From hotel stays to restaurant meetings and five months of rent, documents showing the expenses of CAO Mike Derricott and Mayor Jeff Genung have raised questions for one Cochrane resident and former town council candidate on how and where some of the Town’s taxpayer dollars are spent.
Brandon Cruze, a Cochrane resident and previous town council candidate, said he received the financial findings after submitting Freedom of Information and Protection of Policy (FOIP) requests to the Town.
The documents, outlining some expense reports in the last two years for Genung and Derricott, were shared with The Eagle. They contained documentation from Mountain Street Properties GP Ltd. (Milory Apartments) that shows $8,200 used by Derricott to cover five months of rent from December 2020 to April 2021.
Another invoice from Atlas Van Lines Ltd. showed $4,893.48 in moving charges for when Derricott relocated from Edson to Cochrane. Those were included alongside receipts from IKEA and Canadian Tire, labelled as “fixtures for a new dwelling,” including a Brita water filter, Lysol disinfectant spray, a stainless-steel garbage can, cabinet fixtures, shelves, a soap dispenser, and a toilet brush for an additional $669.98.
From the mayor, the FOIP’d documents included expenses from hotel stays from 2021 to 2023. Two examples from 2021 included a $779.31 three-night stay from Nov. 16 to 19 at the Westin Edmonton hotel, and a $250.51 one-night stay at the Hyatt Regency in Calgary during the Mid-size Cities Mayors Caucus meeting.
The FOIP’d documents from 2022 included a two-night stay at the Courtyard by Mariott in downtown Edmonton for $480.61, a four-night stay at the Hotel Saskatchewan in Regina from June 2 to 6 for $893.83, and a three-night stay at the Hyatt Regency Calgary from Sept. 20 to 23 for $1,614.66.
The hotel stays weren’t limited to Canada. Earlier this year, a document from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, located on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip, outlined a $1,418.17 USD hotel stay for Derricott and Genung, from Jan. 4 to 8, when they attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The FOIP package also included several restaurant receipts that Derricott and Genung expensed back to the Town, including meals at the Fence and Post from April 22, 2022, for $192.05, a $225.49 charge from the Westin Edmonton from Nov. 18, 2021, and a $458.43 charge from Sorrentino’s in Edmonton on Nov. 17, 2021.
One receipt from Mr. Mikes Steakhouse in Cochrane on Jan. 17, 2020, (preceding Derricott's employment as the Town of Cochrane's CAO) listed a $180.78 meal as a “CAO dinner,” which included two meals alongside two Manhattans and Old Fashioneds.
The current expense policy for the Town of Cochrane, Policy 1108-01, was signed in November 2019. Cruze argues changes need to be made to have stricter terms of referencing guidelines in the appendix to prevent needless spending at the Ranchehouse.
“That should incorporate reasonable kilometre travelling distances, meaning a staff member has to travel a certain amount of distance before a hotel is reimbursed,” he said, adding he’d also like to see a limit imposed on hotel spending.
“$250 seems like a reasonable amount to spend per night at a hotel,” he said.
“I also believe there should be something within the policy where there could be enforcement rules, just to ensure that the policy itself doesn’t get abused.”
With a majority of oversight occurring at the highest levels of Town of Cochrane administration, Cruze argued those who are in the lower levels of administration are likely unaware of what is being expensed.
“It literally has gone overlooked and unchecked, and council needs to have a reporting mechanism, where council has reports every 30 days whether for travel trips, or high expenditures like that, so a councillor can look to see if there is even value that aligns with the strategic plan of Cochrane,” he said.
Another expense that Cruze found involved a lost receipt declaration form that Derricott filed for a $76.05 Gordon Bamford concert ticket on April 7, 2022. In the description of the goods or services purchased, it read “One concert ticket purchased to support a local charity event.”
“It’s the expectation that taxpayers will pay for everything,” Cruze said. “Concert tickets and things like that should be the individual’s responsibility.
“If they’re going to support a charity, support it out of your own pocket.”
Business on Behalf of the Town
Although the policy predates him, Derricott, speaking in general terms, told The Eagle expense policies like 1108-01 are a very important and common practice for municipalities.
“The function of that is to set out what are reasonable expenses to incur when you are doing business on behalf of the municipality,” he said. “And so, that’s the intent of the policy and the way we’ve operated the policy.”
As the policy currently stands, Derricott said municipal expenses are reviewed and approved by the direct supervisor to ensure they are appropriate, then they are given a second review by the finance department before being passed.
“In my case, it is the mayor who would review that,” Derricott said.
The CAO added no municipal expense can be incurred without multiple people reviewing and signing off on it. He added provincial legislation also sets out a checks-and-balance mechanism for municipal spending.
“So, no individual can go off and spend a bunch of money without having someone else take a look at it and approve it,” the CAO said. “And even more important that that, every year we are obligated through the legislation Municipal Government Act, to have a third-party come in and audit our financial realities, including adherence to things like expense policy.”
When addressing the five months of rent that was paid for by the Town, Derricott explained that was a stipulation of his contract that allowed $15,000 to be reimbursed for relocation-related expenses.
“The contract that I signed had an allowance for relocation expenses, and there wasn’t any specific outline or prescribed list of things that were done, and so in evaluation, [those] were expenses that were incurred because of my relocation into this community,” he said.
“Including maintaining a second residence while our house in our previous community was for sale, and so that’s costs that we wouldn’t have incurred, our family [and] myself, except for part of the relocation to this community.”
Derricott is confident all his expenses are in line with the spirit of the agreement made with the Town when he was hired.
“In my opinion, my intent was to cover reasonable and practical costs associated with relocating my family here, to join this community, which we have been very excited to do,” he said.
When asked about the Gordon Bamford concert ticket, Derricott later said that it was purchased for an event to support the Cochrane Boys and Girls club.
‘The cost of doing business’
Mayor Genung said he had only one comment when looking at the bigger picture when it comes to expenditures listed in the FOIP package: that it's the cost of doing business
“We are conducting business and following a policy, and [1108] is a policy of council that states how, where, and what we can spend money on, and we’ve been following it," he said.”
“Council has voted recently to take a look at that, which I fully support.”
On an individual basis, Genung said he is responsible for approving council’s spending, whereas it is a back-and-forth responsibility when it comes to his own and Derricott’s expenses.
Outside of those outlets, he argued there is no additional oversight from any other municipal body, including town council.
As was previously addressed in a video on Genung’s Facebook page regarding hotel expenses and meals reimbursed to the Town, he relayed the FOIP documentation needs to be examined in context.
“The bottom line is I don’t just go and spend money without thought behind it,” Genung said. “We are doing the business of the Town of Cochrane, we’re meeting with other agencies, governments, officials, trying to move the narrative forward in Cochrane. And that costs money.
“Not everyone is going to agree with the expenditures, issue, or project we are working on, but that’s the nature of business.”
Addressing the FOIP'd documents, Genung argued there is nothing to hide or nefarious that occurs within the Ranchehouse.
“This will sound like I’m on defense, but when I was elected in 2017, I said I was going to do things a bit differently,” he said. “Like, we can’t just sit back and expect things to come to us. We have to go and get them.
“Whether it be relationships with provincial decision-makers, to see funding in Cochrane, or [getting] us on the map so that we can continue to get the things that we need in the community, that’s what I’ve been doing and that’s what those expenses are been outlined for.”
All that being said, Genung acknowledged the Town can be more transparent regarding expenditures, and vowed he will continue to work towards that.
“I’m going to be posting all my expenses, regardless of what expense policy council passes,” he said. “On the website, people can see where I’m spending money and how I’m spending money.
“It’s frustrating at times to be labelled a certain way when not all the information or the context of that information being shared is privy to everyone,” Genung added.
