The County of St. Paul has received invoices now for legal costs that cropped up in relation to a contested election nomination, and is seeking to have Alberta’s Department of Municipal Affairs cover the nearly $15,000 in legal costs.
The returning officer for the County of St. Paul found Vi Wozniak to be an ineligible candidate for county council in this year’s municipal election, since she did not hand in her nomination papers herself before the deadline. After Wozniak sought legal advice, the decision was overturned in court and she was reinstated as a candidate.
County CAO Sheila Kitz requested council, at its Nov. 9 meeting, to send a letter to Municipal Affairs to reimburse the County’s legal costs, as the information on the nomination form and the Local Authority Elections Act are inconsistent. Kitz later explained the nomination form indicates the candidate’s signature on the form has to be witnessed by a commissioner of oaths or the returning officer, whereas the act that governs municipal elections states the form just has to be signed.
“We don’t make the act, we don’t make the form,” she notes, adding the returning officer is trained by Municipal Affairs. The County of St. Paul was ordered to pay Wozniak’s legal costs, at $9,400, and its own legal costs, which Kitz estimated was about $4,500.
“I did bring it to the attention of the MLA,” Kitz told council at its meeting about county’s direction to apply for coverage of legal costs. “He’s supportive of our request.”
Council approved a motion to write the letter to Municipal Affairs.