By Dominic Abassi

Taxpayer watchdog applauds new level of disclosure for Nanaimo council expenses

Aug 19, 2016 | 3:42 PM

NANAIMO — A first of its kind financial disclosure report from the city of Nanaimo is drawing rave reviews from a taxpayer watchdog. 

The city has released their first ever council expenses quarterly update, a measure that was called for in a new Spending and Amenities Policy adopted by council in March.
 
The report contains in-depth data on how much and for what councillors claimed expenses, something that has never been publicly disclosed by the city in that detail before.
 
Jordan Bateman, B.C. director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, says this is positive progress.
 
“I know Nanaimo city hall has gotten grief in the past for being less than transparent, but credit where credit is due, this is a very good step forward and really puts them in probably the top 10 percent of councils across the country as far as proactive disclosure of expenses,” says Bateman.

Bateman says Nanaimo is “punching above their weight class”, noting this is going further than virtually any council of their size he’s seen across the province.

The report, contained in the August 22 Committee of the Whole meeting agenda, not only discloses how much councillors have claimed in total expenses this year, but also breaks the expenses down into categories and exactly what each expenditure was for.

From a cup of coffee to a hotel at a conference, it’s contained in the report.

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According to Chief Financial Officer Victor Mema, the Spending and Amenities Policy adopted by council in March was largely drafted by himself.

He says this type of report is not uncommon in his experience, noting he’s seen something similar in Fort McMurray by the Regional District of Wood Buffalo.

While this is the first report of its kind under the new policy, and a first of its kind report for the city of Nanaimo in general, Mema says people should get used to it because the data will be released quarterly.

The city is only legally obligated to divulge councillors expenses once a year, in the annual Statement of Financial Information, or SOFI, report.

But that report is typically light on detail and only included a total expense number with no explanation of where or how the money was spent.

Mema says this information was already being produced internally, so he hopes by releasing it to the public it will eliminate the “frenzy” around the SOFI release.

Councillor Bill Bestwick says credit has to go to the “new administration” and finance officer.

Bestwick agrees with the assertion this type of disclosure was a long time coming, and was asked about potential road blocks in releasing this type of information in the past.

“Might have been previous administrations or politicians, or a combination of the two, only filing, if you will, the minimum requirements of disclosure of expenses,” says Bestwick.

He says knowing this type of detailed data will be released doesn’t change the way he approaches spending taxpayer’s money.

“It’s part of credibility and accountability. You just need to know that if you’re spending and it’s being recorded you have to be certain that you have the ability to justify for a good reason. I don’t think that’s too onerous.”

As part of the discussion surrounding the spending policy earlier this year, Bestwick brought forward a motion that caps councillors expenses for travel, conferences and hospitality.

At the time, Mayor Bill McKay said he thought the measures were “ill-conceived and short-sighted” and felt they were a shot at him. McKay’s expenses topped $27,000 in 2015.

While McKay says he fully supports and believes in the improved spending disclosure, he feels the limits are “extremely restrictive” and have changed the way he does his job.

He says there have been missed opportunities.

“Recently a mayor from another major city in Canada was going to be in town and I asked council if they would approve something in the order of a $200 expense to take the mayor out to one of our local restaurants and was denied,” says McKay.

He also cites an inability to attend Chamber of Commerce luncheons because he doesn’t have the expense limit to do it.

“I’ve exceeded my expense account for the entire year so any major events going on for the remainder of the year I won’t be able to attend because council appears not to be willing to authorize any of my expenses in that regard.”

Bestwick says the new spending limits have been working well in his view.

“Certainly well within this new procedure we’ve undertaken is that you can always come back and make requests if you’re nearing limitations.”

He says he doesn’t think this kind of budgeting would be different than any business operation.

“You would have to come back to your boss, or somebody, and say hey, I’m getting very close to maxing out my budget in this area, is there any objection to increasing it? And then legitimize it.”

Hopefully, Bestwick says, Nanaimo can be a leader in how this information is made available to the public.