Public paid bill for $ 5,414
Taxpayers federation says bill shows “a lot of disrespect” to taxpayers
Niagara taxpayers paid thousands of dollars in roaming charges incurred by St. Catharines’ regional councillor Andy Petrowski in 2016 while he was travelling overseas.
Recently released data on regional councillor expenses show that in a single month Petrowski racked up $ 17,000 in roaming charges on his regional cell phone while in the Caribbean and the United States.
The bill shows that Petrowski moved 710 megabytes of data through his phone while in the Caribbean and another 670 megabytes while in the United States.
He did not respond to requests for an interview.
Since the data was released on Jan. 16, The Standard made multiple requests to the Region to find out if the public paid for the councillor’s bill.
Those requests went unanswered until Wednesday when the Region’s chief administrative officer Carmen D’Angelo sent an email to The Standard explaining the public paid for some, but not all of the bill.
D’Angelo explained Petrowksi’s initial bill was $ 17,205.75. Regional staff negotiated with Rogers Communications, the Region’s cell phone provider, to reduce the bill to $ 5,414.56.
The public paid that bill.
“That shows a great deal of disrespect to the taxpayer,” said Christine Van Geyn, Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation. “I certainly wouldn’t go to the Caribbean and leave my phone on the whole time. If I came back to work with a cellphone bill like that, or if you did, we’d be fired.
“Even though the Region got the bill down to $ 5,000, that is still an outrageous bill to expect the taxpayer to pay. The councillor should have to pay that money back.”
Petrowski’s phone bill is not the first time taxpayers have paid for the councillor’s significant expenses.
Last year Petrowski claimed, and was paid for, nearly $ 45,000 in legal bills related to integrity commissioner reports regarding his conduct.
Petrowski is also required by the courts to pay the Region $ 5,500 in legal costs following a failed attempt to sue most of regional council to block the publication of those reports.
While the Region says it is in the process of collecting those costs from Petrowski — who is currently on leave from council — the language of the Region’s policies opens the door to allow him to claim the money as expenses.
“Legal costs arising from or in any way related to complaints under the Code of Conduct are eligible expenses,” says council’s expense policy which was created in November after The Standard published Petrowski’s legal bills.
While Petrowski’s phone bill had the highest roaming charges of any member of regional council, he was not the only one to be billed thousands of dollars for the phone usage.
St. Catharines regional Coun. Tim Rigby, Fort Erie Coun. Sandy Annunziata and Port Colborne Coun. David Barrick all ended up with hefty roaming charges. However, in each case, the councillors said the charges were made in error. After the Region talked to Rogers, those charges were removed.
When asked about his roaming charges last month, Annunziata said it has been an ongoing issue and councillors have to watch their bills for any errors. He said each councillor has to sign off on their annual phone bills, so there is an opportunity to investigate any problems before the public pays for it.
The Standard sent multiple interview requests to Regional Chair Alan Caslin Thursday to talk about his expenses, those of council and council’s expense policy. The request was not answered.
Caslin has not responded to multiple requests made by The Standard since the Jan. 16 release of data nor has he answered questions about why he won’t be interviewed.
In the Jan 16 data release, Caslin’s expenses show he claimed expensive meals, but the data did not include any supporting information, does not say where he was meeting — even the city is omitted from the records — why, or who he was meeting with. On Jan. 23, that file was amended to include some receipts showing what kind of meals Caslin purchased, including a $ 116 lobster meal at The St. Catharines Club.
The recently added receipts also show that Caslin expensed a $ 222 meal - listed as a “meeting with constituent” - La Scala Ristorante on Queen Street in St. Catharines. The meal included two pasta dishes, mineral waters, salads and antipasti.
The reason for these meals is not given in the amended documents.
Caslin has repeatedly emailed a short statement to The Standard praising the release of the data as an act of transparency. He said voters can judge his expenses by his record and mentioned the Canada Summer Games and the Welland GE plant as successes.
Caslin’s statement does not say how his expenses relate to these items.
Councillor expense data going back 20 years was released by the Region following a freedom of information request made by Caslin in October.
His filing followed reports in The Standard on councillor expenses in September and the paper’s Sept. 28 freedom of information request for all expense reports for this term of council. The Region’s information office asked The Standard to put its request aside in favour of Caslin’s. The paper refused and the Region denied The Standard’s request and processed Caslin’s.