Richmond Hill Coun. Joe DiPaola claims $40K in first half of 2020 to rank as top spender

9 representatives tallied over $105,000 over the first half of 2020

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 15, 2020
Sheila Wang

Regional Coun. Joe DiPaola earned the title of the biggest spender on Richmond Hill council -- again -- claiming nearly $40,000 for his expenses in the first half of this turbulent year.

In contrast to a marked cutback on expenditures by a majority of council members in the wake of the pandemic, DiPaola expensed thousands more dollars from April to June than the first three months, an analysis of council expenses in the first six months reveals.

As the city works to reduce costs to ease the financial burdens caused by the pandemic, The Liberal looked at councillors’ latest expense reports -- posted on the city's website on Sept. 11 -- to find out how the pandemic has shifted their spending priorities.

Nine representatives who dipped into their personal spending allowances to varying degrees tallied over $105,000 over the first half of 2020, an increase of more than 70 per cent from the same period of last year, the analysis shows.

DiPaola alone accounted for more than one third of the tab for the entire council.

“There’s no question that our spending priorities changed. Almost all of our second quarter expenditures were for COVID-related communications,” DiPaola wrote in an email on Oct. 13.

The second biggest spender -- Ward 5 Coun. Karen Cilevitz -- claimed close to $14,000, followed by regional Coun. Carmine Perrelli, who reported more than $11,000 in the first six months.

Cilevitz said her expenses mainly had to do with setting up a home office while maintaining continued communication with residents as well as conducting business meetings in unconventional ways.

Stressing on communication, Perrelli said he reached out to the community in a variety of venues, including social media platforms and in person based on the needs of residents.

Records show they both expensed less in the second quarter than prior to the pandemic.
This interactive chart illustrates the amounts money spent by each council member. Click or hover on the columns to see detailed expenses.

While the expenditure reports only offered a skin-deep summary, spending patterns can be discerned based on subcategories under which the spending was filed.

DiPaola put the lion’s share of his expenses into “communication,” which billed the taxpayers over $36,000 in the first six months.

“The deputy mayor makes absolutely no apologies for these efforts and feels we have this responsibility, knowing people were confused about where to go and how to get help and information from the three levels of government and not wait for hours on hold on the telephone,” DiPaola’s chief executive assistant Dennis Flaherty said.

He noted that a number of Richmond Hill residents relied on direct mail and TV news for information.

There were two COVID-19-related events in the second quarter of DiPaola's report that cost over $9,000, including about $4,600 for “communication with community for COVID-19” and $4,986 for hosting a COVID-19 town hall telecommunication.

Mayor Dave Barrow, co-host of the event, also claimed the same amount as DiPaola for the town hall, bringing the total cost of the town hall session, which Flaherty said engaged 8,000 residents, to about $10,000.

Printing of newsletter and postage were consistently among the biggest ticket items on the regional councillor’s expenditure report.

On April 20, DiPaola logged $8,270 for “postage costs.” Similarly in March, he claimed more than $15,000 for newsletters and postage.

“Since March, we have done daily updates on COVID-19 and on the deputy mayor’s website, delivered postcards with information on city openings and closings and an offer to help, a tele-townhall … all those things were COVID-related,” Flaherty explained.

DiPaola was not the only council member who spent on communication.

His fellow regional representative, Perrelli, claimed most of his expenses on communication for the purpose of advertising -- $7,800 out of a total of $11,213 -- in the first two quarters of 2020.

While Perrelli expensed less money in the second quarter than pre-COVID and reported no expenditures on printing of newsletters, several residents said they received a printed survey in early October from the regional councillor, which included an 11-by-17-inch photo collage about him.

The cost for the survey has not yet been posted as the city updates the council expenditure summaries every three months.

“To me, this is a total waste of money,” wrote Lawrence Raifman on Oct. 9, one of several Richmond Hill residents who responded to a post on social media by The Liberal about mail-outs from councillors.

Last November, Perrelli issued a similar glossy flyer that raised the ire of many residents, as reported by The Liberal.

The regional councillor’s expense report last year showed he claimed more than $16,000 on printing newsletters in the last quarter of 2019.

“My spending pattern is not based on artificial reporting parameters,” Perrelli said. “It is the result of Richmond Hill residents' need for two-way communication with their elected officials.”

Four council members -- Barrow, Ward 1 Coun. Greg Beros, Ward 4 Coun. David West and Ward 6 Coun. Godwin Chan -- claimed most of their expenditures on communication as well.

The reports show that West and Chan claimed less money since the outbreaks of COVID-19, also less than the same period of last year.

“At the time, when the city is facing fiscal pressures due to the pandemic, I honestly think it is the right thing to operate within fiscal restraints and not consuming costly expenses at these challenging times,” Chan wrote in an email on Oct. 11.

Councillors West and Castro Liu took similar approaches to expenditures amid COVID-19, according to their email responses.

Meanwhile, Ward 2 Coun. Tom Muench said he has tackled COVID-19 in innovative ways that didn’t have a sizeable impact on budget, such as delivering written communication to households and shopping for residents.

Barrow, who spent a couple thousands dollars more, and Beros, who spent about the same amount in the second quarter, didn’t respond to requests for comment, as of Oct. 13.

Halfway through 2020, all council members had underspent their budgets except DiPaola, who had claimed almost two thirds of his annual budget in a six-month time.

“We have a duty and a responsibility as elected officials to keep our constituents informed on critical items, especially on a serious issue like COVID-19.” DiPaola said.

Following an increase on the council budget in 2019 and implementation of an updated council expense policy in early 2020, each ward councillor is allocated $41,300 annually to expense, each regional councillor can spend up to $66,300 and the mayor $69,800.