Richmond Hill council's more than $1.4M tab reveals where your tax dollars went in 2019

Taxpayers left to foot bill for councillors’ advertising, newsletters and database services

Yorkregion.com
April 22, 2020
Sheila Wang

The tab for Richmond Hill council in 2019 is $1.4 million. - Metro Creative Graphics

There has been a lot of buzz around savings and cost efficiency in the City of Richmond Hill over the past couple of years, and it’s time to examine how much the city's decision-makers have cost you in 2019.

The overall cost of Richmond Hill’s nine-person council last year was more than $1.4 million in pay, benefits and expenses, according to a report released by the city’s treasurer, David Dexter, at an electronic council meeting April 8.

Council's expense alone totalled nearly $220,000 as councillors printed newsletters, hosted dinner meetings and promoted themselves on the public's dime, according to their individual expense reports posted online.

Statistics suggest the nine representatives spent vastly diverse amounts in strikingly different ways.

Regional Councillors Carmine Perrelli and Joe DiPaola, who were the two largest spenders, shelled out more money on expenses than all the rest of council combined in 2019.

Perrelli, the No. 1 spender last year, had an expense tally exceeding $64,000. In close second was Coun. DiPoala, who spent close to $60,000, according to their individual expense reports.

The third biggest spender was Ward 5 Coun. Karen Cilevitz who spent slightly more than $16,000, a quarter of Perrelli's expense in 2019.

Cilevitz spent nearly one third of her expenses on donating to the non-profit community groups in 2019, which is no longer allowed to be reimbursed this year, according to a new expense guideline adopted earlier in 2020.

Mayor Dave Barrow was the lowest spender, costing the public just above $6,000 on expenses -- around ten per cent as much as Perrelli did.

While most councillors allocated a majority of their expenditure to the “constituency” category, Perrelli and DiPaola made full use of their previously expanded “communication budgets” and claimed tens of thousands of dollars more than others.

Earlier in 2019, council voted to add a new $204,000 communication budget for all members to use at taxpayers' expense, The Liberal reported.

Hover your cursor or click on the interactive charts below to find out how much public money each Richmond Hill representative spend and where the money went.

NEWSLETTERS AND ‘DATABASE SERVICES’

Perrelli claimed more than $55,000 on communication expenses -- including advertising, newsletters, media supplies and his personal website -- last year.

Despite the frequent spending on advertising, Perrelli paid significantly more money out of his communication budget for newsletters, the expense report shows.

On the last day of 2019, the regional councillor threw about $16,000 on printing newsletters the same day when he claimed more than $4,000 for “database services.”

A similar spending pattern has been found in other council members’ expense reports.

In December 2019, taxpayers footed a $7,000-plus bill for DiPaola to develop his website and maintain a database.

“This was provided to help my office properly address resident’s inquiries and issues,” DiPaola said of his expenses on “database services.”

Neither of the highest-spending regional councillors offered further explanations as to what “database services” entailed despite the fact that they’ve cost residents a pretty penny.

Ward 3 Coun. Castro Liu claimed less than $500 on “database maintenance” on Dec. 31.

Ward 1 Coun. Greg Beros spent less than $200 on “database maintenance fee” on Nov. 5, his report shows.

The same expense items did not appear in other councillors’ expense reports.

FOUR-THOUSAND-DOLLAR DISCREPANCY

There has been a more than $4,000 difference in the total expenses between what has been disclosed by council and what has been reported by the city’s treasurer.

The treasurer stated that council claimed about $215,000 in total last year, while the councillors’ expenses amounted to almost $220,000.

A line-by-line comparison between the statement and the expense reports revealed the disparity in the recording of Perrelli’s expenditure.

The regional councillor posted more than $64,000 in expenses but the treasurer accounted for only $59,000 in the statement.

“The 2019 council expenses that are posted online are accurate,” Richmond Hill spokesperson Libbi Hood said on April 17.

The city did not respond to further inquiries about the discrepancy and advised The Liberal to go through a freedom of information request.

Hover your cursor or click on the interactive charts below to find out how much public dollars each Richmond Hill representative spend and where the money went.

HOW MUCH DID YOUR REPRESENTATIVES MAKE?

While the nine elected officials collectively burned through hundreds of thousands of public dollars to perform their duties and represent their constituents, the expenditure only represented 15 per cent of their overall tab in 2019.

Council members earned a combined total that exceeded $1.1 million in pay and benefits, plus a $71,000-plus allowance, according to the treasurer’s statement.

Mayor Barrow made close to $200,000 in salaries and benefits last year as well as a car and cellphone allowance that topped $13,000.

Regional Councillors Perrelli and DiPaola each earned around $170,000 in salaries and benefits, with a $7,200 allowance each.

Portions of the three regional representatives’ salaries were covered by York Region.

Ward councillors were each paid about $78,000 in salaries, expect Ward 5 Coun. Cilevitz, who made $20,000 less than her counterparts.

Council decided last October to suspend Cilevitz’s pay for 180 days for failure to notify her fellow councillors of two residents meeting she organized in April and March, respectively, The Liberal reported.