NPA Coun. George Affleck wants Mayor Gregor Robertson to proactively release his office’s spending information every three months.
Affleck has tabled a motion for the May 3 city council meeting about Robertson’s discretionary fund, nearly a month after Business In Vancouver revealed that Robertson and his staff spent a record $264,137 on non-essential goods and services in 2015.
Of that, $174,321 was spent on consultants, many of whom are also Vision Vancouver party campaign workers. Between November 2011 and December 2015, taxpayers were charged nearly $650,000 by the mayor’s office to pay for consultants, advertising, travel, taxis, food and drink and other items.
Affleck’s motion said Robertson’s discretionary fund and corresponding office budgets for city councillors should be released proactively on a quarterly basis via the city’s website, “including copies of all contractor and supplier invoices (consistent with appropriate privacy protection legislation), beginning with expenses for the current 2016 budget year.”
Affleck’s motion said the mayor’s office budget increased 23.6% in 2015 and another 2% in 2016. Affleck also wants all future city budgets to include a line item for the mayor’s office and councillors’ office.
“Examples of major Canadian cities that exhibit exemplary openness and transparency best practices, such as the proactive public release of Mayor and Councillors’ office expenses on a quarterly basis, along with detailed office budget information posted annually, include the cities of Toronto and Calgary,” said Affleck’s motion.
Robertson’s discretionary budget is not included in the occasional disclosures posted on the city’s open data website. It is only available through Freedom of Information requests.
When a list of expenditures for July to November 2015 was requested in late November, FOI director Barbara Van Fraassen refused to release the documents, citing an exception in the law for when a government plans to disclose the documents within 60 business days. The records were not released within the 60-day window and a complaint was filed with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. City hall finally released the records, and responded to a request for information through the end of December 2015, on April 1.
The records show that former Robertson aides Lara Honrado and Rita Ko were paid $31,000 and $30,000, respectively, as consultants after they left their jobs in his office. Vision Vancouver videographer Mark Vonesch also received $15,000 for video production.
