Richmond Hill Coun. Joe DiPaola spent more than $17K of taxpayers' money in Q1 2020

Last year, the regional councillor shelled out close to $60,000 in total

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 1, 2020
Sheila Wang

From newsletters to advertisements, Richmond Hill regional Coun. Joe DiPaola, who claimed over $17,000 on the public's dime, was the biggest spender on council over the first three months of 2020, records show.

The regional councillor’s expenses accounted for about one third of the collective expenditure by the nine-member council in the first quarter, expense reports revealed.

A majority of the regional representative’s expenses -- over $15,000 -- went toward communication, such as printing newsletters and postage.

“During my election, and this term, I committed to regular communications with constituents through all media available including door drop newsletters,” DiPaola wrote in an email response on Aug. 26.

Since the beginning of the 2018-2022 term, DiPaola has consistently spent more public dollars than most of his fellow council members.

Last year, he shelled out close to $60,000 in total, but was edged out by fellow regional Coun. Carmine Perrelli, who expensed a few thousand dollars more and claimed the top spot.

Last March, council adopted a total expense budget of $450,200 for 2020, a 50 per cent increase from 2018.

At the same meeting, the council expense policy was updated to “provide flexibility” and “clear up misconceptions,” which resulted in the elimination of the previous budget categories.

While most councillors didn’t appear to be eager to tap into the increased budget and expanded flexibility this year, the expense reports suggested DiPaola started off the year by burning over one quarter of his allocated annual budget on several big-ticket items.

On Feb. 26, DiPaola claimed about $6,800 on printing “community newsletters,” and five days later reported close to $8,000 on the postage of the newsletters.

“These charges are for one newsletter delivered to all Richmond Hill households as a business and events update, and similar information through social media and local newspaper advertising, including some early COVID-19 communications,” DiPaola responded.

The second biggest spender, Perrelli, reimbursed about $7,700 in the first three months, a few hundred bucks more than Ward 5 Coun. Karen Cilevitz.

Mayor Dave Barrow spent less than $3,000 in the same period, the least amount of expenses among the council members.

Click on or hover your cursor on the interactive graph below to see where and how much your representatives spent your tax dollars in the first quarter of 2020.

The reports show council expenses tallied to about $58,000 in the first quarter, including some $30,000 on communication.

The amount accounted for only 15 per cent of the council's $204,000 annual communication budget.

Perrelli and Ward 1 Coun. Greg Beros both spent much of their expenses on communication for advertising purposes.

The regional councillor threw almost $4,000 on advertising on March 31, the biggest single-item on his report of the first quarter.

Beros also claimed his biggest amount of expense on the last day of March on advertising, which cost less than $700.

The expense reports show Ward 4 Coun. David West and Ward 6 Coun. Godwin Chan also claimed big bucks in the category of communication.

They each expensed over $2,000 on printing newsletters and postage in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, Cilevitz and Ward 3 Coun. Castro Liu each devoted most of their expenditure to donations to the community.

This year, each ward councillor in Richmond Hill is allocated a total budget of $41,300, each regional councillor $66,300 and mayor $$69,800.