The Globe and Mail reported Monday on an attempted transaction last November involving Mayor Mark Sager of 17 condominiums at below-market rates at the Sanctuary building in Horseshoe Bay.
Court documents suggest a sitting mayor was running the risk of affecting the value of a building occupied by his electors. No mayor or councillor should be representing a real estate transaction in their own municipality.
The documents allege a numbered company Sager led was offered 23 units and flipped 17 of them at a profit, but the deal fell through because the lender asserted the sale prices were below an agreed-upon minimum.
The sale of the units netted a profit of $3.44 million, and when it was cancelled, the numbered company sued for that profit. The developer alleges Sager was the principal of the numbered company and personally negotiated the deal. Sager told The Globe and Mail he was representing the units for friends and has since left the numbered company as a director.
The public deserves to know answers to the following questions:
1. Why was a mayor playing realtor when he should be playing mayor?
2. Why was he not at arm’s-length from developers in his job?
3. Why did he not think members of the community might perceive this as a conflict of interest?
4. Did he disclose this $30-million transaction to council and the public before he signed it?
5. Did he step away from every matter involving Horseshoe Bay development, the Sanctuary development and its lenders since he signed the document?
6. And if not, why not?
7. What did he tell the municipal lawyer about the facts?
8. The developer has alleged in court filings that the mayor was the principal of the numbered company. Was he at the time of the transaction and what is his relationship to the company today?
9. How did Sager get offered 23 condominiums at below-market rate?
10. Why did he do this if he was working for free?