Alleged "Malfeasance": Tiny Township Election 2022

This is over a year late, but still needs to be seen by the residents of Tiny. This is what should have been released after the post during the Municipal Election in 2022 but unfortunately sometimes it takes longer than anticipated to gather information. For the record, I do not represent Mr. Tony Mintoff, FoTTSA, any Facebook group related to Tiny, or any other group. I personally have an issue with what seems to be dirty politics and want it exposed so that myself and the voting public can make better choices now, and in the future. If this were reverse, I would still be posting this information.

The Tiny Township Election in 2022 was probably one of the most contentious I personally have seen in Municipal politics. In my experience during the Provincial election, all of the Simcoe North candidates were cordial with each other.

I make this post to bring forth more of the details related to this situation and pose some questions to the citizens of Tiny. After the election, everything just went away, why? Are people are too apathetic to realize they can make a difference if they get involved? They just need to pay attention.

Event: Tiny Municipal Election 2022, “Corruption” exposed!

On Oct 2nd 2022 a mysterious email was sent out smearing a Mayoral candidate for sharing “confidential” information in a last ditch effort to beat a deadline (yes, a really high level overview).

A “Mr Chester Tileman” along with his concerned citizens flew in to the rescue to save us all from the Mintoff/Saltsman coalition.

But let’s back up to March 31st of 2022 shall we.

This whole email “scandal” was already known by the previous administration which included Ex-Deputy Mayor Walma. Who initiated a conversation with the Town Clerk to find out if this was illegal and if so, what should be done about it.

“Below is the email thread…I am not requesting any action at this time, just information. If this is not a MFIPPA violation please let me know…”

To which the reply came “From a MFIPPA standpoint, I don’t believe there is a violation in this case.”

So this communication was “Not a violation” “Not illegal”

Now with Mr Mintoff no longer being on Council for a while now, and his intentions to run for office not yet being known, why was this inquiry made?

Also, nothing was done after this inquiry…was it just being held as dirt just in case needed?

Why wasn’t Mr Mintoff charged? Why was there no press related to it back in early 2022?

Because to re-quote the Township Clerk, “I don’t believe there is a violation”

Tony Mintoff did not enter the race until Aug 12th 2022, well after the initial inquiry by Deputy Mayor Walma.

But on Aug 17th 2022 though, a FOI request was submitted to the Township by a concerned citizen coalition to pull all the “dirt” related to the now publicly known communications between former Counsellor Mintoff and FoTTSA. The same info that Deputy Mayor Walma and the rest of the previous Council knew all about and knew it was “not illegal” from a Township standpoint, but, he had all the details that would needed for the FOI request.

Somehow these exact details landed in an outsiders hands to put the FOI request together. Even though the actions were not a violation. But to the uninformed public, this is dirt that has the potential to take down a run for public office.

The weekend of Oct 2 2022 emails were sent out by a “Chester Tileman” to Rob Johnson (Tiny Township News/Beach Rights) and Current Deputy Mayor Miskimins, media, etc, who then made posts relating to the “discovery” and added their opinions.

Around Oct 4th, another Council candidate Mario Galluzzo posted a comment stating “It doesn’t matter who exposed this corruption what is important is that it is not allowed to continue.”

Fast forward to Feb 2023, new Council is now in place and then during the Committee of the Whole Meeting 02 22 2023 P1 0:43 minute mark

“Through the Freedom of Information request that “I” initiated and the Mintoff/FoTTSA papers that we got during the election…” - Mario Galluzzo.

So Mr Galluzzo initially lied by omission, and later admitted that he was the one who initiated the FOI request.

So my question is this, does it matter that the person exposing the corruption (anonymously), while seemingly colluding with others, who all have the potential to benefit from it, wrong?

In summary:

Dirt was dug up on a situation that was not a violation as per the Township to smear a candidate in a 2 party race. Basically allowing the other candidate to win by acclimation.

A person within the prior administration, who is also on the current Council, who also worked for the former Mayoral Candidate outside of Council up until Jan 2018, started an inquiry into details only the Council knew about.

This deemed “illegal” action of sharing confidential information was then perpetuated again by providing the details required for the FOI request to another Council candidate in order to tarnish the second Mayoral candidate’s chances of winning.

So, wouldn’t this be a violation if the first was? He did the same thing by giving out information that he accused the other of doing. Except in this case it was for personal gain, and the gain of others.

The end result, Tiny Township Council is made up of 4 people who all live within 10 minutes of each other, 3 live within 3 minutes of each other and the losing Council candidate lives within 5 minutes of the 3. Literally a Council of Neighbours.

This is not a representation of Tiny Township as a whole, this is a Balm Beach Council.

In my opinion, Tiny Township should and needs to be separated into Wards so that we have representation from each area. I doubt this current Council would be in agreement with this.

Aaron MacDonald

Tiny Resident since 2015