Out of their own mouths … the words of Abbotsford city staff and council as reported in The Post of May 11th, 2007:
………“Where did the $60,000 for advertising come from?” she (Elizabeth Gray) demand.
Coun. Bruce Beck responded to Gray saying, “Most of the money spent on advertising for Plan A was not the glitzy ads people saw in the papers it was spent on the legally required notification of polling station location and times.”
Beck sought support for his statement by asking Dan Botrill, Abbotsford’s director of corporate services; “The majority of the $40,000 we allocated to advertising for Plan A was, in fact, for statutory advertising wasn’t it?”
Botrill contradicted Beck saying only $15,000 of the $40,000 allocated by the city for advertising was spent on statutory advertising.
Gray then stated, “I’m talking about the $60,000 from private donations.”
Botrill responded, “I know we received some donations. I’m not sure we can make that public. I’ll investigate and get back to you”.
Let us overlook the fact that this exchange between citizen and City Hall shows that City Hall continues to attempt to provide misleading information and to not answering citizens questions (the $60,000 donations) by giving an answer they want ($40,000 of city money), however misleading and untrue that answer may be.
I direct your attention to is City Hall’s continued refusal to provide citizens information on who, what, when, where and why of the $60,000 donated to the Plan A campaign.
Are not secret donations made to City Hall by secret contributors, not properly accounted for Bribery?