Rhino’s Ramblings - St Jude And The Information Appeal

By Robert Thomas Opinion/Commentary

“Where are the rest of the rest of the expense account stories you promised?” Is a question I was asked by the early morning coffee crew.

It’s a group of stories at least the morning coffee people have been anticipating.

They are stories that are sort of like a publicly purchased birthday cake that everyone really wants to bite into.

All I could respond to the early AM coffee crew is my name is not Jude. I’m not the saint of hopeless\lost causes. I am going to have to do some digging.

But alas I will be honest and the entire series of stories about our elected officials expenses may not appear in the pages of this publication.

Finding out where the people we elected spent yours and my tax dollars may well be out of reach.

The reasons why they may never see the light of day - as I have been told - is due to staff holidays, missing staff and a new enterprise computer operating system backbone that has restructured the records of how our public funds are spent.

The records I requested in my opinion - as I understand as it was related to me - sort of lost in some great labyrinth of intrigue and unintentional machinations.

Hiding just below the blue screen of death. So close but so unobtainable.

It all sounds plausible.

The only problem is it really throws a monkey wrench into holding our elected officials accountable on almost the very eve of the 2024 municipal election.

Not just for this publication, other media but also ordinary everyday taxpayers. The very people that the Freedom Of Information legislation was designed to assist.

And it’s not a Moose Jaw problem either.

Throughout the province government bodies under the Provincial Act seemingly have measures to thwart access to public records.

Whether it be exorbitant fees, poor record keeping, differing degrees of service believe me it’s out there.

And Moose Jaw in my opinion is not immune from it as well - there are different problems here when it comes to access but believe me they are there.

There is no means to write an expense performance review it seems as the routine records I applied for, was promised, are for all intents and purposes not coming in time to fit the final strict shutdown schedule for MJ Independent.

I’ve applied to the Province to conduct a review. Take a look at both sides of the issue and then issue a non-binding recommendation at the end of the review.

These things take months and sometimes over a year to complete so there is a strong likelihood I won’t be receiving all of the records I requested until well after I am no longer editing MJ Independent.

Everything from here on in has to go through an office of the provincial government when it comes to our elected officials’ expense accounts.

It’s as simple as that.

But I can give you a bit of a preliminary look at what I found other than the City paying for elected and non-elected officials to go golfing.

First off at least one member of Council has purchased alcoholic beverages on their expense account.

Now this is all perfectly allowable under the present policy.

But what I can’t tell you is I don’t know if it was just one member of Council alone. Was it more than one member of Council? Was the alcoholic beverage bought for someone other than an elected/non-elected City official?

I just cannot tell without the full records that were requested.

I cannot tell you did the members of Council sneak through elaborate dinners on the taxpayers’ tab - or did they dine responsibly?

I don’t have access to the actual receipts nor do I have the monthly sheets that list the expenses and what they were for.

So in my opinion the entire council is seemingly tarred with the same brush of uncertainty.

On another issue I see one member of Council did some overnight parking charges - at hotels and at the airport - at the same time they have a vehicle allowance.

As far as I understand a vehicle allowance in the context of the City of Moose Jaw is it includes everything including gas, oil changes, insurance, maintenance, repairs and yes parking fees - even on City business.

Remember this is a vehicle allowance not a gas allowance.

Now my understanding or my opinion on this might be wrong but if it’s not should the money for parking - albeit so far a small amount - be repaid, just like a birthday cake, to city coffers?

That is if I’m right.

It’s a question that’s unlikely to be answered.

It’s something that likely won’t be answered for quite some time - if at all.

And by the time it is answered I’m likely to be half a world away.