City of Powell River councillor Jim Palm has been assessed $2,850 for eight penalties under the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act (LECFA).
A written enforcement notice from Elections BC dated May 15 from Adam Barnes, director of investigations, stated that Palm acted as his own financial agent for his campaign for councillor in the city’s October 2022 general municipal election.
According to the background supplied in the enforcement notice, Palm, leading up to the election, accepted four contributions from four organizations totalling $1,100. The notice stated that Election BC’s electoral finance audit and assessment team emailed Palm on January 16, 2023, to advise him of the possible contravention of LECFA for accepting contributions from organizations and to explain the requirement to return the prohibited contributions.
The notice stated that on February 14, 2023, Palm informed Elections BC that the funds were returned to the organizations. The notice states that Palm later confirmed with an investigator that he did not return the prohibited contributions to the organizations, despite reporting that he had done so as part of a supplementary report.
Barnes indicated that LECFA requires him to issue administrative monetary penalties to Palm for failing to return prohibited contributions. The penalties can be up to double the amount of the prohibited contributions and Barnes assessed a total of $2,850 for eight penalties.
In a note that Palm sent to Barnes, Palm stated: “Please accept my humble personal apology for the mistake I made on my original disclosure statement. I was simply using the same reporting process that I had used following the past four elections.
“I was unaware of the change that company contributions could no longer be made. I was simply not aware of that change in process on my fifth campaign. My mistake. I have now returned all funds to the four companies listed on my original submission.”
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