The mayor's attempt to adopt a travel and expense policy has been thwarted.
Mandating how councillors should travel to an event, the mayor's ability to wine and dine people, and giving the head of council additional powers are some of reasons that the document was shut down by council members at the Feb. 27 Timmins council meeting. The handful of councillors to talk on the item wanted more clarity and accountability on the items.
Mayor Michelle Boileau asked for the travel and expense policy to be on the agenda. While she talked a little about the reasons why the policy is needed, she diverted questions about it to clerk Steph Palmateer, who is one of the staffers who wrote it.
"Past practices has had the mayor, as head of council, approving all council-related travel expense claims. In this past year and a half that I have been in this role there have been a number of questions around how and why approval decisions are made," Boileau told council.
The draft policy encouraged air travel for trips over 350 kilometres one-way, and using rental vehicles in instances when using a personal vehicle would increase the cost to the city. If the event included meals, councillors couldn't claim meal expenses, though the mayor would be exempt if they're "entertaining a client or other government official(s) for the purposes of necessary business-related discussions."
"Some would argue that that's the type of activity that these types of policies are trying to prevent ... I'm not sure how to handle that one," said Coun. Steve Black in his comments.
For 2024, the overall travel budget for mayor and council is $75,000. If the administrative staff has travel related to council activities and priorities, Boileau said those expenses are also included in council's budget.
By March 31 of every year, municipalities are legislated to report how much each council member receives as a salary and is paid out in expenses. Timmins does not break down what conferences members attend or the expenses claimed for each. Other municipalities have more detailed reports for the annual remuneration.
While not opposed to having transparency and accountability, there was a list of points Black struggled with.
Having travelled with people who have a fear of flying, he's not willing to force someone into taking a plane to save $200. When it comes to requiring a rental car, he noted the safety aspect in that rentals don't have winter tires and it may be a vehicle that someone isn't comfortable driving.
"I'm still in favour of the current method of giving a councillor the option to travel as they see comfortable and reimbursing as per our current policies," he said.
Coun. John Curley took a flight about a year ago for the first time in decades and had to get a prescription to take to fly.
"Flying for me is a health issue and it can't be done so I could not support moving forward with any of that," he told council.
He's also not on board with renting a car.
"I just purchased a vehicle I feel safe in and what I wanted to drive. To turn around and go and get a ... economy vehicle to save a couple 100 bucks, that's what it's going to be," he said, adding it's the safety part and having the driver be comfortable behind the wheel.
A mention of professional development also raised a red flag for Black.
"I think it should be clear that professional development has to be related to city training," he said, explaining if he got an MBA it would be professional development and could be argued that it's beneficial to the city.
"I don't think the city should be responsible for personal professional development."
While the mayor has signed off on expenses for years, the wording in the policy said the mayor is required to authorize the travel and all related expenses.
Sometimes a council can be divided and relationships between the mayor and a councillor get frayed, said Black. He doesn't believe the mayor should have authority over telling a councillor they can attend a conference for elected officials and asked for more clarity.
Coun. Cory Robin agreed with much of what Black had to say.
"A lot of this is great, but it just needs some more time in the oven. And honestly, I think that I'm really responsible to the residents in the city," said Robin.
The parent in Coun. Kristin Murray had her pitch a suggestion to divvy up the cash equally between each council member over the four-year term and have them be responsible for it.
Coun. Bill Gvozdanovic didn't think it was a bad idea.
"If we were to turn around and just amend it and say every councillor gets $6,000 per year, OK or two conferences. We're done. We're done," he said.