any provisions of the Municipal Elections Act related to election campaign finances.

Oak Ridges resident Kristi Kanitz brought the application for an audit forward.

In her submission, Kanitz said Beros mailed a campaign-style newsletter to almost 12,000 addresses in Ward 1 and billed the town.

Town policy provided for a “blackout period” beginning Sept. 11, 2014, after which candidates are not permitted to use town resources to send out newsletters to their constituents.

However, documents presented at the audit hearing showed Beros delivered the piece of literature to Canada Post after that cut-off date.

The three-person committee voted unanimously to give the go-ahead to an investigation.

“I do believe the mailing was late and probably should be a campaign expense,” Janet Andrews, audit committee chair, said.

But according to Beros’ notice of appeal, the audit committee should not have considered whether he breached town policy, because that is not relevant.

“The Municipal Elections Act comprehensively governs election campaign finance rules,” the notice said. “Because it ‘occupies the field’ in this area of law, any apparent contravention of election campaign finance rules must be grounded in an apparent contravention of the [Act], and not any other policy or procedure.”

In any case, his July 29 appeal notice continues, there was no objective basis for the Compliance Audit Committee to conclude that the newsletter was an apparent breach of the campaign finance rules.

Beros intended on delivering the mailout, “on or before Sept. 10, 2015. Unfortunately, due to issues with the printing of the newsletter, it was not ready to be mailed out until Sept. 11”.

According to the notice, Beros’ office contacted deputy town clerk Gloria Collier Sept. 9, upon becoming aware of the printing issues, and advised her of the late delivery. The town clerk then signed off on the statement of mailing.

During the audit hearing, however, Kanitz shared a portion of that sign-off email from Collier that Beros did not read aloud to the committee. Collier warned him that in mailing it late, Beros risked a complaint being made that he did not follow policy.

“I am very disappointed that Councillor Beros has opted to spend more Town of Richmond Hill taxpayer funds to defend a mailing that was clearly intended as election material,” Kanitz said today of the appeal. “I believe the audit committee made the correct decision based on the very clear facts in this case.”

In the nine-page notice of appeal, law firm Aird & Berlis said evidence will include an affidavit from Pavle Levkovic and it requests the matter be heard at the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto.

The firm is the same one enlisted by former Ward 2 councillor Carmine Perrelli during another controversy over newletters. In 2013, Perrelli was asked by the town to repay the town after he ignored town staff advice and used municipal funds for a townwide mailout.

Perrelli sought legal advice from a leading municipal lawyer with Aird and Berlis, who said nothing in town policies prevented the councillor from using his expense account for advertising throughout town.

The same firm was enlisted last year by mayoral candidate Sridhar Methuku who, in the days leading up to the municipal election, took Mayor Dave Barrow to court.

An Ontario judge tossed out those allegations and ordered Methuku to pay the mayor’s legal fees.