By Heather Black/News contributor
Sicamous council and administration expenses are under budget.
With total claimed expenses at $16,206, and another estimated $24,600 for the upcoming Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, District of Sicamous council will have $6,194 remaining from its $47,000 expense budget.
That, according to Mayor Terry Rysz, is due to councillors not claiming all their expenses and instead travelling to meetings and conferences on their own dime.
“Our group is pretty good, they’ve been very generous to the community,” he credited, adding that one councillor has never submitted an expense claim.
As it is at their discretion, and depends on what meetings they attend, the amounts vary from person to person with Rysz the highest at $6,398 and Coun. Janna Simons at zero. Town manager Evan Parliament is also well within his financial limit, having claimed just $7,769 of his $14,000 budget.
Rysz assured that money is well spent as the conferences — UBCM, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and others allow council to network with other communities and lobby for local needs at the provincial and federal levels, with four-laning the Trans-Canada Highway currently one of their key issues.
“They are definitely beneficial,” he stated.