The man who first brought issues with Sandy Shantz’s expenses to the attention of township officials says they should have acted faster, and more harshly.

“Anybody can have a single mistake or a single accident. She has multiple mistakes through the document,” Alan Marshall said Thursday.

Shantz was removed from office as the mayor of Woolwich Township on Wednesday, after acknowledging issues with her election expense report.

Under Ontario law, any municipal candidate who receives more than $10,000 in campaign contributions must file an audit of their campaign expenses.

As of the March 27 deadline, Shantz had not done that.

The documents she had filed at that point put her total donations at less than $10,000.

Only after the deadline did it emerge that Shantz spent $5,500 of her own money on her campaign.

Of that, about $2,600 was unspent and returned.

Shantz says she recorded the difference between the two figures on her expenses forms – not the total of $5,000, which would have put her over the $10,000 figure and triggered the audit requirement.

“The law is very rigid. I should have filed an audited financial statement (in March),” Shantz said in an interview.

“I didn’t, and therefore the township is required to suspend me from office.”

A Superior Court judge will rule on whether Shantz can be returned to the mayor’s office.

Shantz expects that process to be wrapped up in a matter of weeks.

Until then, township officials say they don’t plan to take any action regarding the mayoral position.

“Both the township and our solicitor agree a matter of this magnitude requires careful consideration and due diligence,” said township clerk Val Hummel.

As long as the situation remains before the courts, Shantz says she’s won’t be taking part in any mayoral duties or receiving any salary from the township.

“I’m required to step back, and so that’s what I’ll do,” she said.

Marshall says he wants to see Shantz return all salary earned since March 27, and calls it ‘ridiculous’ that a citizen had to prompt the investigation into her expenses.

“She’s trying to incredibly minimize the errors,” he said.

The responsibility of the clerk’s office, Hummel said, is only to ensure that campaign expense reports have been completed.

“We don’t have authority to test the accuracy of the financial statements,” she said.

Marshall says he’s lodged a complaint about Shantz’s electoral expense report with Waterloo Regional Police.