A group of Rocky View County (RVC) residents who are a part of Rocky View Forward (RVF) have filed to take Division 1 Coun. Mark Kamachi to court over matters of pecuniary interest and failing to maintain eligibility.
“We raised our concerns in person with Kamachi and Reeve Daniel Henn back in January,” said RVF spokesperson Janet Ballantyne in a media release. “We advised Kamachi that he could either resign quietly or we would take the matter to court.”
According to legal documents filed March 25, the pecuniary interest claims stem from Kamachi’s advertising company, AdMaki. The court documents allege the Bragg Creek-based business has done a “substantial” amount of advertising work for the County.
The document claims as Kamachi has been paid for services out of the County’s economic development budget, his vote on matters regarding economic development combats the Municipal Government Act (MGA), and therefore causes issues of pecuniary interest.
“The Respondent has never disclosed his pecuniary interest in the Economic Development department’s budget, nor has he abstained from voting on matters that involved the Economic Development department’s budget,” the document said. “The respondent has, instead, participated in the council votes for the County’s annual operating budgets.”
The news of the court filing comes shortly after Kamachi announced he would not be running in the upcoming municipal election on Oct. 18.
RVC Deputy Reeve Kim McKylor took to Facebook to defend her fellow councillor after hearing Ballantyne and former RVC councillor Kim Magnuson moved ahead with the court filing.
“From my vantage point on council, Bragg Creek, you have lost a councillor that cares deeply for your community [and who] has worked hard to help anyone that came to him,” she wrote in her post. “He represented you and your community with passion, thoughtfulness and above all with integrity. Bragg Creek, you are losing a good representative.”
McKylor’s statement claimed Kamachi’s decision to not seek re-election had “zero to do with the two individuals that [used] the Freedom of Information Act [for] a bunch of information,” she said. She called it “information that only tells a percentage of the story.”
“Their interpretation of that information has already been proven to be inaccurate by the County’s investigator,” she said.
During a phone interview with the Rocky View Weekly after her post was published, McKylor said she could not yet elaborate on the County investigator’s findings, as it was an item that was dealt with by council in-camera. She said her post only mentioned the matter in relation to a line from RVF’s statement that made some of that information public.
According to McKylor’s post, Ballantyne and Magnuson met with Kamachi and Reeve Daniel Henn in January. She said the two “threatened to go public should Kamachi not resign by the beginning of February.”
“They didn’t go with the intent of discussing their concerns, they had a letter stating their intent and their intent was to extort his resignation,” McKylor said. “In fact, it felt like such an extortion attempt, that Kamachi reported it to the RCMP. I hope the RCMP will now investigate this.”
McKylor also questioned why the group moved ahead with proceedings after finding out Kamachi is not seeking re-election.
“So why continue the action? They got what they wanted. Clearly, this is now not about that, it could only be about tarnishing a good person, because there was nothing left,” McKylor said.
Ballantyne responded by saying whether Kamachi is running again or not, she feels he had done things that were grounds for disqualification, and that needs to be dealt with.
“We told him that if he simply resigned, we would be quiet about this and wouldn’t raise the issues in public,” Ballantyne said. “There are important rules that all councillors need to follow. Simply ignoring rules isn’t appropriate. Just because you are a part of the majority on council doesn’t mean there are different rules for you.”
Another point raised by McKylor in her post centred around why Ballantyne and company didn’t pursue the same action with Coun. Samanntha Wright, who was sanctioned by the County in 2019 and is currently awaiting a court date for issues regarding pecuniary interests, along with grounds for disqualification for money owed on taxes.
Ballantyne said RVF didn’t pursue it because RVC had already taken care of it by taking Wright to court.
“The County should have also taken Kamachi to court, but they chose not to,” she said. “Quite honestly, I think what Kamachi did was far worse.”
On Jan. 8, 2019, Wright took part in a public hearing, council discussions and vote on a conceptual scheme and land-use redesignation for the Bearspaw Heights development. At the time, the applicant raised concerns about a possible pecuniary interest and requested Wright’s recusal.
After former Chief Administrative Officer Al Hoggan pointed out pecuniary interests are “the sole purview of the councillor to determine,” Wright insisted she did not have any pecuniary interest in the matter.
But the pecuniary interest involving Kamachi “put hard dollars into his pocket,” according to Ballantyne.
“The pecuniary interest they are talking about with Wright is vague and wishy-washy,” she said. “Dealing with her neighbours has somehow affected her own property value. That is so speculative and so vague.”
In response to Ballantyne’s initial complaint filed to a County investigator, a response letter was penned by Sean Ward, a partner with Reynolds Mirth Richards & Farmer law firm.
“As an investigator under the County’s Code of Conducts Bylaw, I have received your formal complaint dated Jan. 13, 2020,” Ward’s letter said. “I am writing to advise that I am terminating the investigation.”
Ward went on to claim there is no evidence to establish Kamachi has in any way breached his obligations under the MGA.
“The information submitted does not support a conclusion that goods supplied by AdMaki were not provided at competitive prices [a claim in Ballantynes’ affidavit],” Ward said.
“Given that the MGA specifically provides a remedy to address the allegations in your complaint, and the legislature has determined that a judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench is the part responsible for making that determination, it would only serve to create confusion if I were to further investigate this matter.”
Ballantyne later said if Kamachi resigns, the case will be withdrawn. As of press time, it is still undetermined when the court proceedings will take place.
Kamachi declined to comment on the matter is it is now before the courts.
Jordan Stricker, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @Jay_Strickz
