Pine View’s ‘revenge’ — par for the course?
Pine View Golf Course and its general manager see Ottawa’s municipal election as a vehicle for retribution against city hall.
“Revenge is a great motivator,” Mike Copeland said in an interview Tuesday.
“We have been done wrong and I want to see it set right, and if I have to go to the other side of the fence to do that, I will.”
Pine View has made history, becoming the first registered thirdparty advertiser for a municipal election in Ottawa.
The Ontario government changed the municipal election law to allow individuals or organizations to run advertising campaigns to promote or oppose candidates.
Copeland makes no secret about why Pine View would register as an advertiser: He’s thinking about running for council. He sees the third-party advertiser registration as a “first step” in the event he decides to run in the open Innes ward. The current councillor, Jody Mitic, has said he won’t see re-election. Four candidates had registered to run in the ward as of Tuesday.
In Copeland’s mind, Pine View has been “done wrong ” through a dispute with the city over the golf course’s water and sewer bills.
Pine View, whose ownership group includes Copeland and three others, is the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the City of Ottawa over sewer surcharges paid to city hall. The golf course is hooked into the municipal drinking-water supply, and like other water customers, pays a sewer surcharge, which in 2018 is 120 per cent of the water charge.
The new owners thought it had a deal with the city to allow the golf course to receive a rebate on the sewer surcharge, since a rebate is available to customers who use municipal water largely for outdoor use. The city allegedly wouldn’t provide a rebate and Pine View sued for $110,000 in 2016. The city started offering a rebate to Pine View in February 2017.
According to Copeland, the court last month approved the city’s request to dismiss Pine View’s initial lawsuit, but last week, the golf course filed an amended lawsuit with slightly altered legal arguments, plus a larger monetary claim: $250,000, plus $100,000 in punitive damages, plus legal costs.
The city didn’t have anything to say Tuesday about the amended lawsuit. “As this matter is presently before the court, the city cannot comment on this matter,” according to city solicitor and clerk Rick O’Connor.
The National Capital Commission owns the golf course land, and for 40 years the golf operations were run by a municipal arm’slength board of management, which paid $1 per year for the lease. The City of Ottawa got out of the golf business in 2014 and the NCC signed a new lease with the current ownership group.
The city and Pine View have had an acrimonious relationship ever since the ownership transfer.
Now, Copeland is using the municipal election to highlight the feud as he considers a run for office.
“I don’t view city councillors as city staff,” Copeland said. “They are there as a go-between for the electorate and the bureaucracy, and this lawsuit has really exposed some flaws in how the city bureaucracy is protecting themselves.”
It’s not about the rebate money, he said.
“It’s about the principle of how we’ve been treated and that when you make an agreement with somebody, you honour it,” Copeland said.
(Copeland said if he runs for council and wins, he’d donate his salary to charity. Councillors make about $100,000 annually.)
Copeland said the golf course pays more than $200,000 in annual rent to the NCC, plus property taxes to the city. The golf course has made money in every year of operations under the private ownership, he said.
As for Pine View registering as a third-party advertiser for the Oct. 22 municipal vote, Copeland said the golf course is simply using the election tools available to everyone. Candidates can’t register third-party advertisers. The official representative for Pine View ’s registration is business partner Don Costello.
“I don’t think they know what type of can of worms they’ve opened in that regard,” Copeland said of the province, adding that he has contacts with a dozen companies that could also register as third-party advertisers ahead of the municipal election.
The law allows a third-party advertiser in a city of Ottawa’s size to spend a maximum of $25,000. Copeland figures additional thirdparty advertisers could also sign up to promote his candidacy, if he decides to run.
Copeland lives in Orléans ward, but the golf course is in Innes ward. He said he’ll decide by the end of June whether he’ll run for council. Having a lawsuit against the city wouldn’t bother him if he landed on councillors’ row at city hall.
“I think it’ll be pretty funny/embarrassing for the city to be sued by a city councillor,” he said.
Copeland said if he doesn’t run for council, Pine View intends to remain registered as a third-party advertiser and promote or oppose candidates.
It’s about the principle of how we’ve been treated and that when you make an agreement with somebody, you honour it.