Chief electoral officer identifies 45 illegal donations
bootlegga @ Fri Feb 01, 2013 2:17 pm
Chief electoral officer identifies 45 cases of illegal campaign donations to Alberta PCs
$1:
EDMONTON - To board members of a Calgary charter school society, buying tickets to a series of local Progressive Conservative fundraisers in 2010 and 2011 seemed like a good way to connect with local MLAs.
On 11 occasions, board members with the Foundations for the Future Charter Academy Charter School Society bought tickets for dinners or other PC constituency events, only to be repaid by the taxpayer-funded charter school. In total, the donations cost the school $1,640.
On Thursday, Alberta’s chief electoral officer Brian Fjeldheim identified those donations among 45 cases of illegal campaign contributions the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta received in the last three years from an assortment of towns, counties, school boards and post-secondary institutions across Alberta.
The report marked the first time Elections Alberta has identified donors or political parties sanctioned for breaching the province’s political fundraising rules. Up until the government amended the Elections Act late last year, the elections agency felt it was prohibited from making such information public. But the agency still can not offer details of investigations or fines prior to December 2009.
In the case of the Foundations Charter School Society, the illegal donations identified Thursday cost them $410 in fines.
Superintendent Jay Pritchard said Thursday neither board members nor school administrators knew at the time Alberta laws forbid organizations such as schools or municipalities from covering the cost of political events.
“We knew it was important for our elected officials to interact with government- elected officials to have our needs met,” Pritchard said. “What we didn’t fully recognize is that it wasn’t appropriate to go to a constituency barbecue so you can speak to an MLA. We should have been approaching them in the Leg and having that conversation there.”
The board has modified its policies and beefed up administrative safeguards, Pritchard said.
“This problem won’t crop up again given our current approach to it. We feel badly about it and I know ignorance is not a suitable explanation for making a mistake, but honestly that’s what happened.”
In the case of Woodlands County, cited by Elections Alberta three times for $950 worth of tickets to PC constituency golf events, Mayor Jim Rennie said officials received legal advice that it was acceptable for the county to cover the cost.
After being contacted by Elections Alberta, Rennie said lawyers felt they could successfully challenge the decision.
“At the end of the day, council decided the legal costs of fighting it were more than the fines were. While we still feel Elections Alberta was wrong and their decision was incorrect, we felt it was a better use of our taxpayer dollars to pay the fine than to pay the legal fees,” Rennie said.
The reports from Elections Alberta detailed the prohibited corporations responsible for donations, which totalled $20,235.
The largest individual amounts were indirect contributions of $2,550 from the town of Okotoks and $1,700 from the municipal district of Foothills, as well as a $1,350 direct contribution from Grande Prairie Regional College.
Elections Alberta also outlined the fines levied against the donors, which ranged from $18.75 to $850. Collectively, they totalled $7,310.
In all cases the PC party or its constituency association was either advised to return the money, voluntarily returned the donation or been ordered by Fjeldheim to refund the amount to the prohibited corporation involved.
Fjeldheim has not recommended prosecution in any of the cases.
But he said that in some files, Elections Alberta is still considering whether to ask for charges to be laid in relation to provisions that made it illegal for a political entity to knowingly or willingly solicit donations.
PC Party President Jim McCormick said Thursday the party has complied with Elections Alberta in all cases where it was ordered to return the cash. But the party is appealing to Fjeldheim to reverse the decision in at least seven cases because it argues it did not “knowingly” accept illegal donations. It also has not returned some donations it was asked to voluntarily remit.
Of the 45 cases, Elections Alberta defined just over half as “direct” contribution, meaning that money flowed directly from the prohibited organization to the party or constituency association.
The other donations were defined as indirect, meaning an individual paid the party, but then was reimbursed by a prohibited corporation.
Some of the local governments and organizations who made illegal donations have been identified previously after investigations by opposition parties and media outlets looking at financial records.
But Thursday marked the first time that Elections Alberta offered a full scope of its investigations since December 2009. Opposition parties said the fact all the illegal donations revealed in the report went to the PC Party showed a serious problem with the political culture.
Liberal leader Raj Sherman described the list of 45 illegal donations released by Elections Alberta as a window into the operations of the PC party.
At its root, he said, is a “pattern of underfunding municipalities and education where these organizations feel they have to curry favour to get the political party, the PC party, the funds they need.”
The most shameful part is that the practice went on for years without anyone thinking it was wrong, he said.
Wildrose MLA Shayne Saskiw said he believes there are many more cases that either occurred before December 2009 or have yet to come to Elections Alberta’s attention.
“We all know it was widespread. We’ve all seen letters, email invitations, before and after 2004 when the law came into effect,” he told reporters on a conference call.
“This is what you see with a government that’s been in power unchallenged for 42 years.”
Both Sherman and NDP leader Brian Mason acknowledged Thursday mistakes can happen within political parties if a donor turns around and is reimbursed for their contribution without the party knowing. But no party should keep that money once the truth is revealed.
“They may not know that when they sell someone a ticket,” Mason said. “But once it becomes known it was an illegal donation, they have an obligation to pay it back.”
Mason said he believes the investigations reflect a systematic shakedown of public institutions by the governing party. “All of these donations are all to the PC party and it can only be the price of influence for public institutions with the government. If you don’t pay, you don’t play,” Mason said.
Opposition leaders also argued the Chief Electoral Officer should be issuing serious punishments.
The fines that Fjeldheim levied against the donors will hardly make a difference, they predicted.
“That’s not a fine. It’s a slap on the wrist and it’s a joke, that kind of fine,” Sherman said. “It does not discourage bad behaviour.”
One investigation that did not show up in Thursday’s posting is Elections Alberta’s probe into controversial donations by Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz and his associates to the Tories during last spring’s provincial election campaign.
Fjeldheim said that investigation is ongoing and there is no timeline for its completion.
On 11 occasions, board members with the Foundations for the Future Charter Academy Charter School Society bought tickets for dinners or other PC constituency events, only to be repaid by the taxpayer-funded charter school. In total, the donations cost the school $1,640.
On Thursday, Alberta’s chief electoral officer Brian Fjeldheim identified those donations among 45 cases of illegal campaign contributions the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta received in the last three years from an assortment of towns, counties, school boards and post-secondary institutions across Alberta.
The report marked the first time Elections Alberta has identified donors or political parties sanctioned for breaching the province’s political fundraising rules. Up until the government amended the Elections Act late last year, the elections agency felt it was prohibited from making such information public. But the agency still can not offer details of investigations or fines prior to December 2009.
In the case of the Foundations Charter School Society, the illegal donations identified Thursday cost them $410 in fines.
Superintendent Jay Pritchard said Thursday neither board members nor school administrators knew at the time Alberta laws forbid organizations such as schools or municipalities from covering the cost of political events.
“We knew it was important for our elected officials to interact with government- elected officials to have our needs met,” Pritchard said. “What we didn’t fully recognize is that it wasn’t appropriate to go to a constituency barbecue so you can speak to an MLA. We should have been approaching them in the Leg and having that conversation there.”
The board has modified its policies and beefed up administrative safeguards, Pritchard said.
“This problem won’t crop up again given our current approach to it. We feel badly about it and I know ignorance is not a suitable explanation for making a mistake, but honestly that’s what happened.”
In the case of Woodlands County, cited by Elections Alberta three times for $950 worth of tickets to PC constituency golf events, Mayor Jim Rennie said officials received legal advice that it was acceptable for the county to cover the cost.
After being contacted by Elections Alberta, Rennie said lawyers felt they could successfully challenge the decision.
“At the end of the day, council decided the legal costs of fighting it were more than the fines were. While we still feel Elections Alberta was wrong and their decision was incorrect, we felt it was a better use of our taxpayer dollars to pay the fine than to pay the legal fees,” Rennie said.
The reports from Elections Alberta detailed the prohibited corporations responsible for donations, which totalled $20,235.
The largest individual amounts were indirect contributions of $2,550 from the town of Okotoks and $1,700 from the municipal district of Foothills, as well as a $1,350 direct contribution from Grande Prairie Regional College.
Elections Alberta also outlined the fines levied against the donors, which ranged from $18.75 to $850. Collectively, they totalled $7,310.
In all cases the PC party or its constituency association was either advised to return the money, voluntarily returned the donation or been ordered by Fjeldheim to refund the amount to the prohibited corporation involved.
Fjeldheim has not recommended prosecution in any of the cases.
But he said that in some files, Elections Alberta is still considering whether to ask for charges to be laid in relation to provisions that made it illegal for a political entity to knowingly or willingly solicit donations.
PC Party President Jim McCormick said Thursday the party has complied with Elections Alberta in all cases where it was ordered to return the cash. But the party is appealing to Fjeldheim to reverse the decision in at least seven cases because it argues it did not “knowingly” accept illegal donations. It also has not returned some donations it was asked to voluntarily remit.
Of the 45 cases, Elections Alberta defined just over half as “direct” contribution, meaning that money flowed directly from the prohibited organization to the party or constituency association.
The other donations were defined as indirect, meaning an individual paid the party, but then was reimbursed by a prohibited corporation.
Some of the local governments and organizations who made illegal donations have been identified previously after investigations by opposition parties and media outlets looking at financial records.
But Thursday marked the first time that Elections Alberta offered a full scope of its investigations since December 2009. Opposition parties said the fact all the illegal donations revealed in the report went to the PC Party showed a serious problem with the political culture.
Liberal leader Raj Sherman described the list of 45 illegal donations released by Elections Alberta as a window into the operations of the PC party.
At its root, he said, is a “pattern of underfunding municipalities and education where these organizations feel they have to curry favour to get the political party, the PC party, the funds they need.”
The most shameful part is that the practice went on for years without anyone thinking it was wrong, he said.
Wildrose MLA Shayne Saskiw said he believes there are many more cases that either occurred before December 2009 or have yet to come to Elections Alberta’s attention.
“We all know it was widespread. We’ve all seen letters, email invitations, before and after 2004 when the law came into effect,” he told reporters on a conference call.
“This is what you see with a government that’s been in power unchallenged for 42 years.”
Both Sherman and NDP leader Brian Mason acknowledged Thursday mistakes can happen within political parties if a donor turns around and is reimbursed for their contribution without the party knowing. But no party should keep that money once the truth is revealed.
“They may not know that when they sell someone a ticket,” Mason said. “But once it becomes known it was an illegal donation, they have an obligation to pay it back.”
Mason said he believes the investigations reflect a systematic shakedown of public institutions by the governing party. “All of these donations are all to the PC party and it can only be the price of influence for public institutions with the government. If you don’t pay, you don’t play,” Mason said.
Opposition leaders also argued the Chief Electoral Officer should be issuing serious punishments.
The fines that Fjeldheim levied against the donors will hardly make a difference, they predicted.
“That’s not a fine. It’s a slap on the wrist and it’s a joke, that kind of fine,” Sherman said. “It does not discourage bad behaviour.”
One investigation that did not show up in Thursday’s posting is Elections Alberta’s probe into controversial donations by Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz and his associates to the Tories during last spring’s provincial election campaign.
Fjeldheim said that investigation is ongoing and there is no timeline for its completion.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/C ... story.html
Thanos @ Fri Feb 01, 2013 4:28 pm
Just another one for the growing pile of gaffes and mini-scandals that are paving the way for a landslide Wildrose victory in 2016/17. I'm not convinced that Redford's crew are corrupt. Overly complacent with an oversized sense of their own entitlement for sure. But I am convinced after the last few months that they're just incredibly stupid and lacking in any sort of common sense. I don't know what's wrong with them but they're making the goofiness of the Stelmach days look awesome in comparison. They can ignore the ideological ranting from the idiots at the SUN, but when the Herald and Journal start asking "what the fuck is wrong with these idiots?" they better start taking the criticism seriously.