COUNCIL – What Sarai said then and now about screening non-profits

Coun. Bill Sarai offered an apology this week for his proposal to disqualify non-profit organizations from receiving City funding if they’re critical of council, and to investigate the “affiliations” of those groups.

For context, here is what he said at Tuesday’s City council meeting, and what he said at a Jan. 30 meeting of the Livability and Sustainability Select Committee when a list of grants to non-profits came up for consideration.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024:

“I want to apologize for maybe some of the comments that I said that day that reflected that I was against non-profits and handing out funding or approving funding which is, my track record, sitting at this council, and my community involvement, does not support that, so I just want to apologize to, not only the non-profits on this list but non-profits in the city that may be affected or concerned that Coun. Sarai is somehow, it was released out there that I’m totally against non-profits and not funding them for a certain reason, and I apologize, the words that I used that day weren’t what I was trying to get across, it was more of the criteria piece, and I just want to put that out there, that my record speaks for itself, that the non-profits are not in any danger of losing funding because Coun. Sarai doesn’t support them.”

Jan. 30, 2024 (as reported in the Armchair Mayor column on Feb. 3):

“I think it’s only fair that council addresses funding requests from non-profits that are neutral during council terms. They can go out and solicit or promote their candidates during election time, which everybody does, but it’s very uncomfortable during council term when your minutes or your council decisions are being called out and I think that’s a little bit, uh, it makes me feel uncomfortable how, in allocating money, how it’s going to be played out in the public.

“Is it pressure to approve because you don’t want to get tarnished by a brush or do you go against it based on your morals and what you think?

… “So I think when this comes back to our council for approval, and I’ve talked to other councillors, we would like to see the groups’ affiliations and what they’re doing in their community engagement and promoting their messages. Is it steering against councils that don’t vote in their favour, which I think is a very slippery and dangerous output to put us in, and so I’d like that to be included in the report coming back to council so we can all see who’s who and who the players are.

“… I’ll put a motion forward that when this comes to City council for deliberation, that we get a report on what groups are affiliated and are actively swaying their members or being politically…. I need to know the wording, maybe CAO Trawin if you can help me out here, I just feel really uncomfortable voting on things when it’s come to our attention that certain groups use that against you if you don’t agree with them to the extreme. They can all be affiliated when it comes election time but a lot of these groups that are in here do not go out every time there’s a vote here and question our voting strategies or what we vote on and I feel uncomfortable when we don’t agree with a group that we get called out on it and that funding.”

Sarai’s attempt at the motion wasn’t endorsed by the committee and it approved a motion recommending that the list of grants be forwarded to council for decision, as well as a motion to review the criteria for the granting of funds to non-profits but not related to their political affiliations.