Our newsroom figured this week's story about Cochrane Mayor Jeff Genung and Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Mike Derricott's expenses would generate a lot of comments. Stories about how public dollars are spent always seem to lead to accusations of financial overreach or misuse.
While some of the expenses listed in the FOIP'd documents provided to us by former town council candidate Brandon Cruze were fairly reasonable (some of the hotel stays, for instance) some of the other expenditures immediately jumped out as being unnecessary. An obvious example was the $15,000 relocation allowance stipulated in Derricott's contract.
Yes, $15,000 is fairly minuscule in the grand scheme of things when considering municipal budgets and the high salaries associated with CAOs, but Derricott was under no obligation to use that money.
We're not here to suggest Derricott wasn't entitled to draw from that allowance, but some of the household items he chose to purchase – a Brita water filter, Lysol disinfectant spray, a stainless-steel garbage can, cabinet fixtures, shelves, a soap dispenser, and toilet brush – are everyday living expenses he should be expected to pay for himself.
There's also the fact Derricott's rent was covered by taxpayers for the first five months of his residency in Cochrane. Again, he was within his rights to use the relocation allowance for that, but it won't sit well with locals to know their tax dollars were used to pay the rent of an already-highly-compensated municipal employee.
There's also the Gordon Bamford concert ticket that Derricott expensed to the Town. It's nice that he was keen to support a local charity through attending that concert, but he should have absolutely paid for the ticket himself.
The CAO is typically the highest-paid position within a municipal government's administration. That's to be expected, as it is a high-stress position that requires a lot of responsibility, a lot of education, and years of municipal governance and team management experience. According to the Town's website, Derricott's salary equates to $241,245 a year or about $20,103 a month, before taxes. There's no reason he couldn't have paid for relocation expenses out of that generous salary. It's a luxury most tax-payers in Cochrane don't get to enjoy.
