Coquitlam councillor and mayor at odds over hotel spending
Posted June 3, 2013 4:25 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
COQUITLAM (NEWS1130) – A Coquitlam councillor is blasting his mayor and cohorts’ decision to stay in a hotel instead of commuting to downtown Vancouver for an annual gathering of Canadian civic politicians.
Lou Sekora says he was the only council member not staying in a hotel in order to attend the four day Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference.
“They booked a whole bunch of rooms in a water front Hotel, it’s probably about $1,200 with taxes and all. That’s tax to taxpayers and he could have also gone there on the SkyTrain,” exclaims Sekora.
Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart is on the defence though, saying he would much rather have stayed at his home but it would have been impossible to commute and fully participate.
“I would have had about four and a half or five hours sleep, it’s simply not doable, it’s not reasonable to expect. These council members are doing this on their own time and aren’t paid extra to go to the conference,” says Stewart.
Stewart says they worked 16-hour days but Sekora claims the late nights were not mandatory events.
According to Stewart, Sekora has not been attending as many events and he had no complaints when this decision was made.
