I know a political-****** amount about CBRM Council and their modus operandi. (The word ****** has been removed!)

This 2024 to 2028 term has four new characters: Steven MacNeil, Dave MacKeigan, Paul Nikituck, and Kim Campbell-Sheppard - I do not yet have a sense of their aspirations for our community.  

You may have heard that there was an investigation into erstwhile Mayor Amanda McDougall-Merrill's CBRM credit card use during the last 18 months of her term, between April of 2023 and October of 2024. 

Until recently, it seemed that CBRM Council and staff were reasonable in their response to this troubling news.

Here are 10 things that happened, before I get to the weird part.

1. Shortly after the 2024 municipal election, Mayor Cecil Clarke (Cecil) and his team noticed some irregularities (anomalies in Start Trek speak) in Amanda McDougall-Merrill's (Amanda) CBRM credit card usage. 

2. Cecil and, I assume, some advisors asked local lawyer Robert Sampson to lead an investigation into Amanda's use of the CBRM credit card during the last 18 months of her term: The investigation began on December 3, 2024, with chartered accountant John MacNeil and CBRM’s chief financial officer Jennifer Campbell assisting Sampson. 

3. Robert Sampson, in concert with the CAO office, determined that the investigation was not a criminal investigation but a human resources investigation, primarily to offer Amanda privacy as the investigators worked. 

4. On January 21, Sampson presented his report to CBRM Council behind closed doors, as is permitted for the discussion of an HR issue. As CBC reported, "Sampson said he and local Grant Thornton accountant John MacNeil found roughly $76,000 in unreported expenses going back 18 months. Those included the personal expenses as well as nearly $60,000 in legitimate business costs that were not properly reported." 

5. So, Amanda made administrative errors in reporting $60,000 of costs that were proved to be legitimate, and there were $16,000 of CBRM credit card purchases that either did not have receipts with them, or were categorized as personal. 

6. On January 21, 2025, Amanda released a statement that provided some context to the scenario that led to the errant financial reporting. The mayor's office manager, who has been with CBRM since amalgamation, was granted a paid compassionate leave so that she could care for a terminally ill relative, leaving the office with no key administrative staff for the last 16 months of Amanda's term.

Amanda wrote that it was "wrong" of her not to reach for help as doing  the mayor's job as well as running the office became untenable. She thanked Council and CBRM staff for "reaching such a swift conclusion.”

7. Sampson reported to Council that “The former mayor made full restitution — by that I mean payment to the finance office immediately for the amount owed."

9. Sampson's report notes that there were problems with CBRM's expense policies"  “One of the recommendations in our written report that (we) became aware of in this review is that (the) CBRM has (lots of) written expense policies — some of them for specific things, some of them (for) general — but there wasn’t a sufficient enough policy that addressed the use of corporate credit cards.”

10. The next step?  The report states that "CBRM’s current interim CAO, Demetri Kachafanas, will be referring Sampson’s full report to the Department of Municipal Affairs for “their review and direction." 

\

The Weird Part 

On February 7, 2025, the Nova Scotia Department of Municipal Affairs stated that they had completed their review of Amanda's credit card misuse and that Amanda "will not face charges from the province in relation to misuse of a municipal credit card."

So, this is the direction that CBRM sought from the province: No criminal charges.

The Investigation and the matter should be closed, right?

Not according to this CBC article (Click to read). 

CBRM not ruling out calling RCMP over former mayor's credit card expenses

So, according to Cecil, "...council was advised by the province to conduct an independent investigation before calling in the police."

This is illogical: surely the province meant that said independent investigation would reveal whether to call the police? Now we have a independent investigation into an HR matter, a provincial review of the investigation recommending that no charges be laid, and a council that is potentially going to ignore the provincial direction and vote to call the RCMP. 

Cecil is speaking as if a referral is all but a done deal: 

“If council directs it to go for further review from the policing agency — and that again has to be a decision that council accepts on a recommendation, that would have to come as part of the deliberation of the matter with the report...There are specialty units within both the regional police service but also the RCMP for such matters, and we will follow whatever processes or advice and be fully co-operative in that process as well.” Cape Breton Post

I think that the vote that will take place at a special meeting tomorrow has an insurmountable problem around credibility. Councillor Earlene MacMullin, Councillor Gordon MacDonald, and, to a lesser degree, Mayor Clark have all history with former Mayor Amanda McDougall-Merrill that raises the question of whether they can be fair to her tomorrow morning. 

Please read my second article Should Earlene and Gordon recuse themselves from the vote on whether to call the RCMP on Amanda on February 18, 2025? for more information.

Coming Soon!