What a dysfunctional attempt at Machiavellian intrigue is going on in the shadows at City Hall in Cornwall.
At root is what appears to be the Mayor and CAO throwing Clerk Manon Levesque under the bus for not issuing a final certificate with spending limits for the municipal election that Mayor Bernadette Clement has admitting to personally overspending by a whopping 29%! (about 2,000 or so electors!)
The formula, which all candidates were aware of was quite clear. For mayor it was $7,500.00 plus .20 cents per elector.
Ms Clement is a lawyer allegedly by day. Her multiple time campaign manager, Etienne Saint Aubin, is one as well.
Documents show that Mr. Saint Aubin asked the clerk in August about the spending limits and she replied with the $7,500.00 plus .20 cent formula, but what was released today was the motion in council that was SECONDED by councilor Clement at the time in 2018!
Surely you can’t say you weren’t aware of the spending formula of a motion you seconded, can you?
Let this saturate in for a moment. Take a deep breath. Drink some tea….
While the clerk didn’t send Ms Clement a certificate, as she was supposed to; she sent the formula to Ms. Clement’s team in August and Ms Clement seconded the motion to accept and acknowledge the change to spending limits!
While the clerk, by her own admission, didn’t send the certificate with the final number; Ms Clement’s team has been through multiple municipal campaigns and while Mr. Saint Aubin asked for info in August, not once did he ever send an email asking for the certificate.
What does this say about two lawyers who can’t manage such a basic budget? What did Ms Clement need to spend so much money on? Was it paying her friends to run her social media? Only she can answer those questions, but this isn’t a slight oversight. It’s gross neglect and abuse.
It’s like blowing a submission date when requested by an adjudicator or Judge.
Again, there is no follow up query from the Clement team? No follow up questions or requests for any information or certificate as allegedly at least one other candidate requested.
In her statement Ms Clement acknowledges changes; changes she seconded in the motion at council. Surely with a well paid team and she and her campaign manager being LAWYERS, knowing that there’s a new act, they’d have asked Madame Clerk for said certificate? That they didn’t is on them as much if not more than on the clerk.
And interestingly enough as one local judge once commented when someone was complaining about not being served properly; it was pointed out to them that they were there in the court and clearly knew about the date of the hearing and were prepared to defend.
In this case the Clement team not only knew the formula, but Ms Clement herself seconded the motion to approve it!
You just can’t make this stuff up!
All of this info ironically enough is before the meeting Wednesday in council chambers of the ad hoc Audit Review Committee who certainly can only choose to send this to a judge.
Any other decision would be utter cretinous corruption. Because at the end of the day; the only question the committee has to ask is if this happened or not. It did. Bernadette Clement has admitted that. Now it has to be up to a judge in Superior Court to decide on the penalty, (or no penalty if Rick Leroy is the judge)
Because at the end of the day; while the clerk has now admitted to not sending out the certificate; we have a candidate who by mix of arrogance and ignorance spent 29% more than she was legally allowed.
That’s not a minor oopsie. Not even close. She and the clerk need to both be held responsible for this, as perhaps does CAO Maureen Adams.
The meeting is at 5PM at City Hall and is open to the public Wednesday May 15, 2019.
I for one will be shocked if any ramifications happen at all because the only consistent winners to anything involving this city are those swallowers who support corruption. Conflict of interest was the excuse Leslie O’Shaughnessy was able to exploit to protect himself and to ensure that no one comes forward again.
Suggesting it was “the campaign team or the clerk that made mistakes”, Cornwall’s pseudo-mayor distanced herself from irresponsibly exceeding the legal limits for campaign spending.
Then…
A useless Cornwall acting-mayor with a hint of brown stuff on his nose then criticized Cornwall citizens for not volunteering for the hoax of an Election Compliance Audit Committee.
Watch out for that bus!
As the taxpayers are will aware Council has always considered themselves above the law and given their history for breaking it without consequence, they are right.
Take Care,
Diane Shay
If Bernadette Clement is a lawyer then she should know above anyone about law of many sorts and being a mayor she is supposed to know about MUNICIPAL LAW, etc. This woman is just there to occupy a chair for a pay cheque. The same goes for Clements clerk Levesque and as a clerk for the town she is supposed to know about municipal laws, etc. If both are stupid then they should vacate.
The “movers & shakers” & City Hall, are circling their 3-wheeled wagons in setting up the Clerk , as the fall gal in Bernie’s spendgate. Agreed, she did not send out the certificate . However, how many lawyers does it take, to get a spending formula ? Give me a break ! Her so called team, were supplied with the figures ! As Simon say’s, Manon stay clear of any bus !
Again, Ms Clement SECONDED the motion to accept the new spending formula. How can you vote for, never mind second, something you don’t understand?
Cornwall has never really had a decent mayor and council at least not in 55 years and upwards. The town is a total joke and failure and no jobs to pay for all the doondoggles of messes that they create and expect the public to come good for it. What a town!
Oh no!!! I thought we had elected a straight shooter instead of another crooked politician.
What I think is laughable in this situation is that this “Election Compliance Audit Committee” was appointed by council. And that at least two of the committee members are on other city committees. If that doesn’t show a bias towards the city I don’t know what does. This committee should have been made up of outsiders, no one connected to the city in any way, shape or form.
Hugger the chair sits on a board that until recently The Clerk was President of. None of the 3 are qualified for this committee. This had to go to a judge, but because of the pathetic apathy I won’t stick my neck out any further.
Appeals cost money and time. Who needs abuse for simply trying to have a court decide the truth behind a lawyer and mayor overspending her personal campaign donation limit by 29%.
Like Project Truth; the cover up is more damaging than the crime. Nobody should invest in this community until it cleans itself up. Not a single company or person. Who would want to raise a new family with this culture?
100% agreed.
There will be no change in Cornhole until the sheeple change. You have to live elsewhere to have vision. There is no vision in Cornhole at all and all are there for a pay cheque and for their own interests. If you are not going to be the ones to participate and make the necessary changes then nothing gets done. Cornhole is a has been and never will change at all – it is mighty backward.