The municipality of Meaford, former Mayor Wally Reif, current Mayor Francis Richardson and 16 other people are named in a nearly 10 million lawsuit filed by the town’s former CAO.
A 50 page statement of claim was filed last Friday and seeks 4.8 million dollars for breach of contract and bad faith, 2.4 million dollars in damages, 2 million dollars in aggravated, punitive, special and exemplary damages, along with 500 thousand dollars for harassment, and breach of privacy.
David Free was Chief financial officer and treasurer starting in March of 2005 and became the Chief administrative officer in September of 2005.
Free’s resignation was accepted by council in August of 2007.
The court document claims former Mayor Reif told an interviewer on a cable TV show in October of 2007 that Free had “cooked” the books, “had two sets of books” and misled council.
In an interview with Bayshore broadcasting news, David Free says the accusations are 100 percent false.
He says he has tolerated a continuing series of false attacks that have gone on for 2 years and he is not interested in putting up with it any more.
Free says there was no deficit in Meaford in 2006, claiming it was contrived to make him look bad.
David Free claims when he came to Meaford he told the mayor and Councillors that Meaford was virtually “administratively and financially bankrupt”.
To support this declaration, Free cites there was: cash flow stresses, no in year reporting, no grants for projects (Leith Water Distribution), Meaford Hall that did not have financing or a financing model, or sewage treatment plant projects that were unfinanced, to name a few.