Mayor councillors claim $75K in travel expenses

Saskatoon’s mayor and city councillors claimed expenses for travelling across the country and as far away as Las Vegas, Texas and New York City last year.

City council claimed a combined $75,412.56 for travel in 2018, which is divided up into a variety of categories and paid for in several ways.

Mayor Charlie Clark claimed $5,847.76 for travel for himself, his designates and his staff. His travel itinerary included six trips to Regina, two to Ottawa, two to Edmonton and one to Halifax.

Clark also travelled to conferences in New York and Washington in 2018, but his expenses for those trips were covered by the organizations holding the events. Clark claimed $7,552.48 in total travel in 2017. Both years, he spent well below the $42,000 budgeted for the mayor.

In 2015, former mayor Don Atchison’s last full year as mayor, he claimed $8,834.89 on travel in Canada and another $12,845.51 for travel outside the country.

Councillors claimed $69,564.80 in 2018 travel, slightly more than the $68,581.68 they claimed in 2017.

Councillors claimed $25,516.39 from a $35,000 budget for individual travel and $26,419.64 for common travel — more than the $24,000 budget allotted. Another $17,628.77 in travel was paid for by other sources like pension plans and the police board budget.

Coun. Mairin Loewen claimed the highest travel expenses at $10,341.88, followed by Coun. Darren Hill ($9,741.64) and Coun. Zach Jeffries ($9,673.41).

Most councillors claimed more than $5,000 in travel expenses. Only Coun. Randy Donauer ($2,721.30) and Coun. Ann Iwanchuk ($3,524.53) were under that threshold.

Almost all council travel in 2018 was within Canada, except for a trip to Las Vegas for Coun. Cynthia Block and Coun. Bev Dubois to take management training, and two trips by Jeffries to conferences in New York City and San Antonio, Texas.

Clark claimed $1,571.46 of his $21,000 car allowance. Dubois claimed the most among councillors at $3,530.45.