Niagara's Regional chair has commented on a council decision to enact an interim expense policy for elected officials.
The issue of expenses coming to light in the last month when a Post Media report found Fort Erie councillor Sandy Annunziata had billed for mileage during his appearances on a Toronto radio talk show.
The newspaper report also revealing Councillor Andy Petrowski received a payment of more than $44,000 for legal expenses.
But when CKTB's Roundtable asked Caslin why Petrowski was paid the money for legal costs for taking the region to court, even though a judge ordered Petrowski to pay for the region's legal costs, the Chair replied your assuming those legal fees are the fees he is charging for."
Caslin says they did not get enough detail to determine what the legal fees were for and are working to clarify the expense claim.
The regional chair adds the new policy will prevent that from ever happening again.
Meantime, Caslin says the new expense guidelines will also apply to roaming charges.
He admits some councillors, unbeknownst to them, had wracked up high roaming charges, which forced the region to contact their cellphone provider and negotiate a better rate.
Under terms of the new expense policy, all regional councillor expenses will be posted online and Caslin expects those records to go back at least seven years.