Well, yet another mayor pledging to clean up corruption in his city has been arrested — on 14 counts of corruption. This time it’s Mayor Michael Applebaum, the mayor of Montreal, a city of approximately 1.65 million in Canada’s Quebec province.
According to an O.Canada.com article headlined Development projects at centre of charges against Montreal mayor, “The charges, 14 of which are levelled against Applebaum, who was mayor of the borough [Montreal’s Cote-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace borough] from 2002 to 2012, relate to what officials with Quebec’s anti-corruption squad called ‘tens of thousands of dollars’ in bribes in exchange for municipal support and approval for the two real-estate projects between 2006 and 2011.”
Applebaum and a couple of other suspects were arrested by the Quebec Provincial Police, known there as the Sûreté du Québec or SQ, and the Unité Permanente Anticorruption or UPAC, Quebec’s special anti-corruption squad. A Globe and Mail online article headlined Behind the bribery allegations that have enveloped Montreal’s mayor provides more details about the charges.
ADDENDUM on June 18, 2013, at 3 p.m.: Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum resigned today. Interesting paragraph from the Reuters article:
His departure will do little to help the reputation of Quebec, where a two-year public inquiry led by Judge France Charbonneau is unearthing almost daily allegations of contract rigging, kickbacks and fraud going back many years.
That is a very succinct and well-stated reason for pursuing public corruption rather than choosing to ignore it.
ADDENDUM on June 19, 2013, at 8:15 a.m.: Here is a pretty good primer on how to bribe public officials with what appear to be legitimate campaign donations. Here is another one.
Just wondering–If a mayor is engaging in what appears to be, and then turns out to be, illegal conduct–do city council members, who are personally privy to the conduct, have a duty to disclose it? Also, regardless of the existence of a duty, if city council members are privy to the conduct and do not disclose it at least to proper authorities, are the council members subject to a charge of criminal conspiracy to cover-up the conduct?
Comment by up river — June 18, 2013 @ 2:28 pm
up river,
I think the answer to your questions would depend on the laws of the particular state in which the illegal conduct was committed. Various states might treat the circumstances as compounding a felony or misdemeanor, aiding in the commission of a crime, etc.
I think a good question to ask would be, “At what point does an elected official become obligated to know that certain official actions he is taking are or may be illegal?” Is the assurance of legality by legal counsel sufficient to shield the elected official from prosecution if legal counsel was wrong? What about if legal counsel was ignorant or intentionally deceptive?
Comment by Bill — June 18, 2013 @ 2:50 pm
This originally from the Huffington Post and excerpted in this Christian Science Monitor article:
And this from the Montreal Gazette article headlined Engineering firm boss calls donations to political parties ‘democracy. Simply put, this article is a tutorial on how municipal contracts are bought.
Really? Bid-rigging, bribes, and questionable campaign donations involving elected officials and the construction industry? We can all breathe a sigh of relief that could never happen here in Coeur d’Alene …
Comment by Bill — June 19, 2013 @ 7:13 am
After reviewing your suggested primers, I had a spontaneous and big sigh of relief because clearly nothing like that would ever take place around here! You had me scared there for a minute.
Comment by up river — June 20, 2013 @ 1:28 pm