At the council meeting, Monday evening, 2022 candidate, Helen Lefebvre, spoke directly to the question that has been circulating in Elliot Lake: 'Is Lefebvre eligible for appointment to council?'
It’s a question that grew as Elliot Lakers noticed and discussed the unusual note beside her name on the City’s list of candidates on the city website.
The notation read, ‘Helen Lefebvre – filed on April 19, 2023 (DEFAULT)’
And the word ‘default,’ was hyperlinked to a registered letter notifying Lefebvre, “As an unsuccessful candidate, until the next regular election has taken place, you are ineligible to be elected or appointed to any office to which this Act applies.”
ElliotLakeToday reached out to the city clerk yesterday morning. A ‘back and forth’ of emails resulted in this response from Municipal Clerk Natalie Bray this morning. “To put it simply – yes Helen Lefebvre is presently eligible for appointment to council. I wanted to provide you with the whole answer so that you had all the necessary information.”
In another matter, the same financial report form that cast confusion on Lefebvre, is now casting confusion on the next runner-up below her, Sandy Finamore.
The form requires a date in two places. The format is indicated ‘yyyy/mm/dd.’ The date filled in and initialled by Bray is “2023/07/02.” That is July 2, far beyond the grace period, however, there was no notice of default.
Today, the clerk advised ElliotLakeToday, “The date was simply transposed - she filed February 7th. I write the date Day/Month/Year the form requires Month/Day/Year – it was an administrative error on my end."
The form does not require “Month/Day/Year.” It requires year/month/day. There are 16 other candidate forms dated and initialled or signed by the clerk. None of them appear to have the date transposed.
The city uses a date stamp on some other important documents they receive.