By Laurie Watt

 

Barrie Mayor Dave Aspden will have to pay his legal fees himself from now on.

And that bill is at $27,460.10.

The city’s share of the total legal bill of almost $66,000 is $38,470.23.

The mayor has reached the 100-hour limit he agreed to in an Indemnification Agreement, signed June 15, 2007.

Council voted 10-0 to refuse Aspden’s request to have the city cover any additional legal expenses.

The city clerk and solicitor examined a series of bills Toronto-based Morris Manning submitted and determined the 100-hour cap to be at $38,470.23. The city also requested a review of the file, worth $1,200, which resulted in a delineation of expenses.

According to the city clerk’s office, the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services investigation and hearing in December – resulting from Aspden’s writing a letter, on Mayor’s Office letterhead asking that a disciplinary hearing chairman go easy on an officer found guilty of discreditable conduct – totalled $15,317.39.

To avoid a hearing, Aspden pleaded guilty; on Dec. 5, 2007, the quasi-judicial panel ruled that his seven-month suspension from the Barrie Police Services Board was adequate discipline and ordered Aspden to take a course on board governance.

Aspden, however, also faces an ongoing OPP investigation. Prompted by concerns among councillors as to whether Aspden had committed the Criminal Code of Canada offence of Municipal Corruption, the investigation began last spring after Aspden took a trip to China with a developer.

Just weeks before the trip, Aspden had attempted to cut a side deal during Barrie-Innisfil boundary discussions to have the city provide servicing for some of the developer’s land in Innisfil; the proposal allegedly caused the talks to derail for several months, according to sources at City Hall.

An invoice summing up services as of Dec. 31, 2007 totaled $46,042.86, and also referred to an outstanding balance of $4,570.17.

All totalled, the invoices rang in at $65,930.42; the city has paid the $15,317.39, which leaves an outstanding balance of  $50,613.03, more than half of which Aspden must pay himself.

“As far as I’m concerned, council has fulfilled its obligation under the terms of the Indemnification Agreement signed by the mayor last June,” said Coun. John Brassard, who signed the agreement as Acting Mayor last June.

“Any amount owning over the 100-hour cap as per the agreement is a matter to be resolved between the mayor and his solicitor and not Barrie taxpayers.”

Aspden refused to comment.