Coalition of Progressive Electors executive director Sarah Beuhler announced her resignation today (Dec. 17) after it was revealed that the party, who made refusing to accept donations from property developers a main tenet of their election campaign, had in fact received $3,000 from commercial real estate company Canreal Management Corp. and another $9,500 from company president Ray Bergen.
“It was a very busy overworked time,” Beuhler told the Courier over the phone. “I resigned because of the leaving off of the donation and submitting an incomplete donation disclosure. “
COPE failed to disclose the $12, 500 sum in a donors list provided in early November, which instead stated the left wing party had only received $18,440 from unions, $41,474 from individuals and $200 from an undisclosed corporation. None of COPE’s total of 19 candidates were elected Nov. 15.
Beuhler said it was a data-entry error made during the stressful pre-election period rather than an attempt to hide the donation and that she should’ve had someone doublecheck the report but by then she no longer had a good working relationship with COPE’s financial agent, Margaret Panton.
“I can fully understand why it seems suspicious and why it seems corrupt, and so all I can do is say it was an honest mistake and I am resigning…. The pressures of the moment eclipsed the imperative to cross all t’s and dot all i’s. I regret this deeply and I am very grateful to the COPE membership for being so deeply concerned about accountability and transparency.”
In a statement by executive co-chairs Heather Gies and Tim Louis issued the day before, they apologized “for letting down the voters of Vancouver, our membership and the candidates who campaigned in good faith” and added “COPE is in the process of developing clear policy on what constitutes a developer.”
The donations were exposed after Panton posted an audio recording online that was made at a Dec. 14 party meeting.
“When the two contributions did not show up in COPE’s response for parties to disclose campaign contributions to the media prior to election day, my alarm bells went off,” Panton said in the recording. “Had I known the state of the governance of COPE prior to my agreeing to be financial agent, I would have never agreed to take this position… I believe COPE members need to be very concerned about the governance of their organization.”
Anita Romaniuk, a COPE candidate for park board, has also since resigned from the party’s executive board.
COPE’s executive board say they will return the money, which has been spent, on a payment plan, and has until Feb. 13 to file its financing disclosure statement to Elections BC.
COPE’s former mayoral candidate Meena Wong did not respond to requests for a statement and is reportedly suffering from an undisclosed illness.
This story has been updated since first being posted.
