Council expenses: There is no problem with the review of council expenses by city employees as it usually is the inside employees who know what is working and what is not that causes waste. Their complete review demonstrated the lack of controls in place for this expense line and I wonder how other departments would fair if reviewed for controls, efficiencies or lack thereof, accountability or fraud? Leadership, accountability and transparency flows top down.
I lead Internal Audit for a large company and any expense claim submitted without proper documentation, i.e., missing receipts, would have these expenses subtracted from the total reimbursement back to the regular employee or an executive member. Simple rules and reasonable expectations for staff and department leaders. As a business, we are in the “real world” and do not have a steady stream of income through taxes; we have to perform and we have to keep our costs down. A few other tidbits – we must write names on meal receipts; mileage needs odometer readings start/finish and reason for the travel; two hierarchical levels of approval; does the mayor and council members each have a yearly budget for expenses?
Just simple math so take with a grain of salt, dividing the expense total by number of months for averages: Mayor Crouse has spent $5,228 a month; Coun. Brodhead $1,408 a month; Coun. Heron $928 a month; Coun. Hughes $533 a month; Coun. McKay $844 a month; Coun. Osborne $1,199 a month; Coun. Prefontaine $1,072 a month.
This council has had difficulty being fiscally responsible, accountable and transparent. I found Coun. Hughes' suggestion to ask city staff to find and cut $300,000 out the budget reasonable as she was trying to make a point. The push-back by the city manager, mayor and council spoke to the “personality rift within council” instead of a united team wanting to send a message to tighten the purse strings. The non-attempt to find an additional $300K in savings, demonstrated council's disregard to hold the administration and themselves fiscally accountable.
The economy is tougher, which has the business community reviewing its budgets, making adjustments, trimming back merit increases, looking for savings, approving only “good spending” and scrutinizing personal expenses. Running the City of St. Albert is a business, blessed with an income stream called taxes. The hard part is done, the rest is left up to visionary leaders who are reasonable and know how to execute within the given means. Our current council is challenged when it comes to fiscal planning, revenues and disbursements. Finally, when you go into politics you are held to a higher standard; so stop making excuses for bad behaviour and just get the problem fixed.
H.L. Murray, St. Albert
