How our local government works

The Strathcona Regional District will be conducting an independent audit of director remuneration and expenses. 

“I received more money than other directors,” admitted Regional Director Jim Abram of Area C (Discovery Islands-Mainland Inlets), who then proceeded to explain how this came about.

Chair Brad Unger said,  “There’s no defending anything here. The motion is for an audit of director renumeration. There’s no name of a director in that. It’s directors, it is all of us.”

Regional Director Brenda Leigh of Area D (Oyster Bay-Buttle Lake) protested, “I see this motion and this whole initiative as nothing but political – right before an election!” 

When the auditor submitted his report to the board, at the May 11 board meeting, Campbell River Director Claire Moglove pointed out that there was a significant difference in the expenses directors were claiming.  

Staff was directed to prepare a report, which Chief Administrative Officer David Leitch submitted at the May 25 board meeting.

There is a marked difference in the base salary the SRD pays municipal and regional directors. Municipal directors are already receiving compensation, and the stipend they receive is for the additional hours they put in as a result of sitting on the regional board. However Regional Directors do not have an additional source of income, this is their only salary.

These differences are expected, the variances Director Moglove was referring to are additional charges.

The first relevant chart is for attending additional board, committee, or public meetings. Jim Abram, the Director of Area C, was given the largest payment, $8,160.  The smallest payment in the graph went to Kevin Jules, Director of the Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k:tles7et’h’ First Nations on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, $2,880.   

In 2021, ten of the 14 SRD Directors were eligible for renumeration for meetiings they had with external agencies. Only two applied for compensation. An unnamed Campbell River director received $320. Jim Abram, director of Area C, received $4,800.

There is also specific compensation for Regional Directors attending public hearings, parcel tax meetings, select or special committee meetings , etc. Only two directors made claims. Gerald Whalley of Area A (Kyuquot/Nootka-Sayward), whose area stretches across from the west coast of Vancouver Island to Sayward, claimed $160 for one meeting. Abram, who looks after an even larger area in the SRD, received $9,120 for attending 57 meetings. There were no claims from Area D, or Area B (Cortes Island).   

Brenda Leigh, Regional Director of Area D, came to Abram’s defence, “The report seems to point at Area C for high claims (and) Area D as zero claims. I have a very different situation from area C in that I can drive in area D  from one end to the other without too much problem.  Area C is a much bigger land base.  They have meetings that have to happen in Bella Coola and all the way up the coast and on remote islands and it is time-consuming for director Abraham to meet with those people, even virtually.”

She called the whole discussion a ‘witch hunt.’

Campbell River Director Charlies Cornfield objected to the idea directors were receiving compensation for attending meetings.

“We’ve always covered travel and registration expenses, but we’ve never been paid for a meeting,” he said. 

Chief Administrative Officer David Leitch said this specific bylaw was for electoral areas and was passed by the electoral area directors.

“I want to make sure that the public is very clear on that  because there’s no way that I would have supported anything that says that you go off to a convention, and I’ve been doing it for over 20 years, where you actually get paid to attend. There’s something just not right with that,” said Cornfield.

Mayor Andy Adams, of Campbell River, said, “I’m going to move that an independent audit of the SRD board members renumeration and expenses be conducted immediately to confirm the variances outlined in the report from the CAO.”

Moglove added, “When this issue came to the board originally, whenever that was, I do recall the discussion around the table about meetings. What constituted a meeting for which a fee could theoretically be claimed? And I recall my deep concern as to making sure that it was tight enough that everyone was on the same page, so that if I had a telephone or a 10 minute meeting with our CEO about something, that’s not a compensable meeting.”

Leitch wanted to make sure everyone understood that it was not staff’s responsibility to call directors liars, investigate the meeting held, or who attended.

Abram pointed out that the auditor had not been concerned about the directors expenses.

Regional Director Noba Anderson from Cortes Island, appears to have been fascinated by the extent of Abram’s write-offs.  

“It’s just those extra kinds of meetings, which as I’m seeing here, include town meetings. Now I’ve been to a lot of virtual town meetings in 2021, and didn’t occur to claim them because it was COVID. I hosted a whole swack of them. There might have been one or two in person. I didn’t even remember that was claimable. Then a meeting with staff at the SRD office. I don’t think directors are going into the office a whole lot these days. I certainly am not. A director was meeting with senior government officials. So I guess that could be in person, or electronically, or electronic meetings with an external organization to which the director has been appointed by the board.”

She was especially interested in the $9,000 write-off.

“I’ve had a whole ‘crap ton’ of meetings. It never even occurred to me to claim for them, because they have all been electronic.”

Leitch responded, “There is nothing that makes it mandatory that you do claim as Director Cornfield just identified. He doesn’t make claims. It’s not mandatory. The bylaw is there. You have the ability to make the claims and I’m just representing the claims that have been made.” 

Campbell River Director Colleen Evans spoke in favour of Mayor Adam’s motion, “I think this is good practice to do a review and hearing the words open for interpretation is a concern. I think this is definitely something that is a good investment  of our time and effort.” 

When the vote was called, Directors Leigh and Abram opposed receiving the staff report that pointed out the variances in director expenses. They were a minority and the motion carried.

Director Abram’s apologetic came after this:

“There’s a whole lot of things I could say, but basically I welcome the interest. I received more money than other directors and it has been exacerbated by two things in the last couple of years, one being a catastrophic injury, falling off a roof and breaking my back.”

Chair Unger attempted to interrupt him, explaining that the audit was for all directors. 

 “Please, please, Brad. Don’t cut me off when I’m trying to defend what is specifically directed at me. Okay? If you’ll allow me to proceed with my comments, like other directors have had the time to do,” replied Abram.  

He explained that his constituents on Quadra and the outer Discovery Islands expected nothing less than +100% from him. 

“There’s groups for just about everything, including our recreation society, which is a big one that we fund in the amount of $100,000. So of course I have to take part in those meetings.  It’s disproportionate the amount of work that I have to do in ‘Area C’ compared to any other area in this regional district.”

“And don’t forget, please, municipal directors. We are talking about individual directors in all four electoral areas. One director, no staff, except what is allowed through the regional district staff office. But we don’t have other people that we can just pass things on to It’s all us.”

Abram then proceeded to list virtual meetings with senior government officials, BC Ferries and Island Health. Also, Leitch ‘was completely agreeable to’ all the extra meetings ‘during the COVID crisis.’

When the votes were called, Abram and Leigh opposed receiving the staff report that identified the variation in director’s expenses, but all the other directors disagreed and this motion carried.

Mayor Adams and Director Moglove moved that an independent audit of director expenses be conducted. This motion passed with no opposition. 

Top image credit: Piggy Bank Photo by Andre Taissin on Unsplash  

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