Frugal councillor scopes his colleagues' expenses

                                                     By SUE-ANN LEVY

Let's hear it for Rob Ford. Two weeks ago, council's foremost penny-pincher decided to find out exactly what his colleagues were doing with their $53,100 office budgets.

Since then, he's spent many long hours poring over councillors' expense files for last year, digging up the kind of detailed expenditure breakdown that should be readily
available to taxpayers, but isn't. "I wanted to really show people what this $53,100 is about," says Ford, who spent a mere $5 of his office budget to June 30. "I wanted the taxpayers at election time to know exactly where their money is going."

It's been a tedious job. So far, he's pulled the chits for five councillors but he intends to do likewise for all 43 of his colleagues. The files are revealing - as was the reaction from the four councillors Sun bureau chief Zen Ruryk and I were able to reach yesterday.

Chris Korwin-Kuczynski, the top spender last year, spent $900 of his office budget on ice blocks and $310.50 on trophies and plaques for an ice sculpture event he hosts every year in Parkdale. He also charged a new freezer - at $264.49 - to store water and paint worth $256.57 to do a "giant mural" at Coronation Park for World Youth Day. (All councillors have access to several kitchens on City Hall's second floor.)

As well, K-K used his office budget to give $2,445.44 worth of donations to organizations like the Parkdale Then & Now Festival ($545.44) and the Roncesvalles Village Business Improvement Area's graffiti eradication program ($600). Using office money for donations is a practice city auditor general Jeff Griffiths has tried to eliminate.  K-K was annoyed that Ford was snooping through his expenses and lashed back at Ford's practice of using his own money to pay for promotional materials. "His expenses are not legitimate," K-K bristled, charging that what Ford does is against council policy.

Coun. Irene Jones went one step further. She refused to talk to me about expenses like $217 spent on two photo portraits of herself - purchased on the same day - or $1,170 on sewing kits, a "PR thing" for low-income people and the homeless. "I'm very disappointed that the Sun would do this to me," Jones told Ruryk, saying "it was really low" to be grilled about such items.

She told Ruryk the first photo - picked up from Mississauga's Glamour Shots on March 19 at 3:11 p.m. and costing $157.95 - was a "headshot" for her newsletter. The second was purchased from Sears Portrait Studio at 3:45 p.m. the same day and cost $42.53.

"We had the Glamour Shots one done and nobody really liked it ... I went to Sears because it was cheaper," she said. She then accused Ford of using old photos that show him "half the size he is."  To her credit, Pam McConnell answered our questions but seemed impatient for us to leave her office.

As to why she spent $3,620 on taxis - most of the fares $8 or $9 a pop - she said she takes cabs to community meetings in her ward and back to City Hall (she's unable to drive due to a visual impairment). Her ward is downtown's Toronto Centre-Rosedale - an area well serviced by TTC.

She also gave $125 to the Pussy Palace Defence Fund (a lesbian bath house raided by Toronto police in September, 2000) and spent $295.59 on a pre-Christmas nosh for her staff at Mediterra Restaurant.

In fact, McConnell submitted several chits for luncheons at restaurants near City Hall, including the Law Society dining room, the Bangkok Garden restaurant and Runyx ($104.92 for a staff meeting on March 12). "I'm a meeting person ... I meet all the time from the moment I get up," McConnell said.

As for Coun. Sherene Shaw, who spent $740 on French lessons at the Alliance Francaise, she said she wanted to "learn more" because she's a member of the city's French committee.
"It was to help me with the agendas," she said.

Shaw also spent $602.76 on city of Toronto gift items - golf shirts, pens, clocks and business card holders - which she says she gives away to community groups for door prizes.

Ford also contends the way many councillors account for their expense claims is "loose."
"They blew me away ... they give a little stub (with little or no backup to prove how the money was spent)," he said. Thank heavens for Rob Ford.