Vancouver city council voted seven to three along party lines to add a new administrative staff position to Mayor Ken Sim’s office as recommended by the city manager using $80,000 already budgeted for the position.
The item provided a testy opening to Tuesday’s full council meeting, though.
Opposition councillors questioned the mayor over why he needed to expand his office with a staffer whose activities would have less public scrutiny than they would have in the city clerk’s office as the city manager originally recommended.
“You did commit to reducing the partisan activities of the mayor’s office, and now we see this public funding shifting from the civil service into your political office essentially, and I think we want to know why,” said Green Party Coun. Pete Fry.
The $80K for the staffer is in addition to the $100,000 boost city council approved in discretionary funding for the mayor’s personal office in December.
The recommendation from city manager Paul Mochrie says the $80,000 was originally approved to establish a new administrative role in the city clerk’s office that supports scheduling and related mayoral functions.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim put forward a successful amendment to the city’s budget to give his office another $100,000 in funding, along with an additional $80,000 in secondary support. But as Justin McElroy reports, it’s not exactly the impression he gave voters about the mayor’s budget when he was campaigning.
But Mochrie, in his report, said that since the job requires “a close day-to-day working relationship with the Mayor,” it shouldn’t have to answer to the City of Vancouver’s public administration.
“Given the specific operational requirement and nature of the role as a direct support to the mayor, this position will be significantly more effective as a member of the mayor’s staff, rather than a position that reports up to the city clerk,” it said.
On Tuesday, Sim denied the move was political. The staffer is needed to help manage his busy schedule.
“The scheduling of my activities are off-the-chart insanely crazy and complicated and literally change every 15 minutes,” he said, adding that 25 per cent of his time is devoted to administrative tasks.
Sim argued the addition of the staffer to his office rather than the city clerk’s office would free him up to work on other priorities such as developing interest in the city from investors and visitors.
“We’re building a world-class city, make no mistake about it,” he said. “When you look at the entirety of the mayor’s office budget, it equates to literally less than a penny for each resident in the city of Vancouver.”
Vancouver city council is considering adding another staff member to Mayor Ken Sim’s office. While the position is not new spending, it will push the mayor’s office budget higher than those of his predecessors. As CBC’s Chad Pawson reports, it’s something he promised he wouldn’t do when he ran for office.
During the 2022 election campaign, Sim criticized what he referred to as the “dumb spend” of predecessor Kennedy Stewart on the mayor’s office. Sim promised efficiencies and reduced spending if elected.
But under Sim, the budget for the mayor’s office has increased.
According to city data, Sim is on track to spend more than $1.5 million on the mayor’s office in 2024, about $450,000 more than Stewart spent in 2021, his final full year as Vancouver mayor.
On Tuesday, Sim’s six ABC councillors were able to push through debate and pass the Mochrie recommendation. Opposition OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle did try to amend the motion to require enhanced transparency over the mayor’s budget, but it was not heard.
She said she hears concerns from residents that there is more transparency over the tasks and budgets of the city’s civil service compared to that of the mayor’s office.
“I’m interested to understand what you see currently as the transparency and accountability around the spending of those funds,” she asked Sim.