Opinion

Think twice before you reward this crowd

By Ivan Morgan

Yes, I am writing about this townie issue again. Why? Because I think it’s important. It’s summer and hot and I am sorry to make you think, but this can’t wait.
Once again St. John’s City Council has blocked you from knowing how much of your money they spent on lawyers to try and prevent you from knowing how much of your money they spent on a racket with a sports corporation. I’ll wait while you read that line again.

You may remember city council tried to stop taxpayers from knowing how much they had to spend on the dustup they had with the Growlers hockey team organization a few years back.

The Telegram asked the privacy commissioner to make council tell us how much, and the commish agreed and told council to fess up. Council, not liking this, went to the Supreme Court, spending oodles of your money, only to have the court remind them that they work for the taxpayer, and taxpayers deserve to know how their money is spent. Duh.

The amount was an eye-watering $1.29 million, with $600,000 going to the sports company. Doesn’t sound like a win to me.

Now council, having apparently learned nothing, has blocked you from knowing how much of your money they spent on legal fees to lose that Supreme Court case, which – at the risk of repeating myself – was to try and keep you from knowing anything at all. This time the privacy commissioner agreed with council that the legal fees should remain secret due to solicitor-client privilege.

Hogwash.

I am no expert on solicitor-client privilege, but I understand it allows a client to communicate candidly and in confidence with their lawyer, knowing that these communications are protected from disclosure. If we paid for it, aren’t we the client? If not, why not?

As it stands now, you don’t know how much of your tax dollars council spent trying to keep you in the dark.

This paper covers a lot of municipal issues, and every week you can read how councillors in the smaller municipalities take their role of being wise with taxpayers’ money very seriously. These smaller municipalities exercise this principle with everything they do. In short, councillors know where their bread is buttered.

It would appear, however, that St. John’s city councillors do not. It appears they see no issue with working hard to ensure taxpayers do not know how their money is spent. We paid the Supreme Court to tell council that taxpayers deserve to know how their money is spent, and in a crowning irony, those same councillors now won’t tell us what that lesson cost us.

Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up.

Many councillors see city council as a stepping stone to the more lucrative provincial politics. Better pay, better hours and a pension. Some have tried in the past and some are lining up again now for the next election. Should we reward people we’ve elected to look after our tax dollars for trying to block us from knowing how they spent that money? Is that who we want to promote to bigger and better things?

Hiding behind solicitor-client privilege is in this case weak and scurrilous. I hope this decision is appealed to someone halfway sensible.

Municipal elections are a little over a year away. I suspect councillors are betting this will be long forgotten by then. I hope it isn’t.

I suggest we remind each and every one of them of councillor-voter privilege.

What’s that? It’s the privilege to be elected to city council. It’s the privilege to decide how our tax dollars are best allotted.

It’s the privilege which, come September 2025, you and I can revoke.

Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com

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