Sandy Shantz reinstated as Woolwich mayor
Sandy Shantz has been reinstated as Woolwich mayor after an Ontario judge ruled she had not violated campaign finance reporting rules.
Shantz was removed from office earlier in the month for not submitting an audit of her campaign finances by a provincially mandated deadline. Shantz then took the matter to court.
"Relieved. Glad it's over with and glad we can hopefully move on to some of the business of the township," said Shantz, when asked about how she felt after Thursday's ruling at Ontario Superior Court. "The support from the community has been just amazing."
Shantz said the judge would provide a written explanation on his decision at a later date, but did not discuss it in court.
The mayor will have to re-file a campaign expense report with an auditor's statement by September 15, after which it will be open for 90 days if anyone decides to request a hearing with the Municipal Election Compliance Audit Committee.
Municipal politicians are required to submit campaign expense reports, and if campaign contributions are in excess of $10,000, an auditor's report is also required. This year's deadline was March 27, 2015, by which time Shantz had only submitted a financial statement and no auditor's report.
Shantz said she initially contributed $5,500 of her own money to her campaign. She then received around $6,500 from external contributors, which meant she had received roughly $12,000 in campaign contributions.
But Shantz said she felt she didn't need that much money to run her campaign.
So she then took back $2,600 in contributions she made to her own campaign. That means in total, she received a net total of around $9,400 in campaign contributions, which she believed absolved her of the need to file an auditor's report.
"It always was reported, but it will be reported in the box that it's required to be reported in," said Shantz.
Shantz said the Municipal Elections Act is under review by the province and that she would be submitting notes on her experience.