Several Wellington County councillors are to be commended for showing more respect for local taxpayers than the majority of their cohorts last week.
At a special council meeting on Aug. 14, councillors voted in support of a motion to reimburse Erin mayor and county councillor Lou Maieron $2,500 for expenses related to a 10-day mayors’ trade mission to China sponsored through the Canada China Investment Association (CCIA) in May.
As reported in the Wellington Advertiser this week, county councillors Joanne Ross-Zuj (mayor of Centre Wellington), Lynda White (Wellington North) and Bruce Whale (mayor of Mapleton) voted against reimbursing Maieron in a 9-3 vote. Councillors Mark MacKenzie, John Green and Gordon Tosh were absent from the meeting and Maieron did not vote after declaring a conflict.
Had they been approached in advance, county councillors could have debated the potential benefits of such a trip for county taxpayers and discussed such issues as whether municipal government has any practical role to play in international trade, or even whether Maieron is the logical official to represent the county on this particular file.
However, since the reimbursement request was presented after the fact, such debate was pretty much moot and came down to whether council members felt the trip fit within the county’s policy for reimbursement of conference expenses.
If it does, it shouldn’t.
Simply put, any level of government should have a policy in place requiring any significant travel expenses, which would surely include all international travel, be pre-approved. Other councilors should have at least been made aware Maieron was going on the trip if he was going to be representing the county overseas.
At the Aug. 14 meeting, Warden Chris White stated he was told by Maieron that he couldn’t release information about the trip prior to leaving because of confidentiality concerns.
That clearly didn’t stop Kincardine Mayor Larry Kraemer from advising members of Bruce County council he was attending and obtaining, in advance, their agreement to cover his airfare under its conference attendance policy. Kraemer also advised members of Kincardine council about the trip, as reported by the Kincardine Independent on the Newspapers’s website on April 10, more than a month before the trade mission.
The Canada China Investment Association itself posted an 850-word article providing information about the May 15 to 25 trip, including the list of delegates, on its website and held a press conference in Toronto prior to the excursion.
So it seems Wellington County councillors could have been given at least a few scant details without breaching confidentiality.
Most members of council seem to agree the trip had some merit and would have supported it had they been asked prior to takeoff. However at least one, Ross-Zuj, was under the impression Maieron had attended in his capacity as mayor of Erin and reimbursement issues would be dealt with at the local level – an understandable assumption given the trip was called “The Mayor Delegation to China Trade Mission.”
The amount of money involved here is small, but there are important principles at stake, including respect for the institutions of local government, individual councillors and the citizens who have every right to expect openness so they can determine if they are getting value for their tax dollars.
There is also the issue of precedent. As Whale put it, “If there’s a protocol and we’re stepping outside, we’re backing ourselves into a corner.”
If, as expected, the county decides to review and clarify its policy on conference attendance and expense protocols, they should keep in mind one overriding principle: clear it in advance, or foot your own bill.
