{"id":243,"date":"2015-02-11T21:12:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-11T21:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2015\/02\/11\/controversies-stir-at-laval-city-ha\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:40:36","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:40:36","slug":"controversies-stir-at-laval-city-ha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2015\/02\/11\/controversies-stir-at-laval-city-ha\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversies stir at Laval City Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robert Frank<\/b>
www.thesuburban.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Just as city politics seemed to have turned mundane, fresh controversy broke out on several fronts last week. <\/p>\n

First, Laval Police Sgt. Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Jean confirmed that Laval\u2019s new probity and ethics bureau has turned over its findings about a political hiring at city hall to Quebec\u2019s special anti-corruption police squad, (known by its French acronym UPAC). <\/p>\n

The case arose after Laval\u2019s official opposition party, Action Laval, hired seasoned political advisor Jos\u00e9e Lacourci\u00e8re to work at city hall from June 5-July 5, 2014, at a cost to the city of about $6,000. <\/p>\n

The Suburban<\/i> has obtained a copy of the employment contract authorized by Action Laval councilor Agla\u00efa Revelakis July 16\u2014after Lacourici\u00e8re\u2019s mandate ended. <\/p>\n

The retroactive contract first raised eyebrows because Councilor Paolo Galati\u2014not Revelakis\u2014was the legally appointed signing authority at the time that Lacourci\u00e8re was allegedly hired. <\/p>\n

\u201cI never hired her, so I don\u2019t know what they did,\u201d Galati told The Suburban<\/i> in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n

After the alleged hiring date, Action Laval relieved Galati of his signing authority. While Galati subsequently vacationed in Italy, Action Laval expelled him from the political party, driving him to defect to Mayor Marc Demers\u2019 ruling Mouvement lavallois<\/i> party.<\/p>\n

According to another ousted political attach\u00e9, Emilio Migliozzi, Action Laval had declined to sign Lacouri\u00e8re\u2019s employment contract because she wanted a higher salary than the political party was willing to pay. <\/p>\n

He told The Suburban<\/i> that she initially spent three days at party\u2019s offices at city hall but that he never saw her there afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there for a month and I never saw the woman, so I don\u2019t know where she was working,\u201d he recalled in an interview. Action Laval also gave Migliozzi the heave-ho subsequent to Galati\u2019s expulsion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really shocked,\u201d Lacourci\u00e8re told The Suburban<\/i> in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did work for the money that I received,\u201d she insisted. \u201cI worked for a month and then I returned to the provincial legislature because I was hired by the chief whip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Action Laval leader Jean-Claude Gob\u00e9 did not respond to The Suburban\u2019s<\/i> interview request before this week\u2019s edition of the newspaper went to press.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nEligibility appealed<\/b><\/p>\n

Jacques Foucher\u2019s lawyers are slated to appear before the Quebec Court of Appeal, May 29, to contest a Nov. 17 court ruling that declared that Mayor Marc Demers was eligible to run for municipal office in Laval\u2019s 2013 municipal election. <\/p>\n

Foucher, who ran unsuccessfully against Demers, had alleged that the mayor wasn\u2019t eligible to run because he hadn\u2019t lived continuously in Laval for 12 months beforehand. <\/p>\n

Demers\u2019 lawyers argued successfully before Judge Danielle Turcotte that the law didn\u2019t apply to brief, temporary absences. They asserted that the nearly 30 years that he had previously resided in Laval ought to be taken into consideration. <\/p>\n

The municipal elections act currently requires Elections Quebec to take candidates on their word. Eligibility only comes under scrutiny after they\u2019re elected. Foucher told The Suburban<\/i> that he filed his lawsuit in the hope that it would help to clarify eligibility requirements. <\/p>\n

Instead, he concluded, \u201cthe [Demers] judgment further blurred the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spouse hired<\/b><\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\nMayor Demers also had to defend his party against allegations of nepotism, during last week\u2019s city council meeting.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that Mouvement lavallois<\/i> has hired Isabelle Pich\u00e9 to join its political staff. The position is paid by the city as part of the research and support budget for the mayor\u2019s political party. Pich\u00e9 is the spouse of Laval executive committee vice-chair David de Cotis.<\/p>\n

De Cotis pointed out that he didn\u2019t hire Pich\u00e9 and that she will not be working for him.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\nA former political opponent, Emilio Migliozzi, also voiced vigorous support for Pich\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a civil service job, it\u2019s really a job working for the Mouvement lavallois party,\u201d Migliozzi told The Suburban.<\/i> If ever there was a person who is deserving of it, it\u2019s Isabelle Pich\u00e9. She worked many long volunteer hours and can be trusted.\u201d
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By Robert Frankwww.thesuburban.com Just as city politics seemed to have turned mundane, fresh controversy broke out on several fronts last week. First, Laval Police Sgt. Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Jean confirmed that Laval\u2019s new probity and ethics bureau has turned over its findings about a political hiring at city hall to Quebec\u2019s special anti-corruption police squad, (known by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nControversies stir at Laval City Hall - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2015\/02\/11\/controversies-stir-at-laval-city-ha\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Controversies stir at Laval City Hall - Newscoverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Robert Frankwww.thesuburban.com Just as city politics seemed to have turned mundane, fresh controversy broke out on several fronts last week. 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