A plan to review what happened with the city's troubled 2022 municipal election may never go ahead despite a payout made to a consultant hired to dig into the matter.
The city hired former Region of Waterloo clerk Kris Fletcher to conduct a review of its internal processes in November 2022 after the names of two Catholic board trustee candidates were left off the October 2022 ballot.
That blunder forced the city to redo the Catholic trustee election at a cost of more than $45,000.
But just over a month after work got underway, the city claims it was forced to pause the review indefinitely when Nate Whalen filed a controverted election challenge in January 2023.
In his filing with the Ontario Superior Court, the failed Ward 3 candidate questions the integrity of the Cambridge municipal election in which he says 31 alleged "irregularities" occurred during and in the lead up to the Oct. 24, 2022 vote.
They include a software glitch that temporarily prevented electors from casting online ballots, a lack of polling station scrutineers and the nomination process itself, which rejected a candidate for not having enough endorsement signatures despite a witness claim to the contrary.
In the meantime, CambridgeToday wanted to know what happened to Fletcher's review and how much it cost, so a freedom of information (FOI) request was filed last summer that was partially denied by the city.
City clerk Danielle Manton cited an exception to disclose some of the information we requested under Section 11 of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
That section of the act gives the clerk leeway to deny an FOI request for "economic and other interests," including planned changes to management of personnel or the administration of an institution, or disclosure of information that could impact the economic interests of an institution.
At the time, the city did not specify why it cited that part of the act to deny our request.
The city said "the 2022 Municipal and School Board Election summary had not been finalized due to the ongoing election court case" and the city does not have "custody or control of the review."
The city did, however provide the cost of the general election, $612,000, and the cost of the second WCDSB trustee election, $45,546.
After reaching out to Whalen with the city's response to the FOI request, he told CambridgeToday he believes his court challenge should have no impact on what the city releases about Fletcher's review.
"There is nothing precluding the city from releasing their report prior to the court case being resolved, other than for reputational purposes," Whalen said in an email.
Contacted last month, Whalen did not have an update on his court challenge. Hearings on the matter were conducted last summer.
CambridgeToday subsequently appealed the FOI decision to the province's Information and Privacy Commissioner in July, and the city finally responded through a mediator last month.
The city said it hired Fletcher to conduct the review of election procedures in November 2022 and paid her $5,000.
Fletcher met with staff Dec. 15, 2022 and did a "process mapping exercise."
Soon after Whalen filed his controverted election challenge, Manton called Fletcher and told her that "due to the workload associated the controverted application, the review of internal election process was paused."
The city did not say whether Fletcher's review would ever go ahead but suggested whatever internal assessments did happen resulted in recommendations utilized in last fall's Ward 1 by-election.
The city was tasked with holding the by-election following the death of former Ward 1 councillor Donna Reid in August.
A report went to council on Aug. 29 outlining recommended changes to the process, including the plan to use a combination of internet voting and a paper ballot manual count process.
The city revealed that the election coordinator for the 2022 Municipal Election is no longer with the City of Cambridge, but no further details were provided.
A new election coordinator was tasked with coming up with new procedures for the by-election.
In response to our appeal, the city said it utilized Section 11 of the Act "to protect the economic interests of the third-party vendors associated with the election."
Third party vendors include companies hired by the city to provide things like ballots, ballot boxes, signage and other items critical to the election process.
