City Clerk washes his hands over looking into the extraordinarily high bank charges reported by Ward 1 Councillor

By Pepper Parr

May 17th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

A follow up on the bank charges story we published earlier this week.

The Clerk didn’t get back to us – he passed us along to Communications who came back with:

City Clerk Kevin Arjoon: Not my responsibility

The issue identified falls outside the scope of the jurisdiction of the Clerk to review. In terms of the process, we review the form to ensure that it has the appropriate auditor report (if required) that the candidate does not owe any money to the municipality, and attest the oath on page 1 of the form.

At the end of the day, the onus falls back on the candidate – or contributor, as case may be, to be accountable. If there are questions from members of the public, an application filed by an elector of the municipality with the Compliance Audit Committee seeking an audit of the candidate’s financials.

A candidate appears to be able to say anything they want, just is as long is as they attest to what they put on the form.

The Municipal Act is clear. A bank account for an election campaign is a must. Councillor Galbraith does not appear to have created a bank account set up strictly for the purposes of handling the funds received and used in an election campaign.

If he did – he might want to explain why his bank charges were higher (five time higher) than any other candidate.

Councillor Bentivegna also appears to not have opened a bank account; his election was funded by his family who put in $1000 each from four people.

If you want to complain – reach out to the Compliance Audit Committee. You must be an elector to file a complaint – but you don’t have to live in ward 1 – anywhere in the city will do.

Link to the Compliance Audit Committee is here

You have until September 2nd to file a complaint.

Interesting to note that if you don’t like the decision that Committee makes you can appeal it to the Ontario Court of Justice.

Related news stories:

Part 4: Why were the bank charges so high for Ward 1 candidate?

Does what a candidate does during an election matter; it’s all about winning isn’t it.