Newsletters in Richmond Hill flashpoint of concern in election year
Yorkregion.com
June 26, 2014
Kim Zarzour

How would you like to hear from your local councillors?

Are you interested in reading their newsletters — and if so, how often?

In the year leading up to a municipal election, newsletters have become a flashpoint in Richmond Hill.

The town has seen a significant increase in the use of mass mailings to distribute newsletters, announcements and surveys by members of council, with a significant impact to corporate printing and postage budgets.

Coinciding with this has been an increase in public complaints about unsolicited mail, according to a staff report discussed by council last month.

Now councillors have asked staff to help determine the best approach to using public funds for communicating with constituents.

In 2013, the town’s postage account was $96,000 over the approved budget of $430,000, the staff report said.

At the same time, residents objected to two townwide mailings in the spring and last fall by Councillor Carmine Perrelli that were paid for using town funds.

A Ward 2 councillor, Perrelli mailed his controversial flyer, critical of the mayor and others on council, to all six town wards, paying for it without authorization, splitting invoices and circumventing his spending limits.

Perrelli has maintained he is within his rights to communicate with residents outside his ward, but residents accused the councillor — running for mayor in the October election — of distributing thinly veiled campaign material. An integrity commissioner is investigating.

But Perrelli is not the only one facing complaints.

The board of directors for the David Dunlap Observatory Defenders group has also raised concerns about a newsletter sent by Ward 5 councillor Nick Papa.

Papa’s spring/summer newsletter referred to events dating back to 2011 and the battle to save observatory lands. The newsletter contained “misinformation and factual distortion” in an attempt to smear Karen Cilevitz, who is Papa’s electoral opponent, the group said in a statement.

“The board of the DDO Defenders takes extreme offence at any elected official, most specifically Ward 5 Councillor Nick Papa, apparently utilizing a ‘newsletter’ paid with public funds as a vessel to malign a respected community organization.”

In his newsletter, Papa said the town could have achieved better results on the DDO plans without going to the OMB.

The Dunlap Defenders say records show Papa, in fact, voted in favour of the multi-party deal for the observatory and in favour of the town going to the OMB.

Asked to explain the discrepancy, Papa said, “I am the councillor of Ward 5 and I report the facts to my residents”.

Residents have also voiced concerns over publicly funded mailings.

“In general, I don’t find newsletters from municipal officials all that useful,” said Adam Socha, adding he gets most news from his local paper long before the newsletters come out.

Some councillors have provided helpful updates on his neighbourhood and regional matters, he said, but others are mean-spirited propaganda, using public funds to take swipes at colleagues with “nasty, half-baked misinformation”.

Similar mailing controversies plague other levels of government.

The federal NDP is facing the possibility of repaying millions of dollars, after a mailing — touting the NDP — was sent to dozens of ridings on the taxpayer’s dime.

Conservative MP Eve Adams is also being questioned over her mailing sent to a riding she hopes to represent in the next election. Critics contend she may have contravened House of Commons rules that prohibit use of parliamentary resources for campaigning.

 

At the local level, the City of Markham has taken a proactive approach to the issue.

Markham ward councillors produce their own newsletters twice a year using public funds, but are only allowed one newsletter in an election year.

Staff, through the city’s vendor, arrange for Canada Post delivery to local councillors’ specific wards, said Kimberley Kitteringham, city clerk and returning officer.

“Staff would not process a request for a citywide newsletter from a local councillor unless this was authorized by council.”

While there’s no formal ‘vetting’ process by Markham staff (i.e. city staff do not verify content, fact-check, etc.), the newsletters are reviewed by the city’s vendor for “design purposes” and in an election year, “my office staff reviews newsletters only to ensure they do not contain ‘electioneering’ in any form”, she said.

In Richmond Hill, the issue of where newsletters can be mailed and what they can say, appears to be grey area.

Mail sent through councillor and mayor offices is charged to corporate postage accounts; staff is occasionally aware of what is being mailed.

Council has a procedure to restrict newsletter mailings within wards, but does not have a policy. Currently two are allowed per year, and in an election year, they must be mailed before Sept. 11, when nominations close.

With controversy swirling over the Perrelli mailings, council asked staff to address the identified gaps in policy and a report came back with recommendations including: requiring staff approval in writing; limiting distribution to within ward boundaries for ward councillors; limiting newsletters to once a year; and possibly requiring newsletters deal with only council-held residential meetings on high-density development.

The latter two recommendations prompted council to refer the report back for further study. Most councillors said one newsletter a year wasn’t enough.

While email and social media are encouraged and being used more, those newer methods still don’t reach the majority of residents, said Regional Councillor Vito Spatafora

There’s also a need for wider scope for discussion in newsletters, he said.

“I talk with residents about parks and trails, environmental projects, waste management and other things we pass in terms of policies and procedures and bylaws, both at the local and regional level. I’d hate to be restricted to only high-density development applications.”

Ward 4 Councillor David West agreed. “Until such time as everyone has email and is following Twitter and Facebook and so forth, I think newsletters are an important baseline communication.”

Ward 1 Councillor Greg Beros also said he was troubled by the constraints, but noted he sometimes gets more response from his online communication than traditional newsletters.

But Regional Councillor Brenda Hogg said the public does not like the use of expensive first-class mail, especially when it duplicates what they’ve read elsewhere.

“We have so many different ways to communicate now, it’s become quite confusing and people get lost... It would be great to hear from the public. How do you want to hear from us?”