CALGARY — High-ranking city officials claimed at least four times more in expenses than previously reported over a three-year period, documents obtained by StarMetro show.

Hundreds of claims totalling nearly $180,000 were submitted by city manager Jeff Fielding and several general managers from 2015 through 2017, according to StarMetro’s analysis. But the city’s website reports their expenses as totalling only $42,123 for the same period. And, since the website is the only means by which the city reports staff expenses, taxpayers had no way of knowing about the discrepancy.

StarMetro reviewed more than 1,400 pages of expense statements filed by Fielding, general managers (who each oversee several business units) and other high-ranking officials, including the city solicitor, city clerk and nearly three dozen directors, who each manage a specific department, such as roads or housing.

The records were obtained through a Freedom of Information request in April 2018 and took the city more than five months to produce.

City hall’s existing practice is to annually disclose expenses incurred by the city manager and general managers for charges related to meals and hosting and employee recognition and mentoring. The city reveals only the total amounts for each job title and claims that fall under those two categories.

Expenses related to out-of-town travel, conferences, professional membership dues, phone bills, courses, parking, and other odds and ends (such as purchases on iTunes) are not publicly disclosed by the city — a practice that trails many other Canadian jurisdictions and leaves citizens largely in the dark on how their tax dollars are spent.

Fielding acknowledged “shortcomings” with current policies and promised to implement a more comprehensive system “fairly soon.”

“Let’s face it, your inquiry has been useful from the standpoint of saying, ‘You know what, get off my ass and get going with this,” said Fielding, who, records show, expensed at least $26,429.25 from 2015 to 2017 compared to the $8,809.75 previously disclosed by the city.

“While we have a minimum, that minimum standard doesn’t cover everything off, so it needs to be better,” he added. “It appears to me as if the provincial initiative is, now I would say, a standard that we should look at as a best practice, and I don’t see any reason why we can’t move to that standard.”

Fielding noted the city is already reviewing salary and benefit packages for its employees and that he would now consider additional changes to expense claims, but he declined to elaborate on what that new system would look like or when it could roll out.

Carla Male, acting chief financial officer, later clarified it could be introduced within the first quarter of 2019.

The records provided exclusively to StarMetro show that about three dozen members of the city’s administrative and leadership teams billed taxpayers at least $657,000 from 2015 through 2017.

The documents vary in format, organization, and specificity. Hundreds of pages lacked vital information, such as the claimant’s name, a description and rationale for the expenditure, and names of those present at a meeting. In some cases, the line items were illegible. In others, lower-ranking staff claimed expenses on behalf of a superior.

The figures cited in this story represent the best possible account given the limitations of the available data. It also excludes millions of dollars expensed each year by thousands of other city staff.

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The City of Edmonton posts detailed quarterly claims of senior management on its open data portal. Toronto publishes senior staff expenses for business travel, conferences, training and hospitality semi-annually.

In 2012, the Alberta government was hailed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation for setting the “gold standard” and setting an example for other jurisdictions to follow.

The province’s searchable online database details travel, accommodation, meals, and hospitality expenses claimed by ministers, deputy ministers, ministerial staff, government caucus and senior officials on a bimonthly basis.

“On the overarching magnitude of actual expenses that are below the surface, the City of Calgary’s expenses for senior managers are like an iceberg,” said Franco Terrazzano, Alberta director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“You can see some of the expenses quite visibly, but there are expenses hidden below the surface away from the taxpayers’ eye,” Terrazzano said. “All expenses should be made more public.”

The expense records of senior management obtained by StarMetro represent a fraction of what the city paid out as a whole in recent years.

In June, the city auditor released a report showing taxpayers paid $4.5 million for expenses in 2017 down from roughly $6.25 million two years earlier.

“The decrease was not attributed to a reduction in staff levels as these remained relatively consistent from 2015 to 2017 (less than three per cent change year-over-year),” the auditor’s report noted.

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Terrazzano challenged the city to follow Alberta’s lead and publicly release each expenditure and include the amount spent, the type of expense, and the names of anyone present at the meeting.

“We see no reason why Calgary can’t have the most transparent and accountable government when it comes to senior management expenses,” Terrazano said.

Roughly one-third of the nearly 4,000 individual claims reviewed by StarMetro did not include any rationale for the expenditure or names of individuals who attended lunches and dinners with senior bureaucrats. That glaring omission could be the result of individual business units at the city tracking expenses differently, according to a city spokesperson.

City hall entitlements have increasingly been under the microscope in recent years, with critics blasting generous pension plans, salary hikes and retirement vacation bonuses.

Membership dues, educational courses and mandatory conferences to ensure their good-standing within their profession were among some of the most expensive items claimed by bureaucrats in the documents obtained by StarMetro.

Mac Logan, the city’s former general manager of transportation who abruptly resigned in late 2017 for undisclosed reasons, claimed nearly $75,000 over 36 months — surpassing the city manager and general managers by a factor of three.

However, more than half of Logan’s claims were for Van Horne Institute membership renewals for city transportation staff. Likewise, city auditor Kathy Palmer expensed more than $58,000 over three years, at least $20,000 of which was for various courses for herself and staff, including a $429 emotional intelligence course at the University of Calgary.

Coun. Evan Woolley, chair of the city’s audit committee, said the “broad middle” of Calgary would appreciate their tax dollars being spent to ensure the “best leaders” are running the city.

“We need to be as open and transparent as possible while at the same time having a full discourse around the importance of educational training opportunities,” said Woolley, adding he’s concerned the city not slash spending in that area much further.

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“The best companies around the world invest significantly in leadership development and leadership training, and I think we’re no different,” said Woolley.

Coun. Jeromy Farkas said the Alberta government’s expense disclosure policy should be the starting point for the city.

“I would even go further and fully extend the provincial government’s salary and transparency policy,” Farkas said, referring to the city’s practice of only releasing salary ranges for its employees. “The city’s current implementation leaves a lot to be desired.”

The Ward 11 councillor likened getting necessary information from the city to “pulling teeth” and called for more proactive disclosure.

“It’s disappointing that the public continues to hear about important things of public interest through these Freedom of Information requests,” said Farkas. “Whenever I see that line ... I see that as a black eye on the city whose focus should be on transparency.”

Sean Holman, assistant professor of journalism at Mount Royal University and an expert in freedom of information laws, said the city’s policy is “out of step” with a lot of other public sector institutions across the country.

“Most of the time when expenses of this kind are disclosed, the scope of the expenditure is much more robust,” said Holman. “It’s not in some ways the most important aspect of transparency but it is one that is a base standard of transparency.”

Holman said citizens deserve to see this kind of information to understand better how tax dollars are being spent and decide whether those expenditures are reasonable and proper.

“The reason why secrecy is so seductive in government is that we use information as citizens and as consumers as a means of control,” Holman said. “We can use that information to make better decisions, and by making better decisions, we can better control our public institutions and private institutions for that matter.”

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