I cannot agree more with Tim Osborne that the mayor does so much for this city and deserves the benefit of the doubt. If the city finds any discrepancies I have no doubt that Mr. Crouse will gladly repay any over-payments and has already apologized for the oversight. Councillor Sheena Hughes made the laughable statement that this is not a "witch hunt." This is the exact definition of a "witch hunt" conducted by her, Mr. MacKay and I would not be surprised if it also involved other people with axes to grind. There have been attacks on Mr. Crouse from before the last election and this is just another example of misplaced energy.
To put it in perspective, Sheena Hughes was seemingly excited to point out double expenses in the $1,000 range. I am not saying this is not a large amount of money to some, but in the day-to-day business of a multi-million-dollar city, this is a tiny oversight. For the time invested by Sheena Hughes, Cam MacKay and whoever else, I would prefer that energy directed to something such as transit cost recovery. Who knows, if they took all this time from their "witch hunt" they may have been able to find cost savings of $2,000 or more in the transit system, but I realize this is not as interesting as attacking the mayor's reputation.
In the future, councillors Hughes and MacKay, please focus more on city business and not so much on the mayor. The city will benefit from your exhaustive efforts not directed at the mayor and I am positive there is way more cost savings to be found than in any expense report.
Doug Musey, St. Albert
