Boys School Expenses and Sale Questions

-------- Your tax dollars at work ---------

Guess What You Paid For!

Sometimes a review of events after the fact provides a clearer perspective on matters. That is why representatives of the public have an ongoing responsibility to read documentation and ask questions. A good example of this is the following information that may not have been EASILY available at the time that events occurred, but did become available over the next nine months.

Point 1. Attachments to an affidavit submitted in November 2007 by SWSDA's CEO, include a list of expenses purportedly incurred by SWSDA in the marketing and maintenance of the Boys School. (This affidavit was made available to each of the lawyers for the Team Shelburne-represented municipalties and therefore would have been accessible to all members of Team Shelburne had they asked for it or sought to review it.) One of many items stands out seeking an explanation.

Payment 03/12/07 MacDonnell Group $13,829.74

Point 2. You may recall that a Proposal Call for the purchase of the Boys School was published in February 2007 for the 21 fully-serviced buildings PLUS over 200 acres adjacent to the Industrial Park in the Municipality of Shelburne. The closing date was March 9, 2007 and all proposals had to be received at the SWSDA office in Shelburne to be considered.

We now know that only one proposal was LEGALLY submitted to the SWSDA office in Shelburne by the designated time and date. That proposal was submitted by Bernie Dockrill.

We also now know that a proposal was illegally picked up in Halifax by the CEO of SWSDA from a Lawyer's Office sometime in March. We were told at the time by Mr. Anderson that the lawyer who submitted the proposal represented a numbered company.

In fact, we now know that in March 2007 the company did not exist. Indeed, the Registry of Joint Stocks record shows that the company the lawyer purportedly was representing was not incorporated (Bowood) until three months later (June 8, 2007)by Ralston Macdonnell. By that time Mr. Dockrill's bid had been rejected and the phantom company's proposal had been accepted by SWSDA.

Question As a taxpayer, I would like answers to the following questions.

a) Who authorized Mr. Anderson to illegally pick up a bid in contravention of the published bidding procedure?

b) Did Team Shelburne know that the bid submitted surreptitiously by Mr. MacDonnell through a lawyer using a non-existent company had not followed the proposal call procedures as stipulated in the published proposal call?

c) Did any Team Shelburne members (particularly the Warden of the Municipalty of Shelburne at the time, Paulette Scott) or the SWSDA Board know Mr. MacDonnell was behind the proposal picked up in Halifax by Mr. Anderson?

d) Why was the MacDonnell Group paid $13,829.74 out of the Boys School Maintenance Fund three days after the closing of proposals for the purchase the Boys School?

If you'd like answers to these questions, contact your local Town or Municipal Office, SWSDA or MLA. Alternatively, you can post comments, questions or your views at the bottom of this blog.

More about this property deal and the Maintenance Fund coming too.....