Jun 06 2007Lumby politicians are defending their use of taxpayers’ dollars. The village released expenses and remuneration for mayor, council and staff Monday. “The biggest expense is travelling to the Union of B.C.
Municipalities conference or the Okanagan Mainline Municipal Association conference,” said Mayor Eric Foster. For 2006, Foster received $10,710 in remuneration and $6,302 in expenses. Foster says the trips are necessary to promote Lumby’s interests, including trying to garner government support for infrastructure projects. Among them was the UBCM conference in Victoria. “I had an opportunity to meet with all the ministers and senior staff.” Other trips are used to access information about initiatives that could benefit Lumby. “There was one trip to Richmond for an economic development conference,” said Foster. For the four councillors, they all had remuneration of $5,610 last year. Deb Leroux led the pack with expenses of $3,344. “Last year was a very busy year and I travelled on behalf of council a few times,” she said. Leroux defends the need to travel outside Lumby at the taxpayers’ expense. “It’s part of the job. It’s a requirement if you want to educate yourself and serve the community well,” she said. “The more familiar you become with ministers and staff, the easier it is to make your pitch. You are establishing relationships and it takes mileage to do that.” Ben Winters had expenses of $3,248, followed by Elinor Turrill at $2,431 and Matt McLenehan at $885. Under provincial legislation, the municipality must also disclose salary and expense information for any employee earning more than $75,000. Lumby has just one employee that meets that criteria — chief administrative officer Frank Kossa. He earned $75,756 in 2006 and had expenses of $4,422.
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