Over the last couple of days, I have been working on getting back to a number of emails I received this week. The general tone of these emails was about fiscal responsibility. It reminded me of this weeks committee meeting, and lost in the excitement in the number of public meetings which went to 10:30PM, there was a report to council that stated the remuneration and expenses of our elected officials for 2009. This report includes the salaries of the councillors, the amount of benefits they receive, expenses incurred for professional development and mileage they claimed.
Click on the image below.
Out of the local councillors it looks like Ward 3 councillor Cindy Lunau received the most remuneration lead by a large mileage allowance of over $4,300.00 (total $ 35, 635.12) and the most thrifty local councillor is Ward 1 councillor Rick Day at $ 29,216.00 for 2009.
After looking at the list you will see Mayor Krantz tops the list in mileage at just over $5,000 but in all fairness our Mayor does a lot of travelling in and around the province and realistically should be the only councillor to submit mileage for reimbursement. Remember, the local councillor position is “part time”.
There are a number of councillors whos claims for mileage is rather excessive in my opinion and its seems to be a regular trend. Lets look at 2008 for instance.
The trend continued back in 2007 and 2006 with very similar numbers. The first question that comes to mind … “Is Ward 3 REALLY that far to claim mileage?”
What do you think? Is it justified? Should our councillors be more frugal with tax payers dollars?
I look forward to hearing what you have to say. I’ll see you at the doors.