When does a town or county councillor stop being an elected member of government and when are they just members of the community?
That is the question Woodlands County Coun. Dale Kluin asked his fellow councillors during a discussion about councillor compensation.
It is also a question he believes he has the answer to, at least when it comes to whether a councillor should be eligible for compensation.
Put simply, Kluin believes that if an event is happening in a councillor’s ward or community, he or she should be attending it at no charge to the taxpayer other than that of their regular monthly salary.
Currently, councillors with Woodlands County (and for that matter, the County of Barrhead) receive a large portion of their annual compensation from the per diems they receive for attending meetings and events.
Every meeting, both councils consider invitations they receive from groups and individuals requesting a council representative. More often than, if they approve the request, leave it open for any councillor to attend the event who are then eligible to receive an honorarium for their attendance.
Kluin believes this shouldn’t be the case if a councillor attends an event in their community such as an anniversary or a senior’s dinner.
We agree.
Councillors, like ourselves, should feel obligated to attend these types of events because they are part of the community.
Having said that, we don’t believe it is a big problem, but the very fact it is possible invites abuse.
Another way to combat abuse is to start publishing councillor’s expenses this is especially important when a considerable amount of how one is compensated comes from per diems.
And to their credit, this is something Woodlands County is working towards and we urge the County of Barrhead to do so as well.
The example we like to use is when you see several councillors at one event, such as a grand opening. Only one may be part of the event, yet there they all are. Of course, councillors are citizens like anyone else and as such are free to go to whatever they like, within reason, but they shouldn’t necessarily have the right to bill the taxpayers.
Or more recently when two councillors attended the Royal Canadian Cannabis public open house. Now we don’t know if the councillors did charge for their presence, the point is we don’t know and the only way one can find out is by making a Freedom of Information request, and we believe we shouldn’t have to.
