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West Van residents to bear election recount costs

The judicial recount of West Vancouver’s election results cost the municipality just more than $30,000. But the two people who requested the recount will not be asked to pick up any of the costs.
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The judicial recount of West Vancouver’s election results cost the municipality just more than $30,000. But the two people who requested the recount will not be asked to pick up any of the costs.

When the counting was done on election night, just 21 votes separated Mary-Ann Booth from her closest competitor Mark Sager, while council candidate Jim Finkbeiner was just 20 votes shy of a seat on council.

Then-mayor Michael Smith, who had endorsed Sager, and Finkbeiner applied for a last-minute recount, to which a North Vancouver judge agreed. District staff cancelled classes for the day at the Gleneagles Community Centre gym and marshalled a crew of election officers. After the recount, the make-up of council remained the same and Booth held her 21-vote margin of victory.

During a closed-door session Monday afternoon, council considered and passed a resolution to not ask the courts for an order that Finkbeiner and Smith pay back any of the costs. The decision was made public during the regular council meeting but the substance of the debate remained in camera. Still, some of the sentiment poured out into the regular council meeting.

Coun. Bill Soprovich said recount results vindicated the election’s integrity and that he believed taxpayers should have some recourse.

“It certainly showed that our election system is in good hands and it’s worked extremely well,” said Coun. Bill Soprovich. “We can’t just pull money off trees like it’s growing on trees in West Vancouver. The taxpayer is going to be facing this.”

Coun. Nora Gambioli thanked staff for all their hard work seeing a difficult election to a photo finish but added she too wasn’t keen on the decision to swallow the costs.

“I’m disappointed that we’ve been advised that it’s best not to even try to recover the costs and I know that a lot of people I’ve spoken to will be disappointed to hear that, but we’re making the best decision we think we can make given the advice we’ve had,” she said.

Newly elected Coun. Marcus Wong, however, argued recounts shouldn’t be placed behind financial barriers. “I think it’s important that citizens know that regardless of their personal wealth, they have the opportunity for a recount and democracy can be ensured,” he said.