The_Cat
Senior Member
The Western Sub-Standard!
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Municipal Politics
- Thread starter Airboy
- Start date
johnnyboy
Active Member
States this and then proceeds to mention not a single observer. A high school newspaper has more credibility.
David A
Senior Member
Oh the quality of journalism these days ... unnamed observers and then a vague statement about family members being involved with the organization, but it doesn't say in what capacity.
It seems like a last minute drive by smear to try influence what could be a close election outcome., which is probably what it is by an organization with an ideological agenda pretending to be media.
IanO
Superstar
The BIG day is upon us.
Curious to see what the results bring and what the turnout is.
Curious to see what the results bring and what the turnout is.
bodsbods9090
Senior Member
WesternStandard...enough said.
EXCLUSIVE: City grant to Edmonton councillor’s housing group sparks conflict of interest concerns
An Edmonton city councillor who has championed infill housing and zoning reform is facing scrutiny over her connection to a non-profit organization that has received funding from the city.www.westernstandard.news
kcantor
Senior Member
For the record, I am not a Western Standard et al supporter or regular reader but that article showed up in another forum I do visit.
I shared it on the understanding that even a broken clock is right twice a day in its reporting.
policyenthusiast
Senior Member
Does anyone know if small-scale grants are approved by Council or handled by admin?
David A
Senior Member
By that "standard", pardon the pun, wouldn't any councilor who received a political donation from a developer (which would probably be most or all of them) also be in a position of conflict on the zoning bylaw?
kcantor
Senior Member
Small-scale grants - and sometimes large scale grants within an approved approval process for that matter - are approved by administration or the granting body (ie the Edmonton Arts Council). That's typical for all levels of government, not just municipal, and as well as throughout the private sector.
Within those frameworks, it's also worth noting that conflict of interest exists on both sides of those transactions whether they are grants or business contracts. In other words, both the grantor and the recipient are in conflict of interest where there is a conflict of interest. The applicant/recipient has just as much - and sometimes more - responsibililty to avoid those conflicts than the grantor/approver.
policyenthusiast
Senior Member
This is all public record, and Salvador recieved no institutional campaign contributions in 2021. I would flag something far more suspicious from Troy Pavlek:
Attachments
kcantor
Senior Member
No institutional campaign contributions? Perhaps not directly, but if Cartmell is "guilty" of accepting contributions from those working for or owning shares of development companies and not just accepting contributions from their companies, then Ashley is "guilty" of the same thing. You can't use different brushes for different candidates.
Oilers99
Active Member
Troy is a smarmy, condescending asshole. He's not funny and does not have nearly the reach he thinks he does. Self-important jerk and this has nothing to do with his politics.
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policyenthusiast
Senior Member
Not sure what point you're trying to make here. If you can compare the campaign disclosures side by side and say "yeah these are about the same", then more power to you.
fjordgard
Active Member
I am uncertain what the conflict for the recipient would be in this case. Are you saying that YEG Garden Suites should not bid on any grant from the City of Edmonton simply because Salvador is on council, even if she has nothing to do with the decision to award the grant? I am genuinely trying to understand what people’s concern is with this whole thing.
kcantor
Senior Member
I am not comparing or complaining about the total amounts of the contributions made to Cartmell or to Salvador, simply their sources and the fact the sources being complained about are identical. You can't choose to paint different candidates with different brushes simply because of who they are or how successful they are at it.
At the end of the day, I think that is what I'm saying.
She may not have approved that particular grant application but she did approve the program under which it was granted and that's the point at which she should have declared the potential conflict of interest and abstained as per the City's conflict of interest guidelines.
As that didn't happen, I believe the company did have a subsequent obligation to avoid that conflict by not choosing to apply for the money. To those that say "well, it was only $10,000", what if it was $100,000 or $1,000,000?
In both of the above, it is not about the actual amounts, it's about the principles.