Reprimanded for not spending enough taxpayer's $$$

[G-spotter]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2007/11/27/ford-expenses.html

[Hendershot]

Makes sense in a backwards way. Other officials don't want to encourage Ford spending his own money, because that would set a precedence for others to do the same.

 

It's kinda like when we close down a lane for 2 months to fix a pothole. How many times have you drove by signs that say construction area, during normal business hours only to have no one on it? Seems like they need to spend that money, just to say next year that they need the same level of funding.

[prole]

Makes sense in a backwards way. Other officials don't want to encourage Ford spending his own money, because that would set a precedence for others to do the same.

 

Actually,

Ford pays his office expenses out of his own pocket. He buys the stamps, the envelopes and pays the cellphone bills himself.

 

But that goes against the city's ethics rules that call for transparency in public spending, the underlying principle being that the public should know who is paying so there is no chance individuals or companies could use the money as a lever to ask for favours.

 

"You don't spend private money, or developers' money, or anybody else's money on things like your newsletters. You spend the public money because there's an audit trail, it's accountable," said Mayor David Miller.

 

Sounds good to me.