Just How Much Time Could Have Been Saved By Simply Providing Those Invoices
Monday, January 28, 2013 @ 3:45 AM
When 250 News filed a Freedom of Information request last week on a number companies that had received from the City of Prince George anywhere from 30 to just over 600,000 dollars , we did so because surely the population of the city, those people who pay the taxes should have the right to know.
The request for the information did not come as a result of any collusion with Councillor Skakun. He raised the issue. We are not looking to find some smoking gun in the information but rather to inform the people who pay those bills, the taxpayer, just where their tax dollars went and what they got for their money.
Listening to Councillors Stolz and Wilbur speaking about all the invoices that the city receives and what a work load obtaining this kind of information would entail, makes one smile.
Based on what Stolz and Acting City Manager Kathleen Soltis say, the city receives about 37 to 40 invoices a day. Soltis suggests it is an extensive amount of work to retrieve the info Skakun wanted (seven invoices).
Councillor Wilbur challenges anyone to find a scintilla of reason for the request. You have one Councillor, Me. I want to know where my taxes dollars are spent. I want to know, as Skakun does, and a whole lot of other taxpayers , who Cressman Sakamoto agency is, I want to know who Picketts consulting are, they both were paid over 30,000 dollars of city money in 2011. A chunk of that city money is mine, so hence the request. I would like to know who and why we paid Anthem Kim co Shopping Center, $43,800.00 dollars. If it was attached to Wilbur’s, Stolz’, or Shari Green’s credit card, I’m sure they would also want to know and it’s the taxpayer’s credit card that is at work here. How about number 188 holdings, who are they and what did they do for 85 thousand dollars, simple enough request.
Yes it is true, the City has an auditor,but Councillor Stolz, you are head of the Finance and Adult committee, perhaps you shouldn’t be if you don’t know that auditors don’t audit for conflict, don’t audit for how you spent the money, they simply want to know how you recorded it, unless of course you’re seeking a forensic audit .
So in the end we will get the information and we will pass it on to the taxpayers. Not exactly a mind numbing job to gather the info and provide it to the public. Perhaps we need the new Municipal Auditor to come to PG and maybe she can show us how to record your expenditures in a transparent way.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.
Comments
Absolutely right on Meisner!
I would also like to know how much the City threw at defending Council’s faulty decision on the Haldi rezoning defence case, and if the proponents reimbursed the City for their defence costs – of course, that would not come out before the 2012 audit. Darn, that will only tell us where the expenditures were recorded!
But isn’t it interesting that we have to pay for information on where OUR money is spent – I refer to the Freedom of Information provision that the City can require payments for providing that service and information!!
Keep asking. Keep asking. The truth (or something closer to the truth) will eventually come out and some councillors will have some explaining to do.
I honestly think they really are hiding something.
Right on Meisner…of course we, the taxpayers have a right to know how the city is spending OUR money….any attempt at blocking these requests suggests a coverup….we want to know what is being covered up!
Is it possible that the city has dreamed up a new fundraiser….withhold the info taxpayers are entitled to so they have to pay through Freedom of Information to get it. Is this how they are supposed to operate…I don’t think so!!!! Do you think they will complain about how much time administration has to spend on getting freedom of information to us?
The excuses for not providing the invoice information to Brian Skakun were laughable and suspicious. I, for one, am keeping track of the performance (good and bad) of our councillors and I sure hope we have some new blood on the councillors slate for the next election because right now, there aren’t many to vote for except Skakun.
Keep following the money trail Ben….we just KNOW that something is there that Council doesn’t want to show….otherwise why are they so opposed to release the information you legally and properly requested.
I was bored and did a little Googling
Anthem Kimco has some involvement with the Riverpoint shopping center and Number 188 Holding LTD is ,according to 2007 business licences is a janitorial service @ #101-1055 20th Avenue
Sorry hit post too soon PG phone listing for 188 is known as Jani-King
Thanks Ben!
The main thing which has been confirmed to me is that City Administration and City Council have a very stubborn mindset which includes not putting their responsibility for transparency to the stakeholders in this City front and centre. The second is that their data system is likely not set up for this. I believe all that people want is to be informed on which project the money was spent. A list of who was paid what is totally useless without further information.
As far as what a financial auditor does I do not like being lectured by some smug Councillor backed up by a smug financial officer and an even more smug Mayor who orchestrated the entire charade last Monday. In the absence of a Municipal Auditor General we are seeking the kind of information such an individual would ask which is totally different.
In case Councillors, Administration and the Mayor do not understand the difference, I suggest they educate themselves.
City Hall is trying our patience. I do not like the citizens of this city being jerked around by the people we all support with our dollars. It has to stop.
Thank you Brian and thank you Ben.
I think we’re looking for more than just seven invoices. It’s hard to imagine that L&M billed over $600,000 on just one invoice, there were probably lots of invoices that brought it to that total.
Most business using a computer aided accounting system can spit out information of prior invoices in seconds. After all the money spent at city hall upgrading the computer system are we really still stuck in the dark ages where someone has to go fumbling through a file looking information. Highly doubtful.
If Stoltz can’t do any better than his last council meeting performance he shouldn’t even be in charge of a lemonade stand selling drinks for 5 cents a glass.
Right on gus (and others). If a private business were run this way and this inefficiently, it would be bankrupt in short order.
Mayor Green said that this issue raised a ‘cloud of suspicion’ within the community. Well, by the performance we all saw Monday night, it is no wonder.
After reading all this it looks like I won’t call her a mayor anymore. I’ll just call her “Chief Green”. If the moccasin is gonna fit, wear it.
Here, Here Ben! As a tax paying citizen I want to know.
Gus “As far as what a financial auditor does I do not like being lectured by some smug Councillor backed up by a smug financial officer and an even more smug Mayor who orchestrated the entire charade last Monday.”
Bang on, Gus.
Johnnybelt: “Mayor Green said that this issue raised a ‘cloud of suspicion’ within the community. Well, by the performance we all saw Monday night, it is no wonder”
Uh oh, we are on the same page, JB, I particularly loved our Mayor’s emotional and angry lecture to her citizens with regards to this public relations nightmare that they alone, have created.
If nothing else, I will thank this council for the surge of citizens that will be hitting the polls this next election, following doing their home work.
THANK YOU Green and Stolz – you have shaken your citizens out of their usual complacency with your lack of leadership and irresponsibility. For crying out loud, you don’t even fake it….THANK YOU for that too.
JB
City Hall Think example from a couple of years ago…we have less garbage coming into the landfill so we have to raise rates so we have the same amount of money rolling in. No thoughts like our equipment replacement cycle can be stretched out as it is used less or can we reduce manpower.
Like a store saying “got fewer customers coming in better raise prices”, would be a for rent sign in the window in pretty short order.
Thanks, Mr. Meisner, and Opinion 250.
metalman.
I think Mayor Green and council’s reaction to a simple question is what raised the so called “cloud of suspicion”.
Now maybe we need to ask a few more financial expenditure questions.
Transparency would dispel any thoughts of suspicion.
lonesome: “City Hall Think example from a couple of years ago…we have less garbage coming into the landfill so we have to raise rates so we have the same amount of money rolling in.”
Exactly. This is a perfect opportunity for privatization. You only get paid for the work you do. Government generally doesn’t work on the same principle.
“Ok, which of you kids were into the cookie jar?”
Meanwhile there are crumbs everywhere……
Mayor and council terms should be 2 years between elections. 4 years is too long to put up with total incompetance and backroom deals. I want an election now.
Icicle wrote: “I think we’re looking for more than just seven invoices”
Yes, we are. Soltis named a number based on her exploring one company which invoiced a total value which stood at the median of the companies listed. I think the total invoices for that company was in the mid thirties or forties range. Numbers only become important in these days of computerized systems if paperwork is still involved to assemble data found on the paperwork. If that information has been entered into an electronic database, the information can be retrieved by computer as long as sufficient fields are entered to link the data together in a meaningful way.
I think the minimum number of fields required would be:
Field 1 = project number
Field 2 = project name
Field 3 = company name
Field 5 = date
Field 6 = payment number
Field 7 = payment amount â¦..
There would, of course, be many more fields ⦠but those are the basic ones required in order to assemble some information and show for this purpose. In fact, I think it would be enough to respond to Councillor Skakun’s question.
Query 1 = for the year 2012, the total number of projects worked on by company A
Query 2 = for the year 2012, the total amount paid to company A
Query 3 = for the year 2012, the total amount paid to company A for project 2011-075
Query 4 = for the year 2012, the total amount paid to company A grouped by project sorted in descending order of amount paid.
Query 5 = for the year 2012, the monthly cash flow to company A divided into project increments with monthly totals for each project invoiced in that month.
I am really questioning City Hallâs ability in this area after that show and tell last Monday. That should be becoming a serious concern for Councillors. If a normal query cannot be responded to in this advancing age of computers which allows us to set these normal exploratory systems up as a management tool then there is something fundamentally wrong.
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