The chair of the Toronto District School Board says that going forward, the board’s spending policies will be much clearer to all trustees.
Maria Rutka told cp24.com Wednesday that in the future, policies will be in line with public sector expectations.
“It (the policy) should not be convoluted. It should be clear and has to be consistently applied and that’s what we’re working on,” Rutka said.
Her comments come after documents obtained by CTV shed light on some eyebrow-raising spending habits of trustees at the Toronto District School Board.
The document, a draft report of a confidential audit by Ernst and Young reviewing trustee spending, found that from September 2010 to January of this year, trustees charged taxpayers for thousands of dollars in travel tours, electronics and other items.
The documents contain a laundry list of questionable expenses.
Former TDSB Chair Chris Bolton spent $28 on a giant cookie at a meeting with then-education director Chris Spence. In the audit, Bolton says he didn’t recall the cookie and “didn’t have any.” He also charged $658 for a cell phone he bought while on a trip to Hong Kong.
Trustee Geri Gershon spent $3,700 on a trip to Israel as part of an interfaith delegation.
Trustee John Hastings charged $205 to take a tour of the Alberta oil sands he said was related to the high school curriculum.
Trustee Irene Atkinson charged the school board for a $250 parking ticket.
Other expenses include long distance phone calls from vacation spots in the Caribbean, a Macbook air laptop, and a book purchased at the airport.
Rutka said Wednesday that the results of the audit reflect the confusion of the TDSB’s previous expense policy.
“Certainly it highlighted some of the irregularities, inconsistencies and lack of clarity that were entailed in the previous policy that we had,” Rutka said.
She said trustees called the audit themselves because they realized that the rules were unclear.
Still she acknowledged that some of the expenses were out of line, even if it wasn’t clear that they were against the rules.
“Sure – someone could easily argue that,” Rutka said when asked whether trustees should have realized that some of the expenses were not in the spirit of fair spending. “I think some of the expenses are not defensible.
“One of the things that certainly should have been clear to all trustees and is clear now is that alcohol expenses are not allowed. Another place where we have definitely made an improvement is clarity around long distance calls.”
Rutka said that going forward the board’s policies should be much clearer and will be adjusted as necessary so that they are in line with the broader public sector process.
Following the audit in the spring, the board passed new guidelines capping the spending limit for trustees at $27,000 per year.
“We will see less irregular expenses. These will be eliminated. We will need to keep refining the policies as situations arise,” Rutka said.
-with files by CTV Toronto reporter Naomi Parness
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