Mayor pays back political donation

by Laurel Campbell

Mar 05, 2008

CHISHOLM – A Feb. 12 resolution by council to reimburse Mayor Barb Groves $100 for a ticket to a Liberal fundraising event was rescinded during council’s Feb. 26 meeting at the request of the mayor.

“It was my understanding from those I spoke to at the event, that some of the surrounding municipalities were paying for their mayors to attend,” said Groves. “Thus I felt justified in having Chisholm pay for me also. I have reconsidered my request to council and therefore I ask that the resolution be rescinded, and I will return to the township the amount that was reimbursed to me.”

On Jan. 24, Groves attended a wine and cheese fundraising event for Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Anthony Rota, paying her own way in at a cost of $100. Several other local municipal council members were also in attendance. Grove’s perception that tickets had been purchased by other municipalities led her to request Chisholm to follow suit. At the time the motion was put on the Chisholm council table, councillor Steve Boyle said “the fundraiser was for the Liberal Party and I don’t believe we should pay for it.” Councillors Cec Reid and Heather Ward, however, felt that “if other councils paid for their mayors to go, we should too,” Ward said at the time.

Following the Feb. 12 council meeting, the Almaguin News contacted other area municipalities and East Ferris Mayor Bill Vrebosch was the only elected official that said his municipality had bought one ticket. However, Vrebosch has since told the News that “our municipality did not buy a ticket. We had agreed that Councillor Bob Point would attend the event, but found out later it was not legal for the municipality to purchase a ticket. Mr. Point paid for his own ticket, as did other East Ferris councillors who personally chose to attend,” he said. “By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late to correct it.”

The story of the Chisholm’s decision to reimburse the mayor ran in the Feb. 20 edition of the News.

During Chisholm’s discussion on rescinding its motion, Ward said “at the time it seemed like the right thing to do, but now that we have all the facts, I agree we should rescind the motion to reimburse the mayor. I hadn’t realized it was a political fundraising event. I thought we were only agreeing to pay back the cost of an admittance ticket.”

Mayor Groves has also requested that Chisholm’s policy committee “draft a policy to govern this type of donation in the future so that no donations of this nature be permitted.” She explained that without a CAO on staff “we don’t have anyone to guide us and our procedural by-law doesn’t cover everything. We need to look more seriously about policy to govern council in the future.”