HOW MUCH MORE WOULD A FORENSIC AUDIT HAVE FOUND?

The impression that I have been slowly getting is that while mayor Shantz appropriately had one campaign bank account for her expenses and donations; unfortunately she was also paying her expenses from other sources thus keeping them hidden. This conclusion is based upon her admittance at the October 26,2015 MECAC meeting that she paid for additional stakes for her campaign signs, out of her own pocket. This delicate fact has been inaccurately reported on the Woolwich website under Draft (MECAC) Minutes since December 7/15 despite Township Staff having been informed in writing by myself regarding the error. Furthermore on the Financial Spreadsheet that she provided to MECAC on July 2/15 she has indicated that her Thank You Notices (Appreciation Notices) published in the Woolwich Observer and Elmira Independent were originally entered as legitimate expenses however she reversed that correct decision and removed them from her campaign account and paid for them privately. That of course is contrary to the Elections Act and she has since in her Amended Financial Statement (August 20/15) put them back in again as campaign expenses. Finally the recently discovered undeclared expenses that have been sent on to the prosecuter have not appeared on any of the mayor's two Financial Spreadsheets. One must conclude that all or part of them, depending on the staus of donations or not, would have been paid either by cash or from the mayor's private bank accounts. Keep in mind that a Compliance Audit (forensic audit) would include an examination of the mayor's private accounts as well as her campaign account. This might find other personal payments for campaign expenses contrary to the Municpal Elections act (MEA). MECAC however made certain that mayor Shantz avoided that scenario.

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys a story by Paige Desmond titled "Woolwich mayor's expense issue to be reviewed by out of town Crown". As I indicated in yesterday's posting, mayor Shantz is both a local mayor as well as a Regional Councillor. While Regional Council has responsibility for the Regional Police budget and some other police matters, the relationship between Regional government and the local courts is less clear to me. That said I do believe that there are certainly financial implications such as Regional government receiving things like Highway Traffic Act fines etc. after conviction in our local courts. It would also seem likely to me that our Regional government bears some responsibility for things like maintenance and even construction/renovation costs for these buildings.

Here is another delicate matter to mull over. Also on the Township's website are the Endorsement and Judgement of Justice David Broad (Superior Court) from last July 23, 2015. Woolwich Township are so pleased with them both that they have been posted on their website for months. These documents/decisions are not remotely an examination of the mayor's Financial Statements despite certain parties so misrepresenting them. They are simply and solely stating that under the circumstances outlined by one party, mayor Shantz, that the penalty of automatic forfeiture of her office was too severe. Even then Justice Broad's decision stated that her reinstatement was conditional. She had to agree to follow a number of prescribed steps in order to be reinstated. Justice Broad repeatedly stated that she must file "full and complete" Amended and Supplementary Financial Statements by a certain date. She complied with the date. But... the "full and complete" aspect of her conditional reinstatement is in extreme doubt. Exactly how has she filed "full and complete" Financial Statements, namely the Amended and the Supplementary Financial Statements, dated August 20, 2015 when hundreds of dollars of new undeclared expenses have just been uncovered? Mayor Shantz was reinstated as mayor from her automatic forfeiture for failing to file an Auditor's Report by March 27/15, on condition that she come clean and file "full and complete" Financial Statements. I believe that she has failed to follow the conditions imposed upon her by Justice Broad in order for her to be reinstated as mayor of Woolwich Township. Woolwich Council, senior Staff and MECAC can all take credit for this still expanding mess.