Athabasca County is changing how councillor meeting attendance is recorded after a ratepayer discovered a councillor claimed remuneration and mileage for five meetings in 2013 that he did not attend.
Jack Dowhaluk, councillor for the Wandering River area, has apologized for filing timesheets that contained the erroneous claims.
“There were a couple of discrepancies. We did check them out. Some proved to be okay, and there were a few that — there were mistakes made. But they have been corrected,” said Dowhaluk. “Any monies that were owed were paid back.”
When asked how much money he returned to the county, Dowhaluk said, “That’s kind of personal. It’s not a substantial amount.”
County chief administrative officer Gary Buchanan estimated Dowhaluk repaid $1,700 related to the five missed meetings.
“The two components to attending a meeting would be a day rate and the mileage for that meeting, and he has repaid both,” said Buchanan. “If there was a meal in there, that was reimbursed as well.”
Councillors are paid $257 per regular council meeting, said Buchanan, plus mileage at 54 cents per kilometre.
Jennifer Batiuk is a resident of the division Dowhaluk represents and ran against Dowhaluk in the 2010 municipal election; it was she who reported concerns to the county about possible discrepancies between meeting minutes and Dowhaluk’s timesheets.
“I’m an interested ratepayer, and I read the council minutes that are posted online. And I noticed in a couple of meetings that Mr. Dowhaluk’s attendance wasn’t recorded. And then I checked his timesheet, and it said that, well, he had claimed remuneration for the meeting,” said Batiuk.
“But, it didn’t make sense. He was not accounted for among the attendees but wasn’t recorded absent. So I sent an email to Gary Buchanan to clarify that,” she said.
Batiuk noticed one meeting in November where Dowhaluk was recorded as absent but had still claimed expenses. For four other meetings for which he had claimed per diems and mileage, it was unclear whether he had attended or not.
“This kind of struck me as odd that there were four meetings where he wasn’t recorded at all,” she said.
Dowhaluk said the discrepancies were a mistake, explaining he writes all his scheduled meetings into an agenda at the beginning of a given month and then refers back to the agenda later. “Sometimes I’m away at another meeting and I don’t jot it down … so at the end of the month, I just look at my book and I copy what’s in it,” he said.
“If he wasn’t at the meetings, he shouldn’t be paid for attending the meetings,” Batiuk said. “It’s not very good use of taxpayer money.”
“I’m very disappointed in all of this, I guess because it’s an honour system,” said county Reeve Doris Splane. “But at the same time, it is certainly something that now that we’re aware of, we’re going to be looking at very seriously.”
Buchanan said there would be at least one procedural change: how meeting attendance is recorded.
“We will ensure that in any set of minutes for a council or council committee meeting, it will clearly show who’s present specifically and be explicit as to who’s absent. It’s been not consistent in the past. In some cases, there’s no line for absents, but in future, there will always be an absent line.”
As for timesheets, Buchanan said the onus is on councillors to ensure the claims are accurate, not administration.
“Council polices its own timesheets. It doesn’t actually come through staff, other than when they finally get to us so we can pay them. But the completion of timesheets is a council process.”
Buchanan said he did not anticipate that would change.
“We had a meeting (Friday) morning, so councillor Dowhaluk at the end of the meeting apologized to council for the errors he’s made and committed to being much more careful in the future so this kind of thing does not happen again.”
Councillors generally initial each other’s timesheets; however, Splane said this is not an indication the sheets have been fact-checked.
“When we initial timesheets, it’s more to see if they meet with policy — that they’re actually making claims on the mileage that’s been allocated and the per diems that have been allocated — that sort of thing. It’s not necessarily saying, ‘This is an accurate document.’”
Splane said county council is going into long-range planning, and looking at how timesheets are reviewed is on the table. However, she noted rigorous cross-referencing could become “almost tedious” — and expensive.
“It does consume ratepayers’ dollars every bit of time that is put into this sort of thing,” she said.
Splane wondered, too, how much a relatively new council should be held accountable for what was largely a previous council’s actions.
“We’ve started a new term, and so the issues that have happened then … well, I’m a new Reeve, we’ll put it that way,” said Splane. “I really do believe in accountability and the honour system. Those are two things I hold very highly.”
As for whether Dowhaluk’s timesheets from years prior to 2013 would be reviewed, or the timesheets for any other councillors, Splane said it was unlikely unless further ratepayer complaints are received.
Batiuk said for her part, she is satisfied the issue has been addressed.
“Now that this has come to light, I think that there’ll be more … making sure the timesheets are accurate when they’re submitted,” she said.
She said she has not looked at other councillors’ timesheets as closely, nor has she perused timesheets and minutes prior to 2013 in great detail. She added that the councillor timesheets on the county’s website only go back to 2010.
“You can’t go back too far,” she said; however, “I appreciate the fact that the county is posting all the minutes and the councillors’ timesheets online to be transparent and accountable.”
“One of the reasons that we do put them online is so the public can have a look at them and check and see and help us out if there is a discrepancy, and I think the person did the right thing by phoning in,” said Dowhaluk. “You know, we fixed it, and it’s all done.
“It’s just the record keeping that has to be watched a little bit,” he said. “You’ve really got to apologize for the mistakes.”
When asked if council would consider disciplinary action against Dowhaluk, Splane said the option is one council will be considering “very closely.”
“When somebody has stepped over the bounds, discipline is looked at and usually implemented,” she said.
“What he’s done or hasn’t done is on his honour system, and whether it’s right or wrong — he has to be accountable for that.”
