Council returns $606K of expenses

Don’t accuse municipal politicians of only taking money from the pockets of taxpayers. Sometimes, they give a little of it back.

According to recently finalized tallies for 2015, council members collectively returned $606,109 to city hall coffers from their office budgets.

Taxpayers made available $6.5 million to the offices of the mayor and 23 councillors. For the most part, the money can be used as politicians see fit. If the charge relates to work and it doesn’t violate a council expense policy, taxpayers can foot the bill.

That means council members can take up lunch meetings, send out flyers, buy coffee for the office, go on business trips, hold community parties and pay for consultants to study hot issues at city hall. Some of the money can even be donated to causes they deem worthy.

The unused funds in 2015 account for about nine per cent of all available office budget money.

Last year’s penny-pincher was Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais, who spent 73 per cent of his $247,717 budget. The average for all 24 politicians was 90 per cent.

Each councillor had the same annual budget, but Mayor Jim Watson had $812,000 to work with.

Watson spent 98 per cent of his budget. Staffing gobbled up 82 per cent and communications nearly 11 per cent.

The largest expense for most council members is salaries. They collectively spent 78 per cent of all their office budgets on salaries for assistants. The next largest expense was for constituent communications and web services, which drew 10 per cent of all office spending.

Only one councillor spent less than half of his budget on salaries.

Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley directed only 36 per cent of the $241,028 he spent last year on staffing. The top category for Hubley’s spending was external services, which includes consultants and office assistance.

There always has to be one politician at the top of the spending list.

Claiming the honour for 2015 was rookie Osgoode Coun. George Darouze, who spent 99 per cent of his budget and gave a mere $202 back to the city. Darouze’s staffing costs were on the lower end of the council spectrum. Much of his spending was tied up in communications.

Council billed taxpayers just over $142,000 on special events, receptions and hospitality. They included pizza lunches, breakfast meetings and even the odd coffee at the city hall restaurant. Some councillors are more liberal with their hospitality spending than others, but the meals are allowed as long as they stay within their individual office budgets.

Just over $595,000 went to communication-related expenses and $252,000 went to external services.