The City of St. Albert will not be communicating with municipal council candidates over any complaints filed in the future.
In mid-July, a letter from the city’s legislative services department was sent out to candidates and others, including the Gazette, who had corresponded with the city regarding complaints filed about some candidates’ election finance disclosures.
The notifications to candidates who were the subject of complaints raised the ire of some along with suggestions that some of the candidates were being targeted in some way.
Chief legislative officer Chris Belke said this most recent missive was a bit of a response to those concerns.
“We consulted with Municipal Affairs on this to try and get some better clarity on roles,” Belke said.
After Belke received some complaints in April, a letter to the candidates who were mentioned in the complaint was sent out, notifying them of the complaint.
“We were providing information so that if people felt they needed to respond ... they would have an opportunity to rectify that situation with no penalty or consequence,” Belke said.
The city’s attempt to simply pass along the information was misinterpreted by some, Belke said.
“Rather than being helpful we felt this was probably complicating the situation,” Belke said. “It’s our retroactive attempt to simplify the situation.”
Belke said the original letters to the candidates whose disclosures were the subjects of complaints were meant to be informational, “certainly not, absolutely not” an accusation.
“That was not our intent for it to be an accusation, certainly not a charge, anything of that nature,” he said.
The letter from Belke suggests those with complaints about the financial disclosures look to other authorities to pursue their concerns, like consulting with legal counsel.
The relevant legislation — the Local Authorities Election Act — is “a bit unspecific” when it comes to enforcement over complaints, Belke said, but it’s not the municipality’s role.
In an interview with an Alberta Municipal Affairs spokesperson in June, the Gazette was told the provincial government was not the enforcement arm either, and anyone wishing to pursue complaints about candidate financial disclosures would have to make application to the courts.
The July letter from Belke says communicating with the candidates who were subjects of complaints did not violate the Local Authorities Election Act but did create confusion.
“While that action was not in violation of, or inconsistent with, the LAEA, it has seemed to have created some confusion and incorrect perceptions of what the role and authority of the City (sic) is in relation to such complaints,” the letter says.
