Fine dining, French lessons, public speaking assistants, First Aid training...
This may sound like a charmed life to the average person but for Toronto city councillors, it's all in a day's work.
The city's annual report on councillors' expense budgets found that all councillors used up less than their $53,100 budgets. However, money was spent on everything from lessons on how to use Microsoft Word to the services of a man who dressed as a spray-painted silver Elvis monument for a picnic gathering.
A look through some of the invoices submitted by the councillors show that business meetings sometimes happen over a fancy dinner in the Entertainment District or Little Italy.
Mayor David Miller attended a business dinner at Ristorante Giovanna on College Street on March 26, 2008. Miller and members of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation enjoyed two bottles of wine and a $470 dinner on taxpayer money. A generous $72 tip boosted the bill to $542.
Coun. Georgio Mammolitti also spared no expense during a dinner meeting with members of a Mexican delegation. The group of four enjoyed a $240 dinner at La Fenice on King Street West on September 6, 2008.
However, it was Coun. Karen Stintz who spent US$2,650 of taxpayer dollars on a public speaking coach after she was told she sounded "shrill" when speaking at council.
The most peculiar expense was filed by Coun. Glenn De Baeremaeker who spent $750 on the Elvis impersonator for his annual community picnic on June 19, 2008.
The 2008 councillors' expense budget is available online on the city's website.
The forms break down the budget under several categories, including promotional costs, cell phone costs, travelling expenses and donations.
Each councillor is allowed to give up to $600 a year to non-profit groups. Several councillors have given ratepayer groups in their ward a donation while others have chosen to donate to public school bursaries or local soccer groups.
The councillor who came closest to spending the entire office budget is TTC Chair Adam Giambrone. His biggest expense was printing and postage costs, spending more than $22,000 on items like newsletters and flyers to distribute around his ward.
His expenses also include monthly French lessons from Alliance Francaise, costing $1,576.80.
Coun. Rob Ford spent the least amount of his office expense budget, spending nothing out of the allotted $53,100.
He used his own funds ($684) to pay for things like photo frames and ink toner for the office printer. In a note to the city, his office made it clear that Ford did not want to be reimbursed for the charges.
For the past several years, Ford has refused to spend taxpayer dollars to operate his budget, choosing to pay for materials out of his own pocket and holding meetings with constituents at local coffee shops.
