Russ Wyatt tops all councillors for restaurant bills, at $6.7K last year

Transcona councillor Russ Wyatt's claims for reimbursementrelated to business meetings held at Winnipeg restaurantswere twice as high than those ofevery othercitycouncillorcombined.

Wyatt billed the city$6,776 last year for restaurants while the combined claims for the 14 other councillorstotaled$3,348, according to the cityreport on annual ward allowance expenditures published today.

Peasant Cookerywas Wyatt's top choice for 2015. Hebilled for seven meetings at the Exchange area restaurant. Hisbiggest bill$444.83was from theKeg for anEast End Community Club meeting in February.

More thannineper cent of Wyatt'sclaimed expenses were forhospitality and meetings, a categorywhichmay includemeals and beverages, non-professional sporting events and venue rental, according to policy. Alcohol is not a reimbursable expense.

This spending trend is consistent with aCBC News report from last year that foundWyattexpensednearly 11 times more money for business meetings at restaurants than the next closest spender.

Wyatt has yet to respond to a request for comment from CBC News.

The big picture

Ward allowances cover a wide range of expenses beside hospitalityincluding salaries for assistants, telephone bills,office equipment, sponsorships ofcommunity events and advertising.

Wyatt's total claim for all categories of expenses came to $74,818, a little higher than the average of all councillors.

The report found all councillorsfollowedthe ward allowance policy andnoone wentover their budgeted spending limit of $79,924. The average amount spent was $72,700 which means councillorsspent only $1.14 million of the $1.28 million budgeted.

A portion of the unspent moneywill be carried forward to 2016, while $56,190 will be returned to the city's general revenues.

Top 3:

• Mike Pagtakhan (Point Douglas): $79,850
• John Orlikow (River Heights - Fort Garry): $79,364
• Ross Eadie (Mynarski):$78,832

Bottom 3:

• Jason Schreyer (Elmwood - East Kildonan): $67,456
• Matt Allard (St. Boniface): $64,747
• Shawn Dobson (St. Charles): $64,117

*Excludes supplementalallowances providing to chairs and EPC members

Some other big spends

In most cases, the largest expense from each ward allowance is related to salaries and benefits for assistants and office staff.

However in some cases,councillorsdip into their fund fora host of other items,such as:

• A $5,000 donationto theDufferinResidents Association for Street Patrol and Safe Walk (RossEadie).
• Advertising worth $3,500 inCanstarnewspapers (JohnOrlikow).
• Free city facility admissions for children,at a cost of $2,400 (ShawnDobson).
• Printingof calendar-cards for$2,200 (Russ Wyatt).

In addition to posting the audited councillorward allowance statements, the city auditor made recommendations in his report geared to improving administrative processes.