The Athabasca Ratepayers’ Association (ARPA) is still looking for answers as to what happened with $440,000 it says the Town of Athabasca saved from Muskeg Creek local improvement project funding.
ARPA discussed the issue of the missing money at a meeting held last Thursday at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex.
ARPA addressed town council as a delegation June 18, when the association presented a 40-page report on the Muskeg Creek issue. ARPA asked council to suspend the Muskeg Creek local improvement tax (for which ARPA claimed there had been insufficient notice) while investigating ARPA’s concerns. ARPA also requested an apology to residents for how the project has been handled.
Town council passed a motion at that meeting to seek legal counsel.
ARPA vice-president Nichole Adams alleged to attendees of the Sept. 12 association meeting that town council went in camera on July 16 for “kind of more than an hour.”
Council’s minutes for that meeting indicated the in-camera session lasted 39 minutes.
It is unclear whether council discussed the Muskeg Creek issue in-camera, but when council came out of camera, councillor George Hawryluk made a motion “that council direct administration to amend the grant reporting of the Muskeg Creek paving project, based on the advice provided by legal counsel.”
“What does that mean?” asked one ARPA meeting attendee. “How can you amend a grant reporting?”
Adams said ARPA had no way of knowing how the reporting would be altered because town council would not release the amendment application to ARPA.
“We requested it, and they refused to give us the application to find out where the money is now going to be allocated,” said Adams.
She suspected the money would be reallocated away from Muskeg Creek and to something else.
Adams said, on behalf of the association, she is outraged with how council responded to ARPA’s June 18 presentation. Adams said ARPA has not even received a letter in response.
In an email to the Advocate, Town of Athabasca Mayor Roger Morrill said he was unaware insufficient notice was provided to residents about the local improvement tax, but conceded, “some deficiencies of the project were noted.”
ARPA claimed in its report that the Town of Athabasca earmarked $1.25 million for the project. It went on to state that on June 15, town council awarded the contract to Allied Paving Company Ltd. for the Muskeg Creek paving project for $805,960.
That leaves about $444,040 unaccounted for by ARPA’s calculations. Adams said if those remaining funds were used for a purpose other than what they were intended for, it would violate the Municipal Government Act.
One attendee at the Sept. 12 ARPA meeting asked what legal obligation council has to respond to ARPA’s 40-page report. ARPA president Ernest Aleixandre and Adams responded simultaneously that council has no legal obligation to respond to their report.
“They don’t have any legal obligation, but as a voter and a taxpayer, I would hope that when voters bring a response to council, that they respond and communicate,” said Adams. “Why go to council if they’re not going to engage with us to solve problems?
“They’re elected officials; they answer to voters,” said Adams. “It’s not some secret club where we don’t get to know what’s going on.”
Contesting council’s transparency, ARPA filed a Freedom of Information and Privacy request, for which it paid more than $150, requesting information on councillor expense reports, including details on former chief administrative officer (CAO) Doug Topinka’s retirement package.
Morrill wrote, “As to councillor expenses, I am not aware of refused requests for disclosure,” in his email interview.
“I have challenged people to look at (councillor expenses) … as an example: all the times I have gone to conventions, courses or retreats out of town, not once did I bill my community for a hotel room,” said the mayor.
Adams alleged Topinka received “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of vacation payout because the town didn’t have a vacation policy at the time Topinka retired, although she conceded this assessment is largely based on estimation.
The CAO’s 2012 salary and benefits nearly tripled from the year before: from $184,473 in 2011 to $531,550 in 2012, according to the town’s 2012 audited financial statements.
Appended to the salaries and benefits disclosure, the document notes the 2012 figure “includes lumpsum payment to former CAO upon retirement.”
The mayor denied Topinka received hundreds of thousands of dollars in vacation pay and said there is a vacation policy in place — last amended in July 2010 — for Town of Athabasca employees that existed at the time of Topinka’s retirement.
According to the town’s vacation policy, “Employees may not accumulate vacation time from one year to another; however, special requests will be considered and may be approved by the chief administrative officer and reported to council.”
However, Alberta Municipal Affairs’ municipal corporate review of the Town of Athabasca earlier this year stated that “the previous CAO had received a large vacation entitlement payment from the town due to outstanding vacation entitlement which caused discord in the community.”
The review, which was published in March, stated, “There is no policy in place to deal with vacation carryover or payout of vacation not taken.”
Morrill said, “Council has been transparent as legally possible” with regards to Topinka’s retirement package.
Adams said ARPA doesn’t have “buckets of money” to chase info that should already be made public about public officials.
