Langley councillor slams David Cadman over $17,000 budget
While attending a December climate-change conference in Poland in his capacity as president of ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability, COPE councillor David Cadman missed Vancouver city council’s inauguration ceremony.
Now, City of Langley councillor and Metro Vancouver director Gayle Martin is criticizing Cadman’s proposal, recommended by Metro staff, that the regional body provide a $17,000 budget for his work with ICLEI during the first half of this year. Martin and other members of Metro’s finance committee will vote on the budget at a meeting tomorrow (February 12).
“I think at this time it’s too much money,” Martin told the Straight by phone. “We have appointments to outside agencies, and that’s fine. I’m not opposed to that—I’m on a couple of outside agencies myself. But there is obviously a cost involved for Metro Vancouver for his travelling expenses as president of ICLEI. We were not aware of those expenses until he brought them to the board. In my opinion, if they want to have [a] presence around the world, then ICLEI should be paying for the expenses of their board of directors, not the GVRD, in our case.”
Cadman is not one of Vancouver’s six Metro board members, and will not report back directly to the regional board on his work with ICLEI. The Toronto-based organization helps local governments around the world develop sustainability programs.
In a January 27 letter to Metro board chair Lois Jackson, Cadman notes that ICLEI secretary general Konrad Otto-Zimmermann has asked him to attend 10 different conferences and meetings prior to June.
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Comments
All dealing with the vital sustainability issue.
Seems to me there have been government ministers whose bar and restaurant tabs were considerably higher.
The rabidly right wing pols in our eastern burbs are all about trying to "appear" fiscally responsible while the reality of Conservatives being conservative is a myth. One need look no further than the governments of Mulroney, Harper, Campbell and Harris. Locally we have the NPA's amateur hour negotiating of the Olympic Village fiasco.
How about building a 300 km. LRT network for Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, instead of the Gateway bridge and highways project? Have I ever heard Cadman support light-rail, the only public transit mode with a proven record of attracting the motorist from the car? No - Nada.
Sorry old chum, me thinks you want to travel the world on the taxpayers dime!
Second I do report directly to Metro Vancouver on all of my ICLEI involvement and itemize each and every expense and have spoken directly to the Metro Board several times to explain precisely the issues being advanced and my role. I think this would explain my nomination to the ICLEI Executive Committee by the Board in 2003, 2005 and again in 2008. I would think that means that the overwhelming majority of the Metro Board support the work I am doing for ICLEI and understand that I am getting ICLEI to assume more of the costs of the President. Metro paid for 4 airfares in 2008 and no accommodation costs- all of these were covered by ICLEI. The question the Metro Board has to decide is when they nominate somebody to represent them on any body do they support that person or expect the organization to which they have been sent to pay.
David Cadman
Vancouver