Community Sustainability Equity
City Councillor Expense Accounts Under The Magnifying Glass
July 30, 2009
The Calgary Herald article left egg was on the face of Andre Chabot for expensing $79 for golf lessons, on Linda Fox-Mellway for expensing $207 for an altered Stampede shirt, and on Jim Stevenson for expensing a $302 home security system and $1,177 for dry cleaning. Councillors were scrambling to save face and repaid some these expenses out of their own pockets.
The Calgary Herald obtained only expense account line items. Some of these line items though hide detailed expenses. Word has it that the Calgary Herald has filed a freedom of information request to obtain item by item detail of city councillor expense accounts. Once obtained, the Calgary Herald will be able to publish exactly what each city councillor expensed in 2008. The bird with the word at city hall says that some city councillors have a lot to be worried about.
The egg is going to be a lot larger in the next couple of months. Word has it that there are some questionable and embarrassing items that have city councillors scrambling. What kind of gifts were purchased? What was spent on hosting? What was spent on golfing? What the heck did Stevenson dry clean? I am looking forward to finding out what the so called fiscal hawks on council expensed using taxpayer money. I am hoping they are further exposed for their hypocrisy.
Use your imagination at what is behind the expenses below:
Ward 1 - Dale Hodges - $1,719 gifts, $1,837 hosting
Ward 2 - Gord Lowe - gifts $3,473, hosting $1,340
Ward 3 - Jim Stevenson - golf $1,265, hosting $1,925, dry cleaning $1,177
Ward 4 - Bob Hawkesworth - hosting $4,271
Ward 5 - Ray Jones - gifts $2,847, hosting $3,215
Ward 6 - Joe Connelly - golf $1,073, hosting $4,003
Ward 7 - Druh Farrell - gifts $1,655
Ward 8 - John Mar - hosting $3,412
Ward 9 - Joe Ceci - hosting $1,324
Ward 10 - Andre Chabot - gifts $3,386, hosting $1,311
Ward 11 - Brian Pincott - hosting $2,486
Ward 12 - Ric McIver - gifts $1,556
Ward 13 - Diane Colley-Urquhart - gifts $748
Ward 14 - Linda Fox-Mellway - gifts $3,826, hosting $1,895
Answers to these questions will be released in the next couple of months. Increased transparency will clearly ensure that expenses in future years will be more appropriately expensed by city councillors.
This trend is also occurring throughout our municipal government. City Councillors Joe Ceci and Brian Pincott recently put forward a motion that got approved for administration to provide a report by December 2009 to make the City’s data open and more accessible for citizens.
Expenses and information should be made available at the City, but also the Province and the Federal government levels too. Of course this information should be free too to allow all citizens equal access.
Currently there are costs to obtain such information. There is a $25 general fee and you have to pay 50% of the costs if the request costs over $150. Our governments charge 25 cents per page for photocopying and then additional charges for blacking out personal information. Very few can currently afford to access this information. Only organizations with deep pockets can do so. Hopefully this will change if it this information is just posted on government websites for all to see and access.
Trends are moving to a more open and transparent government. This is positive and is much needed to inflate the tires of our democracy.
