Councillor defends conduct on charity prizes
Last Updated: Thursday, October 12, 2006 | 12:58 PM AT
CBC News
A Fredericton city councillor is defending his decision to exchange more than $200 in charity prizes for a store gift card in his own name.
David Kelly solicited the prizes, a backyard fireplace, a drill and a barbeque, for a Wheels in Motion event in support of the Rick Hansen Foundation last July. The fireplace and barbeque were supposed to go to the event's top two fundraisers, but were never awarded.
Three months after the event, Kelly exchanged the items for a gift card in his name from Home Depot. That raised concerns from staff at Home Depot, who contacted city hall, as well as organizers with the Rick Hansen Foundation, who launched an investigation into Kelly's actions.
Kelly says event organizers never told him whom to award the prizes to, so he decided to return them to the store.
"I'm the one that took the action on this thing. I'm the one that's been storing these things," Kelly said. "Nobody on my committee has ever contacted me about these prizes. In fact, the people on the committee are the ones that I've been waiting for to give me the names of the No. 1 and No. 2 fundraisers."
Kelly admits that he perhaps should have contacted the Rick Hansen Foundation before returning the items to the store. But he says he did send a letter after the fact, telling the foundation what he did.
He says the barbecue and the fireplace sat in his shed for three months and he had to move them to make room for other things. "These items are taking up space in a shed that I'm going to need the space for, because at the end of the season items from my cottage are being brought in and this is where I store them. Besides, they were getting weathered."
The Rick Hansen Foundation says it has concluded its investigation, and no longer has any concerns about Kelly's conduct. The foundation has determined who the top fundraisers were, and Home Depot will give them the prizes directly.
Officials with the foundation, Home Depot and Fredericton City Hall have declined to comment on the matter.
3 comments:
I don't think you can jump on kelly to much.
But what you can learn from this,is to keep your money in your pocket.
Remember what was said when all the crooked disclosers were uncovered in the chretien era,that the rot starts at the top and works itself down,Well it works.
Do a little search,on corrupt charities,in fact corrupt anything.
Canada,since chretien,has gone from 4th to 15th on the corrupt country index.
This is a case of extremely poor judgement. This isn't the first time Mr. Kelly has been in the news due to his poor decision making capability. Is this someone we really want representing the citizens of Fredericton? David Kelly is constantly trying to grab media attention with all of his apparent heroic charitable efforts. However, this and other past events makes him look extremely self-serving.
it politics pat my back i will pat your's so do not prosecute me
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