Cornwall Ontario – So this writer is sitting at his desk when the phone rings. Someone connected to City Hall informs me that the Conflicted Conflict of Interest award given to Cornwall Mayor Leslie O’Shaughnessy, and Councilors Elaine Macdonald and Carilyne Hebert has been transferred to the City of Cornwall.
All three are running for council again after a record year tax raise and issues like this just might be a factor in why taxes are running rampant?
That has to be the most bizarre and strange phone call I’ve had in nearly ten years here at CFN, and I’ve had quite a few strange phone calls.
I mean, seriously, a city spending thousands of tax dollars on legal bills to try and collect an uncollectable debt acquired from a personal case? Even google couldn’t find one of those and generally if you can’t find it on google it doesn’t exist.
The background was simple enough. The Mayor and two councilors sat on the bogus Benson University steering committee that asked council for CASH and all three voted to tender cash for the project although in Ms Hebert’s defence she tried to recuse herself, but was talked out of it in a live council meeting by the mayor who changed her mind.
The judge for the original hearing recused herself because she was on the same committee! That alone would indict the politicians in a reasonable persons mind.
A judge was parachuted in, but Justice Rick Leroy didn’t bother to declare that he had been part owner of the law firm that the talented and delightful Paralegal James Moak had defeated multiple times including a near record cost award in one case of over $7,000 in Small Claims court.
Likewise the politicians were defended by City Lawyer David Sherriff Scott.
As this was in Superior Court I could not use Mr. Moak’s services and as this was a public interest case represented myself as no local lawyers would step forward.
The judge refused my motion to dismiss Mr. Scott and Borden Ladner Gervais for Conflict themselves and the judge went on the warpath coincidently awarding a near similar amount in costs against myself with no interest penalties.
The mayor and councilors never made an attempt to collect. In fact BLG turned down the opportunity to offset the cost award by the amount former mayor Kilger agreed to pay me in a different small claims court action. The city chose at that time to pay the full cash amount for the Kilger T Shirt case.
I laughed not believing this story. It seemed as odd as the story my neighbors complained that the city paved the sidewalks on each block North and South leaving ours with icky dangerous sidewalks just because I live on this strip of downtown.
But then a stranger walked through my yard and not only knocked on my door, but opened it and stepped onto my enclosed porch; which is kind of illegal. When I said I’d call the police he refused to leave and when I grabbed my video camera he fled.
He later filed a false affidavit stating I was personally served which I certainly was not. He attempted a second time, but didn’t enter my property this time. Again, I was never served personally.
While in court to face the city for my own lawsuit for $3600 because of City Manager Tammy Wells at Ontario Works demanding to know how much I myself pay rent before allowing a student at SLC to rent a room in my basement, a frantic lawyer demanded I attend a hearing which I was never notified about and then my talented paralegal informed me that the bizarre rumour was in fact true and that the City of Cornwall apparently has now become a collection agency on your and my dime, but also is in a potential liability situation.
You really can’t make stuff like this up. One City Hall wag said that someone at City Hall apparently doesn’t like me.
We could not find a single example of a City or Municipality in Canada or otherwise ever, not even once, taking on a personal judgment even remotely in this fashion.
The legal bill from BLG plus potential losses and cost awards could be as high as $50,000 between both cases, or more depending on how badly the BLG lawyers perform. CAO Maureen Adams has refused to disclose to this newspaper how much the City of Cornwall has spent with BLG over this term of council.
In fact if a lawyer decided to take an action in response to this utter insanity by the City of Cornwall, led by CAO Maureen Adams, who just led the city to a multi million dollar loss to CUPE over their misled demands to staff to give up leave, which resulted in a strike and a budget levy raise of nearly 20% this last term shouldn’t the city be acting in the best interest of the taxpayers rather than running what appears to be personal vendettas?
Reliable sources state that these actions were taken without formal approval of at least 8 members of City Council begging the question who is misusing their position and the public’s budget to forward their personal agenda, and why?
What do you think dear CFN viewers? You can post your comments below.
The strange gets stranger.
“someone at City Hall apparently doesn’t like me.” I think that should read “City Hall apparently doesn’t like me.”