Tamara Cunningham reports in the Nanaimo Bulletin that when questioned about personal expense spending Mayor elect Bill McKay is quoted as saying:
“I think you are dealing with the trivial to be quite honest with you ... we have a $190 million budget and you are worrying about whether I spent $8,000 or $4,000, really?”
This is the same Councillor McKay who eagerly offered $10,000 to the Zero Waste Conference organizers, even though they were not asking for city support. A cynic might think this generous offer of a mere ten thousand tax dollars was designed to gain political favour with the anti-WTE group in the city.
not that much over 18 mths... ( I think that is the time period).. $220/mth. I know there are lots of people who spend that much per month on cablevision.. or a couples cell phone bill..
ReplyDeleteIt was not a reference to 18 months, it was referring to this year. The point is, any person in charge of spending tax dollars, who thinks $4000 is a trivial amount raises a caution for me. Councillor Anderson used the same language referring to 'only' $30,000 for Vic. Rd., and Councillor Greves referred to 'only' $300,000 extra for the composting plant. Substitute the amount, and insert 'someone else's money. I wonder if the 4 grand were coming out of his pocket, if it would also be a trivial amount.
ReplyDeleteAbout the offer of “$10,000 to the Zero Waste Conference organizers".
ReplyDeleteYeah, sponsorship $$$ to a conference whose main organizers were a resident of Gibson’s who owns a recycling business and Dirk Becker and his wife, who to my knowledge do not reside in Nanaimo. Last-minute presentation on it was made to Council by Ian Gartshore.
McKay asked for $10,000 in sponsorship funds for Zero Waste Conference. After the Manager advised Council there wasn't much left in the "reserve fund", Council supported giving the amount of $5,000.
ReplyDeleteSince his Leadercast NO vote McKay grew an Imperial Crown.
ReplyDeleteIf he is to succeed in the main chair he needs to come down from that and his election victory and become a common Three Amigo again.
Bill said that 4,000$ was trivial because of the ROI the city gained in his experiences and training that he received. he went to a vast amount of conferences that his council counterparts "could not be bothered to attend" and i believe he represented the city well. I believe its money well spent!
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