VANCOUVER—Five months before he was publicly suspended from the B.C. Legislature’s highest-paid job, Craig James separately met with two lawyers closely connected to the BC Liberal Party in Vancouver.

As clerk, James was expected to be strictly non-partisan at all times, acting as the equivalent of a CEO of the building and its activities.

“There’s this pattern we are discovering about how they had clandestine meetings. From the outside looking in, inappropriate ones,” said Selina Robinson, MLA for Coquitlam-Maillardville and minister for municipal affairs, in a phone interview.

“A non-partisan officer meeting with party operatives — what was on the agenda of these meetings? What was the purpose? Who set up the meetings?”

James was placed on paid leave Nov. 20, which the public learned last week was the result of alleged misspending of taxpayer money — including on personal souvenirs for his wife, fancy scotches, suits, numerous “luxurious overseas” trips and a $3,000 automatic woodsplitter which has become a social-media symbol of the scandal.

James could not be immediately reached for comment but has maintained his innocence since his suspension.

A list of James’ 2017-18 taxpayer reimbursements — released as part of a scathing 76-page report by Speaker Darryl Plecas — alleges James met 14 times with Geoff Plant, former BC Liberal attorney general and the returning officer for the BC Liberals’ last leadership race, which saw Andrew Wilkinson replace Christy Clark.

The Legislature paid Plant’s law firm more than $157,000 in 2017 and 2018 for undisclosed services, government documents show.

According to Plecas, just a week before one of the Plant meetings, a legislative staffer submitted a written statement blowing the whistle on alleged misspending. The staffer claimed taxpayers were being double-billed for both driving mileage and taxis on the same trips.

It was being investigated at the time by Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz, who would also be suspended Nov. 20.

Plecas alleged that “James had gone to Vancouver for the day to meet with Geoff Plant about how to ‘rein in Gary and ensure he wouldn’t be conducting investigations in the future’ into the whistleblowers’ claims,” he wrote in his report.

Plant could not be reached for an interview Monday.

“I felt the whole matter was troubling,” Plecas said in his report. “I was uncomfortable with Mr. James’ suggestion that, if the matter came to light, it would have broader negative ramifications, together with his claim to have suppressed an internal investigation into a genuine issue raised in good faith by a concerned employee.”

None of the allegations has been tested in court.

James also met that same day with Wilkinson’s own personal representative to the BC Liberals’ executive committee, lawyer Paul Barbeau — who last November became the party’s president.

And 11 days before former premier Christy Clark’s resignation on July 28, 2017, James met her in Vancouver, and again on Oct. 13 and Dec. 14, 2017 and on May 2 of last year.

BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson did not return an interview request Monday.

Barbeau also did not respond to an interview request but sent StarMetro a statement through the party’s executive director stating he never met with Plant and only talked with James about paintings by late Group of Seven-affiliated artist E.J. Hughes, whose estate Barbeau represented.

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Paul Barbeau’s law firm, Barbeau Evans LLP, states on its website that in March 2018 he “was appointed by the Hon. Andrew Wilkinson as the leader’s representative to the party executive of the BC Liberal Party.”

Before that, he was the BC Liberal riding association president for Wilkinson’s own district, Vancouver-Quilchena, from 2013-15, according to his law firm’s website. Barbeau had previously served as a board director of Vancouver’s Non-Partisan Association from 2003-2007.

“My only contact with Craig James was to discuss reproductions of coastal B.C. paintings to be hung in the B.C. Legislature,” Barbeau said. “I represent the heirs of the artist, and they ultimately agreed that digital rights to some reproductions of paintings could be provided to the Legislature at no charge. I did not participate in any meeting with Geoff Plant.”

Police confirmed they continue investigating the allegations. After the Legislature’s management committee voted to publicly release Plecas’ report last week, James issued a statement condemning the move, saying it unfairly “blackened” his reputation even further.

But Robinson, with the NDP, said the public deserves answers from Wilkinson himself about why high-profile members of his party met so many times with James and what they discussed.

One meeting was at BC Liberal headquarters in January 2018 — when, Plecas alleged, James claimed mileage for both a personal vehicle and for taxis for the same travel, charging taxpayers $149.26 in addition to the $310 he spent on an “assured loading” ticket on BC Ferries.

“We’re all looking at this from different angles, and it’s getting under the skin of so many British Columbians,” Robinson said. “For some, it’s the wood-splitter, or the booze, or the (Geoff) Plant meeting or the one with (Paul) Barbeau.

“It’s when you put it all together it starts to tell a story. Is there a bigger scheme going back years? If Wilkinson truly wants to fix this mess, as he says he wants to, he needs to own up to his party’s relationship with the non-partisan clerk.”

When the BC Liberals proposed James for the life-term role — in which he would earn roughly $350,000 a year, nearly double the premier’s own salary and far more than any other clerk in Canadian Parliament or a provincial legislature — the NDP opposed his appointment, alleging he was a partisan.

For the 36 trips to Vancouver included in Plecas’ report, almost all included “assured loading” onto BC Ferries, a type of guaranteed car reservation that will “provide priority travel” if you arrive “at least 20 minutes before the scheduled departure.” By comparison, the cost of tickets plus a normal sailing reservation — requiring arrival just 10 minutes earlier than an “assured” reservation — for those same trips would have cost taxpayers less than a third what James charged.

One typical meeting with Plant, last June 20, was at James’ frequent meeting venue, the Showcase Restaurant at the Marriott Hotel. He charged taxpayers $80.40 that day, on top of the $310 “assured” ferry reservation to get there.

The restaurant boasts it offers “exceptionally delicious West Coast cuisine, served with impeccable service in a sophisticated and welcoming environment.” James’ $80.40 bill for that meeting — “no itemized receipt,” Plecas noted — would be equivalent after taxes to three orders of one of the restaurant’s “signature” entrées: a prawn and clam tagliatelle pasta with andouille sausage and fire-roasted tomato sauce. Alternatively, it would have covered the after-tax tab for a mid-range bottle of wine from the restaurant’s menu, on which the median cost of a bottle is $78 after taxes.

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