Mayor Nolan Crouse is in hot water after a city councillor brought forward allegations accusing him of doubling up on expense claims.
Mayor Nolan Crouse is in hot water after a city councillor brought forward allegations accusing him of doubling up on expense claims.
The information came to light during discussion of Crouse's remuneration as chair of the Capital Region Board during the St. Albert city council meeting Monday night.
Coun. Sheena Hughes revealed research she had done comparing Crouse's expense claims submitted to the CRB and to the City of St. Albert. She cited a dozen examples of the doubled-up claims, most of which were mileage to various events around the Capital Region or the costs of attending luncheons or other sessions.
“I didn't want to have to sit on this for two more weeks,” said Hughes, adding that the expense claims impact both St. Albert and the region.
Hughes said in a follow-up interview that she could have cited more examples of questionable expenses, but during the meeting she kept it to the ones that were the most clear.
Hughes brought the information forward after council had voted to postpone further discussion of Coun. Cam MacKay's motion which sought to have the mayor's board chair remuneration disclosed via the City of St. Albert's reporting mechanisms.
How did this happen?
Crouse says the doubled-up claims are errors resulting from some poor recordkeeping and preparing the expense claims for the different organizations on different days. He said his recordkeeping was “sloppy” and he's embarrassed but he “absolutely did not” submit the same expense claims intentionally for reimbursement from both the City of St. Albert and the Capital Region Board.
Crouse said he's already paid back more than $600 of the mistaken claims and did so before Monday's meeting.
“This is not pre-meditated theft,” Crouse said in an interview, noting his city council and CRB expenses, plus his remuneration from the CRB total about $100,000, and the double-claims revealed by Hughes are worth about $1,000.
City staff will review the rest of Crouse's expense claims.
Doug Lagore, CEO of the Capital Region Board, told the Gazette that on Sept. 23 Crouse repaid $1,200 to the CRB for several months' worth of meeting fees that were overpaid this year.
The information brought forward at the meeting by Hughes showed examples stretching back to 2012 of apparent double charges – things such as a claim to the City of St. Albert for mileage to Beaumont in January 2013 for a state-of-the-town address, with the CRB getting hit with a similar charge.
Hughes told the Gazette she felt she had to bring forward the information to the public after going through the information she received via a freedom of information request.
“This was very uncomfortable to bring forward,” she said. “This is not about it being a witch hunt.”
She noted she had only spotted one instance in the CRB records of an expense being paid back, which were the charges for attending a parade in Redwater.
Crouse said he doesn't always prepare his expense claims for the CRB and the city on the same day, and his expenses for both organizations will be looked at by the city.
He stated by email that he'd just recently found out he'd forgotten to submit his expense claims – about $937 worth – for the month of May.
There was also a spreadsheet calculation error, Crouse noted.
Asked about an apparent triple charge for an event in Leduc in July 2013, he said he had to go out to Leduc twice on the same day and the other charge was likely a duplicate.
As of Oct. 1, Crouse Developments Inc. is no longer receiving the payment for Crouse's CRB expenses and remuneration.
The mayor said while he doesn't know that he ever told people his corporation was being paid instead of him directly, he wasn't trying to make the information unavailable either.
Asked about any potential tax benefit of receiving his payments through a company rather than personally, Crouse said he has a professional accountant that handles his finances.
Motion postponed
Council sought a postponement of further debate on MacKay's motion after receiving a legal opinion acquired by MacKay for council just minutes before council began on Monday night.
At issue is Crouse's honorarium and per diems for serving as the Capital Region Board chair. MacKay believes these should be disclosed via the city, instead of directly from the CRB, so that the expenses show up on the city's books.
Crouse's remuneration from the Capital Region Board, which was being paid to his company, was done at the request of the CRB, said Crouse.
MacKay told council it took him several freedom of information requests to receive any details on Crouse's remuneration from the CRB.
“I've not seen a worse example of non-disclosure and secrecy,” MacKay said. “This arrangement was never disclosed to the general public or to council.”
Coun. Wes Brodhead moved that the motion be postponed until Oct. 20, and that vote passed 4-2 with the mayor recusing himself from the discussion.
“Quite honestly I'm for disclosure, I get that. The implication of some sort of malfeasance on the part of our mayor, I'm not sure that's appropriate. There was some fairly strong language used,” Brodhead said, but added he'd like to delve in deeper.
Council reaction
Coun. Cathy Heron said Tuesday the previous night's behaviour was not “respectful,” adding council still has three more years of good work to do together. “I don't want to get sidetracked by this,” she said.
Coun. Gilles Prefontaine thought the postponement was a good idea, allowing councillors to get more information.
MacKay said he paid for the legal opinion he provided to council, adding the postponement is a “typical strategy when you're going to lose.” MacKay said he hopes accountability and transparency will improve.
Brodhead was glad he moved to postpone further discussion.
“There was a lot to digest last night,” he said. While he supports the idea of transparency and disclosure, he wants to hear the mayor's side before voting on a motion that uses language such as “compelled,” referring to MacKay's motion that would essentially force Crouse to disclose all information through the city's financial statements.
Coun. Tim Osborne said the mayor's worked tirelessly for years for this community and deserves the benefit of the doubt.
