The NPA’s lone councillor at city hall says she will disclose names of contributors and the dollar amount she raised at a fundraiser held a few months ago at the Sutton Place Hotel.

But Suzanne Anton wouldn’t say when she will disclose the information. Anton also declined to give some indication of the amount of money collected.

“I don’t know, as a matter of fact,” she said, noting another person organized the event. “I didn’t do the asking and I didn’t collect the money and I don’t know who paid the money and I don’t know how much they paid.”

Anton said she could contact her “financial guy” for the details but added that she preferred to “somewhat insulate myself from this information.”

“I acknowledge it’s slightly artificial, but there it is,” she said.

Anton said the purpose of the fundraiser was to help pay for her website, the “couple of people who help me with a few things” and her re-election campaign in 2011.

The two-term councillor, who is a possible mayoral candidate in 2011, said about 20 people attended the fundraiser. She didn’t recall the date of the event, saying it occurred a few months ago.

The question, Anton said, is not if she will disclose, it’s when.

“At what point, that’s the question I’m not sure about. At the moment, there is no duty of ongoing disclosure. I have never, ever for an instant been in breach of any disclosure regulations.”

Vision Vancouver released financial statements July 29 that showed it raised $433,560 since March 2009. More than $181,000 was spent to host fundraisers and $241,666 was used to pay off the party’s 2008 election campaign debt.

More than 65 per cent of contributions came from developers and businesses, including Canaccord Capital Corporation, which gave the biggest single sum at $25,000.

Wall Financial Corporation, Aquilini Development and Construction Inc., Intracorp Projects Ltd., Living Balance International Trading Ltd. and Strategic Communications all gave $10,000.

The biggest union contributions came from the Canadian Union of Public Employees and its locals, which donated $4,800.

Anton said Vision should have disclosed the information earlier, since the party’s debt was related to the 2008 campaign—and, therefore, a campaign expense.

The city Charter says a party has a duty to file a supplementary disclosure statement within 30 days of a party filing its election expenses, if any of the information in the initial disclosure statement has changed, or if the disclosure statement did not completely and accurately disclose the information required to be included in the disclosure statement.

“When you pay your debt down, that is when you need to file,” said Ian Baillie, executive director of Vision Vancouver. “[Anton] had a fundraiser and she didn’t say who attended her fundraiser. Fine, maybe she is technically right that she doesn’t need to do that. But I just take that to understand that that’s her level of commitment to disclosure.”

Added Baillie: “We have a [contributors’] list out there, the other parties you don’t know where their money comes from. You know where ours comes from. There you go.”

mhowell@vancourier.com