Council recently released the annual report of mayor and council expenses in the Township. We have remained silent, but some serious questions need to be investigated and answered. Primarily the controversy centers around Mayor Rick Green's expenses.
Kurt Alberts was on a self-imposed salary of roughly $40K and donated all his automatic salary increases. I had said $58K at one time and was corrected. Rick Green makes $93K per year and with his Metro Vancouver pay he is at $120K ++ I was able to locate expenses for Former Mayor Kurt Alberts for 2007. Here is the comparison:
Former Mayor Kurt Alberts 2007 Expenses = $ 2,419
Mayor Rick Green's 2008 Expenses = $ 12,620
Why do you suppose that for the same work and meetings, Mayor Rick Green has managed to spend 10 times more than Former Mayor Kurt Alberts? How does that happen? We watched the webcast of the Special Meeting of Council on Monday and when questioned by Council members, Green stated that he received the money "automatically". He claims to have not had to submit receipts or sign anything for the expenses. He stressed this 4 times during the discussion, cutting Council members off to do so.
The Langley Record is investigating this claim, but so far Green's statements do not add up. We checked with several municipal experts and thus far, all say that Mayor Green would have to sign to approve these expenses. It is routine and a required municipal accounting practice and process. Stay tuned. If the local newspapers don't do their homework, we will do a Freedom of Information Request to get you the facts.
What do you think about this 10 fold increase in the mayor's expenses, despite Mayor Green getting a salary more than 5 times that of his predecessor and getting 1/3 of that tax free by statute?
2 comments:
This man platformed on fiscal responsiibility. Look at the big picture, his salary was reported at $120,000. The year previous Kurt's was in the neighbourhood of $57,000. Sounds like a whopping 210% increase. This guy surely can'y hold a promise!
Don't hold your breath for the Times to do anything with this - hope the Advance will man up and report on it.
Of course the man had to sign for expenses! I don't expect any of them to have nothing that should be expensed, but accountability and responsibility - that's a huge piece of trusting a politician, regardless of stripe or level of government.
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