The investigation involved alleged campaign financing irregularities over furniture bought for West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager’s office.
West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager won’t face criminal charges, after an investigation into his 2022 election campaign, Elections B.C. said Friday.
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An investigation was launched in 2023 after Elections B.C. found spending irregularities and contacted the RCMP. Mounties then asked Port Moody Police to carry out the investigation.
Sager, a lawyer, ran for mayor of the District of West Vancouver in the October 2022 election. His law partner, Ron Nairne, served as his campaign’s financial agent, according to the B.C. Prosecution Service.
After the election, the Sager campaign purchased a number of items to furnish the mayor’s office. Under election laws, candidates can only claim expenses “incidental to the candidate’s campaign,” which these items were not, the prosecution service said.
There were three purchases of furniture totalling $14,622.52. However, the service said the investigation was only able to establish that $7,301.52 of that came from the campaign account.
Sager’s campaign’s postelection disclosure statement also identified funds allocated to “postelection communications” for more than $11,000 to a public relations and communications consultant. It was determined that nearly $8,000 of that did not come from campaign money.
It was up to the B.C. Prosecution Service to decide whether Sager acted dishonestly or was simply careless in his efforts to comply with finance disclosure laws.
Had the Sager campaign not spent the money on furniture and communications expenses, the campaign would have had a surplus, which would have gone to the District of West Vancouver. The prosecution found there was ambiguity as to the deadline for unused funds to be remitted.
According to the prosecution, the Sager campaign openly declared expenditures in its post-campaign filings and there was no apparent attempt to conceal the fact that these expenses were incurred after the campaign had ended.
The prosecution said the campaign did not act with an intent to deceive, and concluded there was no substantial likelihood of conviction for fraud over $5,000 against Sager or Nairne.
Elections B.C. said Friday it is taking no further action and considers the matter closed.
Sager spent more than $93,000 on his campaign, nearly twice the $50,880 former mayor and candidate Mary-Ann Booth spent.
Elections B.C. capped spending for the campaign period between Sept. 17 and Oct. 15 at just over $34,000, during which Sager’s campaign recorded expenses of $33,000.
With files from Joanne Lee-Young