The board chair of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District expects the board to revisit its policy of allowing directors to expense alcohol at TNRD events.
Ken Gillis says he does not know how the board would vote on the matter, or when it could come up for discussion, but he admitted he would be surprised if it did not do away with the policy.
“A lot of these practices had been in place for many many years, they predated Mr. [Sukh] Gill’s tenure as the CAO,” he said. “What was acceptable in 1970 is clearly not acceptable today in many respects, including I think, whether I think a government body should be hosting events and including alcoholic beverages.”
“I would be very much surprised if the board did not decide at this point to eliminate all alcoholic beverages being paid for by the regional district, which of course, being paid for by the taxpayer.”
As of July 2020, regional district staff are not allowed to expense any alcohol to the taxpayer, though directors can expense up to two drinks – beer and wine only.
Gillis is also strongly recommending a third-party review into the spending controversy surrounding the former CAO Gill, which came to light after a lengthy investigation by Kamloops This Week. The findings of that third-party review, Gillis says, would be made public.
He previously told NL News that a lack of policy and oversight played a major role in the excessive spending – including on big parties, high-end restaurants, luxury hotels, and expensive gifts – that continued for years.
“The TNRD was changing. We were in the process of changing but obviously we had not been changing quickly enough,” Gillis added. “There were occasions where I thought that the wine flowed surprisingly freely. In fact, I raised the issue once but was pretty much told to mind my own business.”
New Policy Review Committee to be created
During a press conference on Monday, Gillis also said the TNRD will be creating a new policy review committee to ensure that its policies are kept up to date.
He says that is also part of ttche changes being made to try and regain the trust of taxpayers.
“Our policies are constantly under review but I think if we have a committee that’s specifically devoted to that task, all policies will be constantly examined and under scrutiny,” added Gillis.
The changes at the TNRD also include a new whistleblower policy aimed at providing employees with a safe and confidential means of reporting wrongdoing, and a requirement that CAO expenses be signed off by the chair or vice-chair as well as reducing the credit limit on the CAO’s credit card to $5,000, from being $30,000 when Gill was in charge.
“If someone wishes to point fingers and say you should have had [spending] under control earlier, most of us would be prepared to stand up and say, mea culpa. Yes, we should,” Gillis added. “We didn’t know if was happening, we didn’t expect it was happening. Perhaps, we should have known.”
Current TNRD CAO Scott Hildebrand told NL News that taxpayers can be assured that he is not spending money the way his predecessor was.
“You look at each and every expense and you ask yourself if this is appropriate. And I think that’s what I need to instill in this organization,” Hildebrand said. “And from what I’ve seen, this management team and the entire team are very good, and we’ll continue to move forward.”
