Is it a matter of the cost associated with having staff dig up a few invoices? Let me know where I can make a donation to help cover the cost.

What is wrong with asking for more information regarding some specific expenditures and those involved with the expenses? When I see resistance, I get suspicious. What’s to hide?

Financial records at the City are maintained in an information system that spits out reports like nobody’s business. It would take an experienced Peoplesoft user to less than an hour to compile this report if requested. Any purchase orders attached would also be easily accessed. Then, the hard copy of the invoice is just as easily found as the accts payable people keep everything. So, what administration is doing is just neutralizing Brian. They find him pesky. Brian and others are smart enough to see through this. Thank you Brian, you remain a respected Councillor because you are genuinely one of the people, for the people.

Council made the right decision here. Every time Skakun is smacked around by council it highlights his unsuitability for the position. He doesn’t know what he is doing, clearly doesn’t know what he is doing and should give up on politics. He doesn’t have the mind for it.

Are they hiding something….or is it just an exercise in making Brian Skakuns job difficult?? Usually when questions are not answered its because they know you won’t like what your told.

In this technology age, it should be a breeze to bring it up on the computer and print it off.. Not like they are shuffling through piles of paper. What is Council hiding???

So we need a special kind of mind to be in Politics. What kind of mind would that be??

You don’t need a mind to be in PG politics, that would just get you in trouble. What you need is a pull-string.

Pull string…..yes your worship
Pull string…..yes mayor Green
Pull string…..yes your worship
Pull string…..yes mayor Green

Karjai: “He doesn’t have the mind for it.”???? No, I guess not, not like the average politician anyway. He is proving that he wants really transparent government and that is exactly what most politicians are dead set against. Councillors Everitt, Frizzell and Skakun have my vote next time around for sure.

What’s more, ‘her worship’ advises Brian to present it as a motion, which he does and then she advises what the acting city manager’s reply should be??? Was that just so it would be defeated immediately? Talk about micro-managing.
Did she conveniently forget ‘notice of motion’?

““Why should Councillors dig around if there is nothing suspicious?” asked Councillor Albert Koehler”

I’d like to know why the $631,980.31 went to L&M Engineering; that’s a lot of money. Seems like a lot of money for the information to not be easily accessible.

Although I agree with some of the comments about Mr Skakun, he does ask a lot of the questions we all discuss on these posts. Why is cost an issue when it comes to transparency and truth. The people have every right to know how our tax dollars are spent. Corruption only comes to mind when councillors defiantly argue against information. Most of council is made up of nothing more than poor politicians. I applaud Mr Skakun and the joining council members who voted in favour.

karjai is a brown noser with no interest in transparency or accountability.
Too bad the majority of council votes against openness at city hall.
Great comment middle finger.

Transparency is a few clicks away. It seems that Councillor Skakun is asking hard questions regarding City expenditures and is being met with a stonewall. I like to know who hides behind a numbered company when I spend my hard-earned. L&M may be an exemplarary engineering firm but my “cynic meter” hits “red” every time this company gets yet another municipal contract. Why so shy, City administrators?

“Council made the right decision here. Every time Skakun is smacked around by council it highlights his unsuitability for the position. He doesn’t know what he is doing, clearly doesn’t know what he is doing and should give up on politics. He doesn’t have the mind for it”
Or…
“Council made the wrong decision here. Every time Skakun is smacked around by council it highlights thier unsuitability for the positions. They dont know what they are doing, clearly dont know what they are doing and should give up on politics. They dont have the mind for it”

Ps – which council member is Karjai? Any guesses?

“Why should Councillors dig around if there is nothing suspicious?”
Such an easy question to answer for anyone who has ever been on a Board, has been educated about the responsibility of Board members and how the probing of Board members differs from a financial audit. Once more, we have members of Council whose slips are continuing to show.

A very interesting comment from Councillor Krause which went something like “great opportunity to discuss this around Council table … never had this opportunity to discuss it” … WOW!!!!

The result of this motion was a foregone conclusion, however it did get some discussion which was a good thing.

An interesting point was that some Councillors feel that this issue should be discussed with administration at a **Brown Bag** meeting, to see if there is some way that they can come to an agreement so that this information is easier accessible for Councillors if they request it.

Now there are a few things wrong with that suggestion. One is that it is the Councillors that should be directing administration to come up with a way to get them this information if they want it.

The other issue it seems is that the Councillors and Mayor dont seem to understand that a **Brown Bag** meeting where City business is discussed and where a quorum or more Councillors are in attendence is, for all intents and purposes a **Council Meeting** and should therefore be open to the Press and the public.

This issue should continue to be discussed in open Council meetings until it is resolved.

The issue in itself is quite simple. If a Councillor requests details on the expenditure of City dollars to specific business’s, then this information should be made available to him. Its just that simple. He can if necessary get it through other means such as the Freedom Of Informatin act, so they may as well take the time and supply it on request.

It has nothing to do about the cost to administration, and in fact has more to do with who makes the request. Its not up to the Mayor or Council to decide what Councillor should get what information, when. The Councillor is entitled to the information, simply because he requested it.

In other words Skakun was Stonewalled.

PS: If Councillors have been having **Brown Bag** meetings in the past when there was a quorum in attendence and they discussed City business, they should take a serious look at what they are doing. If in fact these can be construed as Council Meetings, then all the rules and regulations covering Council meetings come into play.

It’s fascinating to me how some you seem to have glossed over a lot of the article, or perhaps it’s just that you have some reading comprehension issues. You conveniently missed the comments about the books being audited every year without so much as a blemish. Or about the bylaws in place to make procurement as arms length as possible. Or the part where Skakun is quoted as saying that the suggestion he is saying there is wrong doing at play in regards to this request is “absurd.” I find myself wondering then, wtf is the point of his request? Why not then ask about some of the other vendor whom were paid millions more. He is on a fishing expedition, generated from morons whispering in his ear. He loves to be thecentre of attention, and doesn’t seem to mind dragging other people through the mud along the way. The only way to improperly pay people these days in an organization that size is through collusion. This little media stunt is nothing more than a show starring you guessed it. If you want go on deluding yourself that he is in it for the average joe, go ahead. It’s kind of sad though.

Yes, its kind of like the Attiwapiskat style of bookkeeping. $631,980 to L & M Engineering. ” For what ?”. ” Nevermind”.

Karjai for mayor. Then we could get rid of it for good. lol

Karjai, I think that the books are only inspected to be balanced by the auditor’s, not whether the expense was justified, who received the money, or if we received value for our dollars. The books balanced, but that is not the heart of the matter.

You miss the whole point Karjai.

Councillors are entitled to know who is getting paid for what services. How often are the same people getting paid, and was the issue put to tender, etc;

The City administation reports to the Mayor and Council. Its the Council who decides what is done, and how it is done. In this case they are stonewalling Skakun, even though giving him the information would have been the fastest and easiest way to handle the situation.

This issue is about the Councillors ability to access information on request. Nothing more, nothing less.

Stoltz and Wilbur, tried to make it into a huge issue, that needs to be stopped in its tracks, however in fact it is nothing more than a request for information, that was refused, because of who made the request.

Im sure the same request if made by Stoltz would have been forthcoming toot sweet.

“this EXTENSIVE amount of work requested is not work required by City Council”

It could be extensive work if the data was not entered as SMART data in order to pull data for some very common purposes in any reasonable consulting office which works in a project environment. There are many reasons why one would want to examine, on a monthly basis, a project’s cashflow as well as phasing reports against budgeted schedules. For instance, if one was to wish to certify progress payments based on work done and yet to be done, one would need to know where one sits on payments made.

So how is that done. Simple – using key words, one of the main one being a simple project number. I would think that virtually every consulting service would use such a system at a minimum.

So, example queries would be a simple one based on project …. Then, if one wants to know how much was paid to each supplier, select the two as filters. Add any other filters such to date, as well as variables such as budget. The options are endless, but usually kept to just a few important ones. It is up to the project manager to annotate the invoice as to the allocations to the database fields which are then input by data entry clerks.

In the event such a standard database is not available at City Hall, the simplest way to get an answer would not likely be finance but the office which manages the work of the project. He or she would have the answer at his or her fingertips and the one day forensic study could be responded to in a discussion which really need not take longer than 5 or 10 minutes which are part of the duties of such a position.

BTW, such a structure of a project based database is a tool for a project manager who is responsible for bringing in projects to the quality specified, on time and budget. In addition it helps in decision making of who are excellent suppliers and who are ones to be avoided.

Brian for Mayor! & Fetterly for Brains personnel assistant!

Palopu hit the nail on the head and flush to the board! City chambers are part and parcel a Public Entity, “Brown-bagging” not withstanding.

what happened to the team work that was promised by our new mayor?

She sets Brian up by telling the acting city manager exactly what to say and do and then she stands back and lets loose her pit-bull stolze who goes to work attacking Brian. What a circus.

The mayor and stolze don’t mind wasting $350,000 of our tax dollars on a core review that was nothing more than a navel gazing exercise. They don’t mind wasting a year of staff time on the most expensive study in the city’s history. But they can’t support Brian efforts to at least provide a little more transparency because it would waste staff time?

It sounds like a typical knee jerk reaction that is about shooting the messenger rather than trying to understand the message.

Remember when Frizzel wanted the councilors travel expenses to be itemized Cameron (lobster boy) Stolz jumped all over him.

How long before we feel like band members here?

Yes, Palopu, a few things sure did slip through during that discussion which surprised me. The brown bag sure needs some explanation.

The other is the fact that this City has had the same auditing firm for 10 years. If I were a Councillor I would ask if the individual accountants who are doing the work have been changed after a maximum of 5 years as recommended by the Chartered Accountants’ Association. Familiarity is not always a good sign.

psst …… exactly … I wonder whether KPMG got the information or whether they were told to pound sand as well …..

I mean, they go on a fishing expedition to find the gold fish so that they can turn them to lead …. they get paid to do that …. and staff has to spend all that time to go after all that data ….. the same date where it takes finance a whole day just to look over 43 invoices ….

Obviously KPMG, even if they had the skills to do the work, would never have been able to do a value for money study since staff could not supply them with the information.

So wew are supposed to be spending millions over the next few years for the IT department. If between them and the finance department an a project manager or two from the hall they cannot figure out how to set up a system …. then the award that Wilbur was talking about is a total sham …… which it is anyway since it does not compare one organization to another but just internal improvement ….

So the city got a gold star ….. so did my kid when she was in kindergarten.

An other thing we must not forget is that Soltis could not act on here own in dealing with Brian’s relatively simple request.

The Mayor than made a federal case out of it. Rather than going low key she went for the jugular.

I respect Brian for sticking to his guns. It can’t be that easy to be working in that kind of environment. He will likely remain as the last man standing after the next election if Council does not smarten up and enter into the new reality which Frizzell described.

Anyone who does not see the road mapped out in front of them by superior governments has to be blind.

Indubutably, Gus. Familiarity breeds contempt, contempt of the idea of fair play and transparency as pertains to our current City Council. Heck, I thought it was shameless how the Mayor and an Alderman’s streets were paved ahead of more deserving neighbourhoods 30+ years ago but now I want to do more than shake my noggin in disgust. I only have one vote but be assured, anyone that stood against this will never have it again.

Well that was not a surprise tonight.

Stolz starting off with bylaws with questions asked to Solitz. They did not even miss a beat…..Talk about an orchastrated gong show…….
If the councillors “communicated” with ALL councillors maybe they would have understood what was really being asked.

The way it was orchestrated tonight appears that there were “brown bag” meetings of a selected few.

I also wonder if they don’t want to dig up records, that would show there is possibly favoritism between certain company’s in town that always seem to ‘get’ the contract for various projects. Almost maybe like some people are getting wined and dined for first pick on a contract?

Nah that wouldn’t ever be the case, because the contractor with the lowest bid always gets it right.?

Bang on guesswho ….. poor actors ….. no academy awards for any of those ….

Hmmm… Soltiz getting out of her acting position?

That the special meeting of City Council scheduled for January 22, 2013 at 12:30 p.m. be closed to the public to permit discussion of items relating to:
personal information about identifiable individuals who hold or are being considered for a position as an officer, employee or agent of the municipality or another position appointed by the municipality,

This council has shown it’s True colors. Obviously plenty to hide, that’s my take anyway.

“Over the past 10 years, Deloitte has not raised any concerns on how the accounting processes are being carried out”

They may share many of the same letters, but accounting and accountability are not the same thing. Perhaps the folks around the council table need to invest in a dictionary app to go along with the new parking meters. I’m sure one could be had for about $275,000.

Total arrogance on the part of the council we have now. The comparison to native band management was a good observation. We desperately need open and transparent government. Our city council needs to get off their high horses and start doing the jobs they were elected to do instead of the jobs they elect to do

There have been so many good posts above but I’m still trying to figure out which planet Karjai is from.

I’m responding to “PSST” – Brian Skakun set up by mayor…my thoughts exactly. I believe Brian Skakun is being blocked because he is getting too close to the truth which is becoming more visible after reading Meisner’s 6 part series on “Revitalization Seeds”. By connecting the dots there seems to be a rotten core that is at the centre of our City’s Green apple.

Skakun was viciously attacked in his attempt to get information on payment of a small number of invoices with large totals, as well as on the principles of numbered companies. In other words, he was asking for transparancy in those business dealings…what is wrong with this??? He was the lone councillor requesting information that should be readily available to any councillor if they are to truly answer to the taxpayers. For this Skakun deserves praise, not punishment!!

After council “turfed out” Skakun’s motion, it convinced me that the comments our Mayor said she received which created a cloud of suspicion, i.e. skullduggery, palm greasing, covert, shennanigans, disgusting and ridiculous seem to have been earned by this council and well deserved. If Council wanted to remove the cloud of suspicion, they would have supported Skakun’s motion to obtain tis information, plain and simple! It appears Skakun has only one option left — Freedom of Information. Isn’t it a SAD day in Prince George when a councillor has to resort to these methods!! Keep on digging Brian, we need you now more than ever!!

Mr Meisner. Now your Revitalization Seeds story is making more sence.

What is the city hiding?

Were is the transperency? This was an election platform for Mayor Green.

I hope we get some answers to your question soon Ben!

Editor’s Note:

It is important that each and every person mentioned in this set of articles has an opportunity to respond to the questions and the issues. 250 NEWS will publish any response in its entirety without any editing. We also will gladly publish any observations by any of the parties mentioned in the articles.

Responses can be sent to ben@250news.com .

Thank you

Ben Meisner

I too am disgusted by the way that Stolz and company attacked Brian’s motion. Stolz concentrated on the regular audits as commisioned by the city. However, audits do not normally determine value for money – unless the audits specifically calls for that. That is what we need!
I cannot imagine that in this advanced electronic age that an absolute recall of financial information is not available to City staff and Councillors by some quick fingering on a keyboard. Further, in the name of tranparency, I cannot accept the fact that a policy is not in place requiring any company, certainly a numbered company, as having to identify who their key players are. As taxpayers, we deserve to know if all the dealings are above board and that there are no nudge-nudge/wink-wink processes in play. That should also be to the advantage of each Council member who should be concerned about their own reputations and concerns for fair play. I expect nothing less!
I fully support Brian Skakun’s attempt at wanting to see honesty and accountability in this city government!

I would ask the same questions as Skukun not because I may believe that something underhanded is going on but rather that some of these expenses could be avoided by having city staff do the work themselves instead of spending all their time looking for, checking and vetting “consultants”.
Seems the only reason for engaging some of them is to distance staff and council from decisions that they are hired or elected to make themselves.

According to Ms Soltis the city handles 13,000 to 15,000 invoices a year, so unless they are using the shoe box on the top shelf of the bedroom closet filing system the ones asked for should be easy to find.

I would suggest that good place to look for the L&M Engineering folder would be under “L” and BWP Consulting might possibly be found under “B” That should narrow things down a little so instead of 14k there might only be a hundred or two, and if they are filed in these drawers with something called alphabetical order that would quicken the search further.

I wonder what color the herring is that Ms. Soltis is holding…by golly it is red:)

As for Brian being the last man standing at the next election it would meant a slate of viable candidates to replace those given the boot. Went home last time with a few X’s in my pocket.

I think that it is a foregone conclusion that Ms Green will be another single term-er(for some reason when typing her name my fingers want to put a D instead of a N at the end;P
Saw Don Zurowski on the news the other day,never too early to start a draft movement as he seemed pretty level headed.

Lies dread examination, the truth invites it.

Brian keep digging and maybe some one will go on a hunger strke. Wink Wink

Company Name: GAKJRW, INC.
Status: Active Filing Date: 04/20/2011
Entity Type: Corporation For-Profit File Number: 000656227
Filing State: Tennessee (TN) Qualifying State:
Company Age: 1 Year 9 Months List Due Date:
Last Event Type: Last Event Date:

Principal Address: 900 Division St.
Nashville, TN 37203

Registered Agent: Dwight Wiles
900 Division St
Nashville, TN 37203

Karjai quotes: ” books being audited every year without so much as a blemish”
Anyone with a years experience in business would know that the so called audits are to ensure that good accounting practices are being followed, and that the books balance.
The accountants at Deloitte would not be involved in checking anything else, unless so directed.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Mr. Skauns request, in fact as a business owner I wholeheartedly agree with such ideas.
A little transparency could prove to be very illuminating.
In closing, I must admit that I am (still) quite disappointed in Mr. Stoltz as a city councillor. Faith shaken.
metalman.

You might be disappointed with Stoltz metalman, but he was likely quite pleased with himself after the meeting having got a nice pat on the head and a good ol’ scratch behind the ears and maybe even a chewy treat.

Good Boy!!!

An auditor expresses an opinion that the statements fairly present the financial position and results of operations – it’s an opinion based on audit evidence.

Audit evidence includes relying on the internal control of the enterprise. The better the internal controls, the less audit evidence that needs to be gathered.

For the record, it is very difficult to commit fraud in an organization with good internal controls because it usually takes at least two to pull it off, who will eventually get caught by a third.

Now an auditor isn’t necessarily concerned with whether an expenditure got value for money, just that it was properly authorized, properly accounted for, not whether it was money well spent.

In the City of PG, the questions the citizens need answered are more in the nature of – are suppliers getting sweet heart deals for kickbacks to city officials. Those are very hard to find in an audit, because the kickbacks are usually cash – and there in the records of the supplier – who isn’t being audited. And it’s difficult to know why the city decided to pay contractor A $100.00 an hour for snow clearing when contractor B bid $90.00 an hour. Because whoever accepted the bid will always say, contractor A is more reliable than B. Auditors are on a budget and they aren’t going to chase anything with a reasonable explanation.

Now what Brian is doing, is actually quite effective. Because they can grill whoever authorized the expenditures as to their rationale, and if it smells a little off, they can keep on chasing it to see where it leads. No auditor is going to do that.

sorry Ben and crew – but I didnt take the first swing… I should know better :)

I’m amazed that this is even an issue. Of course this information should be available to the councillors. The opponents of the motion sound awfully defensive. I’m glad I voted for Brian Skakun.

Cressman Sakamoto Agency – Looks like they were a talent agency – maybe they were paid to bring Jonny Reid to the CN Centre.

Picketts Consulting – nothing comes up except a possible link with KPMG?

GAKJRW Inc – Tennessee based – possibly another fee to bring a country music act to PG?

Anthem Kimco Shopping Center – Anthem Properties and Kimco Realty – did the City pay them for a new downtown “vision” or some kind of commercial/retail plan. Or is it a settlement for delays at the Golf and Curling Club development?

L&M Engineering – possibly related to the Boundary Road developments or even PGCCC development.

188 Holdings – nothing

BWP Consulting – Mosquitoes

Wine and Dine lol

lonesome sparrow.. I like yer humor above.. Brightened my day.. :)

wowww who else is L&M got their hands in their pockets??? Musta hit a sore note when I mentioned this before and it got deleted.

Speaking of crime… anyone else get their utility bill today?? Went up fifteen bucks a month. Like we all get raises like they do at City hall :(

Rounder: “GAKJRW Inc – Tennessee based – possibly another fee to bring a country music act to PG?”

I can’t speak to the rest, but I heard something about this company running the janitorial services at City Hall.

“good ol’ scratch behind the ears and maybe even a chewy treat.” lmao lonesome

Koehler may have received a treat too, as he seems to be sticking close to Green and Stolz. He sure didn’t know what he was doing last night through all the motions. Seemed like everyone was confusing him.

Keep asking those questions Brian.

Just watched this online. It was akin to watching a train wreck….gory, messy and repulsive but you just cannot look away.

Many good posts here.

What jumped out in particular:

All Councillors went on and on about the embarrassment and illusion of mistrust, and that just general feeling bad about themselves that they have had the past couple weeks since Mr. Skakun submitted his notice of motion.

Hey Mcfly(ies), it was your Mayor that pushed this into the public arena! GM in training and china gal pal, Soltis runs to Green…”Shari, that Brian is asking alot of questions and we got some ‘splain’n to do! What do I do?”.

Green states at this meeting that she directed the notice of motion and shared that Hey, this is just the way we deal with requests from Councillors that ask questions about expenses around here and I’m OK with that, as I encourage this open dialogue, blah, blah, blah.

OK, if this is the due process for a Councillor to fact find and get answers then A. why were those answers not all forthcoming as a result of this process and B. why did you oversee this sad orchestration of trying to demean and belittle this Councillor that merely emailed our top administration some questions to expenses? An exercise he is bloody well entitled to do – any g.d. time he wants. Staff time, my arse, what a joke.

Stolz was ridiculous and so was Wilbur. Then, for the two to share a joke at Stolz’ jab “glad to see Skakun is concerned about staff time” during another motion…..arrogance at its finest.

The excuses, volumes of words expelled, misplaced criticisms and Thou Doth Protest Too Much attitude is embarrassing.

Others have posted that Skakun is absolutely entitled to this information, It is Green that threw it all into the limelight and along with Wilbur and Stolz, Soltis made a sad stab at Vaudville. Comparing apples to bellybuttons.

BUT, it is our negative posts that are keeping CPG from bursting at the seams with families, professionals and businesses that want to come….

Please take council meetings offline…it’s making me look bad.

PS: Skakun conducted himself very well and came out the victor on this one, IMO.

While I draw comfort in many of the posts that I have read related to this matter. What I find deeply concerning is the blatant disregard for right and wrong by people who have been elected to represnt the best interest of its citizens. Perhaps some likeminded individual with the time to review the Community charter may shed some light on whether Green, Stoltz, and Mr. Ed have the unfettered right to keep this sh– up. I for one have had enough its time to start making them accountable.

I wonder what the new BC Municipal Auditor Basia Ruta would have to say about this… probably not much.

Turns out the new BC municipal auditor is not a financial auditor, but rather an office of benchmarking efficiencies… AKA an office of rationalizing costs.

Guaranteed future politicians will all turn to the BC Municipal Auditor to legitimize standardized cost increases no different than Mayor Green paying the equivalent cost of her term to KPMG to legitimize her agenda (a two for one of sorts).

I heard auditor Basia Ruta on the radio today and must say it is a huge disappointment. Already she is talking about limiting her scope to essentially providing benchmark statistics for municipalities to try to achieve… or for which to rationalize rising costs with.

Essentially what was described was the work of a management accountant… working on future cash flows, efficiencies, and creating formula’s… this is not auditing in the sense of a financial audit, this is the work of a management accountant… so one would think the person hired for the position would be a member of the Certified Management Accountants designation, but alas this is not the case. We have someone that is not qualified for the work hired to set up the office.

So one has to ask if we have a new office that limits its scope to the work of a management accountant that provides benchmarks for process, but doesn’t hire a management accountant for the position… then what is it really, another show like the Sherri Green show with Brian Skakun where the politician (mayor Green) whispers in the ear of an administrator to create a circus out of accountability by denying a councilor pertinent information?

A financial audit may find nothing wrong with the data entry or the books balancing in a city audit… one would hope the new office of the BC municipal auditor would have the ‘scope’ to look at invoices like the ones questioned by Brian Skakun and determine if ‘value’ was achieved by the process… and not to just determine if the process was done as per current administrative standards and setting benchmarks to check off when doing transactions of kind.

We need transparency with public dollars and Brian gets my vote for taking this issue seriously.

What happened in council was nothing short of Bullying, digusting and shameful for adults to act that way when we are trying to teach our children different.