A mayor fined for a fake business lunch

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Normand Beaudoin
Ex-mayor of La Tuque

Vincent Larin

On Thursday 21 December 2017 21:35

UPDATE
On Thursday 21 December 2017 21:35

Look at this article

A former mayor of La Tuque was reprimanded for having put on his allocation of spending a dinner staff, the $ 100 he had hidden in the meal with another mayor.

Norman Beaudoin was caught because he put on Facebook a video of him at the dinner, according to the advisor Luc Martel, who discovered the subterfuge. Even if his allocation of expenses was asserted that he had eaten with the mayor of Saint-Félicien, the video showed instead that he was in the company of an acquaintance.

Mr. Martel has filed a complaint to the Commission municipale du Québec (CMQ). Informed of the situation, the mayor of Saint-Félicien, Gilles Potvin, has denied having dinner with Mr. Beaudoin. The bill for the meal was $ 103,13 $.

The video on Facebook has disappeared from the dinner on 17 November 2016, according to Mr. Martel.

Private dinner

The judge Martine Savard, in a decision released Tuesday, concludes that the ex-politician has filed a request for reimbursement containing false information.

“[This] has allowed the mayor to get the full refund, without questioning further, then it was a meal in private, ” notes the judge.

Normand Beaudoin has less than 30 days to pay a fine of 51,57 $ and receives a reprimand so that it is no longer in position since the last elections.

But the sentence handed to the ex-mayor remains insufficient in the eyes of the advisor Luc Martel given the ordeal he had to endure during all procedures.

“He really played the dictator. […] I’ve been threatened, and that’s not counting all that he and his lawyer have tried to cancel the trial, ” he says.

The legal fees for Mr. Beaudoin would have cost more than $ 25,000 to the City, according to Mr. Martel, it was hoped that these amounts will be recovered.

It minimizes the folder

The judge held several aggravating factors in the case of the former mayor, including the fact that it has not responded properly to the questions raised by this dinner.

“[It] has downplayed the importance of this folder, and denied having used the resources of the municipality for personal purposes, ” says the judge Savard in his decision.

The lawyer for Mr. Beaudoin had also pleaded that the mayor would be able to claim per diem, and that it would be more expensive to taxpayers.

But the judge Savard rejected this argument, recalling that it was debating on the facts that occurred and not those that might occur.

Norman Beaudoin was quickly hung up when The Newspaper has a seal on her cell phone.