Mayor ‘all talk,’ councillor says

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This article was published 23/11/2016 (3023 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mayor Brian Bowman is “all talk, no action,” a frustrated-sounding city councillor declared Wednesday.

Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie said 2.5 years have passed since council ordered a spending policy be imposed on the mayor’s office and nothing has been done, despite Bowman’s pledge of transparency during the 2014 civic election.

“My perspective is you run on a campaign, you say you need to do something and you’re not doing it,” Eadie said. “There’s a lot of talk in the last couple of years but there’s no action to achieve the transparency and accountability…. He’s all talk, he’s no action.”

Bowman and councillors on his executive policy committee voted Wednesday to “receive as information” — the city hall euphemism for “do nothing” — the motion proposed by Eadie at council last week to subject the mayor’s office expenses to spending regulations and audits similar to those governing members of council.

Eadie’s motion proposes regulations defining eligible expenses for: operating the mayor’s office; all meetings (public and private) of the mayor’s executive policy committee; the mayor’s policy support staff; and all advisory committees created by the mayor and reporting directly to him. It calls for the mayor’s expenses to be audited annually, as is done with councillors’ expenses. Eadie also wants the mayor to publish an office organizational chart.

The motion is similar to a council directive from its meeting in June 2014 to have the city clerk develop spending rules for the mayor’s office. No policy has been implemented or gone to council for consideration.

Bowman told reporters Wednesday there is no need to deal with Eadie’s motion, because he’s been working on developing spending rules with the city clerk’s office and plans to have the policy in place before the end of the year.

However, Eadie said he’s surprised to hear Bowman now say he’s been working on rules because when asked about them previously, the mayor’s response suggested he wasn’t aware of the issue.

And the minutes from the September 2016 council meeting appear to support Eadie’s contention that Bowman, to that point, didn’t know about the 2014 council order.

“In terms of specific policy that the councillor’s requesting, I’d be more than happy to sit down with him to seek greater clarity as well as to see what it is exactly he’s seeking and look forward to those discussions,” the mayor said in response to Eadie’s question about when the policy would be implemented.

Eadie said he’s troubled that a 2.5-year-old council directive has not been implemented and there’s been no report from administration explaining the delay.

City administration is required to submit update reports on the progress being made and, when required, to explain any delays on why a council directive hasn’t been completed. There have been no such reports from the city clerk’s department on the expense policy.

Eadie said the directive is binding, despite having been approved by the council sitting prior to the 2014 election.

The mayor said he agrees with the objectives of Eadie’s motion but would not discuss whether the policy he’s been working on would subject his office spending to the same level of scrutiny as that imposed on councillors.

He challenged Eadie and other councillors to post their meeting calendars online, along with a list of any gifts they receive. Bowman said he’s legally required to post only gifts valued at $250 or more, but he lists everything he receives.

Eadie said that if he had the mayor’s budget he could hire people to do the work Bowman’s staff does, adding he rarely receives gifts and when he does they have very little monetary value.

“I gave a speech at William Whyte school,” he said. “Should I report that I got a little package of chocolates and a card that said, ‘Thank you for coming and telling us about what a political career is and what motivates a person to become a politician?’”

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca