Municipal Affairs Minister Andrée Laforest announced Wednesday that the Laval city councillor who used public funds to buy groceries at Costco, a sofa bed and even a luxury $1,000 Apple watch is now under investigation.
According to the minister, the Quebec Municipal Commission (CMQ) opened an investigation this morning, a few hours after the revelations by our Investigation Bureau concerning Paolo Galati’s expenses.
“There is an investigation currently underway,” she announced, while describing the advisor’s expenses as “unacceptable.”
“It’s citizens’ money, it’s unacceptable,” the minister responded. “All elected officials are accountable, the councilor will have to answer.”
Paolo Galati
Photo MARTIN ALARIE
The mayor asks him to repay
On Wednesday morning, in an interview with Mario Dumont on LCN, the mayor of Laval, Stéphane Boyer, said that Paolo Galati should reimburse the taxpayers.
“What I would ask the councillor is to reimburse this money. It is the citizens’ money. As we can see, $16,000 in Apple products is not fair,” he said.
“We elected officials have a code of ethics that must guide our actions,” recalled the mayor, who invited the CMQ to investigate.
“The CMQ must play its role. If Mr. Galati does not repay, the CMQ could deduct part of his salary,” he proposed.
Costco and Apple
Mr. Galati used money from the research and support fund for elected officials to buy food and other products such as cereal, Nutella, peanut butter, honey, chewing gum, ibuprofen, cauliflower soup, Aveeno moisturizer and hemp seeds.
The advisor said the products were used for community meetings and meetings, both via Teams and in person, at his home office.
This office is also well equipped. In fact, the Laval residents reimbursed the advisor for the purchase of a $734 convertible sofa bed with memory foam and a $260 coffee machine. They even pay for the refills of his SodaStream.
We also found invoices for acoustic panels, microphone arms and stands, a $400 speaker, a $260 teleprompter, a ring light, and a tripod. He says there’s a lot of echo in his office, and for Teams meetings, the sound is “better” with the acoustic panels.
He also purchased several Apple products: iPhone, iPad Pro tablet with its keyboard, two Apple Pencils, a 27-inch iMac desktop computer and a MacBook Pro laptop at more than $3,400 each and two pairs of AirPods Pro wireless headphones at $329 each in addition to treating himself to an Apple watch at $1,049.
“Accountable” advisor
The City of Laval also reacted on Wednesday morning and assured that the “sound management of public funds [est] a priority” and that it applies its regulations on the reimbursement of research and support expenses rigorously. It recalls that, according to this regulation, the elected representative must “act in the best interests of citizens in the management of public funds”.
She adds that each reimbursement request is analyzed and that the City can ask for additional justifications from elected officials. “The councilor is responsible for the justifications and explanations related to each reimbursement request,” insists Philippe Déry, head of communications for the municipality.
– With the collaboration of Marc-André Gagnon and Jean-Louis Fortin
