Taxpayers off hook for booze at council junket
City council on Tuesday rejected a bid to limit the number of councillors who travel to the annual Federation of Municipalities conference in the wake of questions around Coun. Joe Magliocca’s spending last year.
But they unanimously agreed to cap each councillors’ spending at $3,000 — including flight, hotel and registration fees — and forbid expensing alcohol at the municipal conference. (Coun. Jyoti Gondek, who left early to attend the monthly police commission meeting Tuesday afternoon, and Coun. Evan Woolley were absent from the vote.)
Coun. Jeromy Farkas said the motion, also supported by Coun. Sean Chu, is a way to demonstrate fiscal responsibility to Calgarians “in light of recent events.” Magliocca’s expenses at FCM totalled about $6,400 last year, with at least $1,800 of that going to meals and drinks, including alcohol, for “hosting costs.” City councillors have been allowed to expense alcohol purchases as long as a third party is being hosted.
Magliocca was city council’s representative on the FCM board of directors from 2017-18. The Ward 2 councillor has now repaid about $2,100 of his FCM costs from last year, and announced Monday that “upon further reflection” he would also repay “alcohol-related” costs from 2017 and 2018. A City of Calgary receipt shows he repaid $1,805 to cover expenses incurred in 2018.
On Tuesday, few councillors agreed with Farkas’ proposal to limit Calgary’s representation at FCM to just two councillors and the mayor. Besides Farkas and Chu, only Coun. Diane Colley-urquhart and Magliocca supported the move.
Coun. Peter Demong said he’s seen tangible benefits from the conference. The city began the process to switch street lights to energy-efficient LED bulbs after Demong said a group of councillors saw Halifax’s program during FCM in 2011.
Calgary has since replaced 80,000 street lights with LED bulbs, which saves the city about $5 million a year on electricity.
“If we were to have taken one year’s savings from that and put it into an endowment program, that would pay for every councillor to go to this convention for what, approximately 100 years,” Demong said.
“How else does a councillor learn to become a better councillor than by going to conventions where they actually interact with other councillors?”
This isn’t the first time council has looked at limiting travel to FCM. In 2018, just months after he was first elected, Coun. Jeff Davison put forward a motion with Farkas that asked to limit attendance to council’s designated representative on the FCM board, the mayor and three other councillors.
Davison said Tuesday that after going to FCM last year, his thinking has evolved.
He mentioned that Mayor Naheed Nenshi is about to go on a trade mission to India, and said forgoing opportunities to get outside the city and “tell Calgary’s story” is short-sighted.
“Part of the reason I believe we’re going on a trade mission to India is because we’ve become the laughing stock of this country,” Davison said. “We’re standing here talking about things like this when we should be talking about how we encourage businesses to come here.”
Davison argued conversations prompted by Farkas and Chu’s motion are actually eroding investor confidence in Calgary.
“We’re worried about potentially $20,000 in spending, overall, and we forget that while it’s important to manage the dollars and cents, this is, like, a $7-billion-a-year operation. What are we doing here?”
FCM is the largest gathering of municipal leaders in the country, which includes four days of workshops, speakers and a trade show every spring. FCM members also vote on advocacy priorities at the conference, and Demong said Calgary risks being left out if only a few councillors are allowed to go.
Last year, nine councillors and Mayor Naheed Nenshi travelled to Quebec City for FCM, spending a little more than $30,000 in total, according to documents obtained by Postmedia through a freedom of information request. It was one of the largest city delegations to the conference in recent years.
The last time a delegation of that size went to FCM was the 2014 conference in Niagara Falls, Ont., which attracted 12 councillors.
Council also rejected part of the motion that asked for public presentations from FCM attendees about what they learned. Nenshi said it would be like asking for a series of “book reports.”
Farkas maintained that despite disagreement on limiting council travel to FCM, his motion was aimed at increasing accountability and transparency.
While Tuesday’s vote will put an end to council members expensing alcohol at FCM, a broader ban on liquor expenses could still be in the future after council asked bureaucrats to look at reforming council expense policies and reporting practices.