{"id":16404,"date":"2015-03-25T07:08:44","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T11:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/?p=16404"},"modified":"2015-03-23T13:11:16","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T17:11:16","slug":"laval-refuses-anthian-expenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/laval-refuses-anthian-expenses\/","title":{"rendered":"Laval bureaucrats refuse Anthian expenses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laval-des-rapides councillor Pierre Anthian had another meeting with legal department manager Patrice F. Guay recently. Guay and Sylvain\u00a0Gouin, who became Laval\u2019s financial services manager and city municipal treasurer in January, had bad news.<\/p>\n

Laval will not pay $12,000 of $14,000 Anthian claimed in research and support expenses since he became an independent councillor in September.<\/p>\n

The City is applying the directives established by the Guide administratif \u00e0 l\u2019intention des municipalit\u00e9s <\/em>that outlines Quebec Government research reimbursement regulations that apply to councillors,\u201d wrote city communications representative Val\u00e9rie Sauv\u00e9, in response to a phone call to Gouin\u2019s office. \u201cThe City of Laval has chosen to rigorously apply these directives.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sauv\u00e9 pointed out that, in addition to the research and support fund, all councillors have an expense fund for which they don\u2019t need to claim receipts.<\/p>\n

Anthian says that he believes his expenses should fall under his $27,000 budget for research and support rather than the $15,000 in non-taxable expenses that are harder to quantify. As an opposition councillor, he says that the City\u2019s interpretation ensures that few of his activities could be supported since his position often falls outside that taken by the majority of elected officials.<\/p>\n

Sauv\u00e9 sent a copy of the provincial Guide administratif \u00e0 l\u2019intention des municipalit\u00e9s <\/em>to the Suburban. The guide indicates that office supplies, hall rentals and advertising costs can be claimed under the fund, as long as they don\u2019t advertise a political party or include the request to sign or not sign a petition.<\/p>\n

Visitors to Anthian\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> are encouraged to sign a petition that asks Laval to adopt intelligent parking. \u00a0Presumably, that\u2019s the reason the City is refusing to pay for 10,000 flyers that Anthian sent to Laval-des-Rapides homes to ask them to join his Facebook page so that he could inform them about water breakdowns, gas leaks, smog alerts and traffic hold-ups. The city also refused Anthian\u2019s claim from the lawyer who outlined how Laval can legally adopt intelligent parking.<\/p>\n

They have agreed to pay $2000 of his claim, however. Those receipts cover the cost of photocopies, a telephone line and renting the room at Chateau Royal for a public consultation about intelligent parking.<\/p>\n

Anthian says he never imagined that his expenditures could be seen as partisan because he doesn\u2019t belong to a political party. He says he created his petition prior to seeing the guide from the Quebec government banning the use of the tools in any advertising paid for under the research and support budget. He blames his mistake on a lack of training and plans to take his case to a tribunal to see if Laval\u2019s decision will stand.<\/p>\n

Sauv\u00e9 said that the city has twice offered training to councillors to make sure they understand what expenses can be covered under the research and expense budget. The first training course took place at the beginning of their mandate and the second took place recently.<\/p>\n

Anthian said that the second training session took place last week, on Tuesday, March 17, after his expense claim was already submitted and refused. He may have received training when he was first elected, but if he did, he doesn’t remember it.<\/p>\n

As a party member at that time, his entire expense budget went to his political party to spend. He says the party used it to open an office staffed by people who served as volunteers during the election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laval-des-rapides councillor Pierre Anthian had another meeting with legal department manager Patrice F. Guay recently. Guay and Sylvain\u00a0Gouin, who became Laval\u2019s financial services manager and city municipal treasurer in January, had bad news. Laval will not pay $12,000 of $14,000 Anthian claimed in research and support expenses since he became an independent councillor in September. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[671,136,610,670],"class_list":["post-16404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-island-report","tag-independent-councillor","tag-laval","tag-pierre-anthian","tag-research-and-support-expenses","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-4gA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16957,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/courts-force-laval-to-pay-anthian\/","url_meta":{"origin":16404,"position":0},"title":"Courts force Laval to pay Anthian","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"March 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Laval paid $3,334.61 to Laval-des-Rapides councillor Pierre Anthian on January 22. The figure covered reimbursements for research expenses costs originally denied by the city and reported on in the Suburban last April. This is a great relief after a year of sacrifices for my family and wrestling with the City,\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hundred Mile Circle"","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16964,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/anthian-proposes-montreal-field-trip\/","url_meta":{"origin":16404,"position":1},"title":"Anthian proposes Montreal Field Trip","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"January 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"With files from Robert Frank During the council meeting last night (January 12), Pierre Anthian, the municipal councillor of Laval-des-Rapides made a motion that Laval city councillors visit their counterparts in Montreal to learn about democracy. We look exactly the same as we did in the days of Vaillancourt,\u201d said\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hundred Mile Circle"","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16962,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/trottier-reserves-name-for-new-party\/","url_meta":{"origin":16404,"position":2},"title":"Trottier reserves name for new party","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"January 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Independent Laval councillors Michel Trottier and Pierre Anthian are cooperating to create a new political party in time for the next elections in November 2017. \u201cIf we do nothing, we\u2019re going to arrive in 2017 with only one party as we were at the time of Vaillancourt,\u201d said Trottier. \u201cI\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hundred Mile Circle"","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16177,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/intelligent-parking\/","url_meta":{"origin":16404,"position":3},"title":"Laval needs intelligent parking says Anthian","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"February 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Laval independent city councillor Pierre Anthian plans to hold a public consultation about intelligent parking on Tuesday, February 24 at 7 p.m. It will take place at the Ch\u00e2teau Royal, 3500, boulevard du Souvenir, right next to City Hall. Intelligent parking enables citizens to leave their cars parked on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hundred Mile Circle"","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16451,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/quebec-needs-a-sunshine-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":16404,"position":4},"title":"Quebec needs a sunshine law","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"April 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"When Laval independent councillor Pierre Anthian questioned why bureaucrats deemed his research expense claims invalid, he raised two important issues about how Quebec democracy functions. To whom can a politician appeal a bureaucratic decision when the executive committee those public servants report to are all members of an opposing party?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hundred Mile Circle"","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welcome-Scan.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welcome-Scan.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welcome-Scan.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Welcome-Scan.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16558,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/city-ethics-office-reports-on-first-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":16404,"position":5},"title":"City ethics office reports on first year","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"May 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, Laval police reported on the first year of the city\u2019s new ethics and integrity office (Bureau d\u2019int\u00e9grit\u00e9 et d\u2019\u00e9thique de Laval or BIEL). The office has investigated 85 reports of corruption, fraud or misconduct since it began operating in March 2014. We can state for certain after one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hundred Mile Circle"","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16405,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16404\/revisions\/16405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}