This afternoon a joint committee of council will debate proposed changes to how council members can spend their annual office budgets. One of the changes would limit donations to 3.5% of each council member’s budget. As some councillors argued this week, the restriction would hurt community groups that have relied on those regular gifts.

(Also see Susan Sherring’s column today that tees up the committee meeting.)

To give you a taste of where councillors donate, I put together this list of donations, memberships and sponsorships expensed by politicians so far this year. The numbers come from the monthly disclosures posted on the city’s website.

This category doesn’t include expenses for tickets and special events but you can find those numbers in the disclosures, too.

It will be interesting to watch the donations over the next two months. If council agrees with a recommendation to implement the spending restrictions starting July 1, politicians could be scrambling to donate.

Donations for January and February 2013

Mayor Jim Watson
None

Orléans Coun. Bob Monette
Orléans Army Cades Corps ($150)
Gift cards for community events ($125)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)

Innes Coun. Rainer Bloess
Orléans Army Cadets Corps ($150)
Membership for Royal Canadian Legion Branch 632 ($60)
Ottawa Riverkeeper event ($27)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)
Ecole Secondaire Publique Gisele-Lalonde graduation bursary ($200)

Barrhaven Coun. Jan Harder
Greater Nepean Chamber of Commerce ($250)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)

Kanata North Coun. Marianne Wilkinson
Kanata Chamber of Commerce People’s Choice Business Awards ($204)
Kanata Minor Hockey bantam charity tournament ($160)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)

West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry
Kanata Chamber of Commerce People’s Choice Business Awards ($204)
Royal Canadian Legion Branch 617 “Old Sled Run” ($150)
West Carleton Seniors’ Council, “West Carleton Seniors Games” ($500)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)
Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre “Ottawa Good Food Box” ($150)
Cheshire Cat Pub “Tim Jar Fundraiser” ($86)

Stittsville Coun. Shad Qadri
Kanata Chamber of Commerce People’s Choice Business Awards ($204)
Talisman Flowers “In memory of the Corshis family” ($118)
Hockey for Little Hearts tournament ($50)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)
Royal Ottawa Hospital “Do It For Daron” ($100)

Bay Coun. Mark Taylor
Food cupboards at Britannia Woods and Foster Farm ($300)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)
Food cupboards at Foster Farm, Britannia Woods and Michelle Heights ($570)

College Coun. Rick Chiarelli
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)

Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Keith Egli
Merivale Gardens Community Association annual winter fun day ($150)
General Burns Community Association annual skating party ($100)
Hockey Day in Ward 9 ($200)
Fisher Heights and Area Community Association annual winter fun day and pot luck supper ($150)
Manordale-Woodvale Community Association annual winter carnival ($150)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)
Greater Nepean Chamber of Commerce community charity breakfast sponsorship ($250)
Myers Riders Football Club sports trivia fundraising gala ($200)

Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)

Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)

Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)
La Nouvelle Scene “Soiree Benefice 2013″ ($150)

Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Peter Clark
None

Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes
Ottawa ACORN ($200)
Membership: Heritage Ottawa ($25)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)

Kitchissippi Coun. Katherine Hobbs
Ottawa ACORN ($100)
Champlain Park winter festival supplies ($39)
Orange Art Gallery rental for book launch ($153)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)
Champlain Park winter carnival ($91)

River Coun. Maria McRae
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)

Capital Coun. David Chernushenko
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($25)

Alta Vista Coun. Peter Hume
Alta Vista Community Association, 2013 Alta Vista Picnic ($1,000)
Eastway Gardens Community Association 2013 Eastway Gardens/Cecil Morrison Park summer fun day ($1,000)

Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais
University of Ottawa “Monument de la Francophonie ($250)
Cumberland Bandits fundraiser, gift baskets ($202)

Osgoode Coun. Doug Thompson
St. Mark’s High School graduation ($200)
Make A Wish of Eastern Ontario ($100)
Plowing for a Cure ($300)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)
Gloucester Fair ($350)
Hockey for Little Hearts ($200)
Christian Community School gift certificates ($90)
Metcalfe Skating Club ($100)
Supplies for gift baskets to be donated at community events ($530)

Rideau-Goulbourn Coun. Scott Moffatt
Kanata Chamber of Commerce People’s Choice Business Awards ($204)
5th Annual Hopewell “Love your Life” Valentine’s Gala ($750)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)

Gloucester-South Nepean Coun. Steve Desroches
Membership: Greater Nepean Chamber of Commerce ($244)
Nepean Camber of Commerce “Community Charity Breakfast” sponsorship ($250)

Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley
Kanata Chamber of Commerce People’s Choice Business Awards ($204)
United Way dinner auction ($100)
Kanata Bantam Charity Tournament ($160)
Ottawa Mission “Feed the Hungry” ($69)

Thought I’d share with you the city treasurer’s presentation on how the city is distributing its year-end surplus.

Disposition of 2012 Tax and Rate Supported Surplus/Deficit by

It’s time to tally council’s year-end office budgets from 2011. I went through the numbers to get a sense of what council members spent their money on, and no surprise, staffing was generally the highest cost. I put together a breakdown of how their budgets were distributed across the categories used by the city.

The definitions:

Hosp is special events, community receptions and hospitality
Donations is donations, sponsorships and memberships
Travel is city-related business travel
Comms is constituent communications and web services, including web sites, printing, mailing and advertising
External is external services, including office assistance and consulting services
Materials is materials, office supplies and related services, including office, computer supplies and facility rentals
Staff is staffing costs for the office.

One category that interests me is donations and sponsorships. It’s an interesting category because taxpayers don’t get a say on where money should be donated, although the money does largely go to worthy causes. I added up how much money council members collectively spent on the category in December, when they could see how much is left in their annual budgets and donate accordingly. The number was roughly $85,000.

On one fishing expedition I came across the food and beverage expenses for some city boards. Most meetings are catered and some have wider offerings than others. Fair to say when Mayor Jim Watson said in his 2011 budget speech that there would be a $300,000 reduction to discretionary spending, including luncheons, it didn’t mean catering would completely disappear. A lot of the time catering is provided by the cafe in City Hall. Public health also used a non-profit off-site supplier.

The usual theory for the food is meetings largely happen over the dinner hour or last through the lunch hour. (However, lunches for city council ended with Watson’s 2011 budget.)

Here are some hospitality figures from 2011, for your viewing pleasure. One board not captured here is Crime Prevention Ottawa, which also has its meetings catered by the non-profit supplier, according to a testimonial on the website.

Ottawa Police Services Board

January meeting: $150.53
February meeting: $54.00
March meeting: $149.35
(No April meeting)
May meeting: $149.95
June meeting: $149.35
July meeting: $91.24
(No August meeting)
September meeting: $157.62
October meeting: $157.62
November meeting: $165.77
December meeting: $149.35
TOTAL: $1,374.78

Ottawa Community Housing Board

January meeting: $306.81
February meeting: $225.05
March meeting (community board meeting: $324.89
April meeting: $194.87
May meeting: $194.87
June meeting: $144.12
(No July meeting)
August meeting: $200.48
September (community board meeting): $680.65
(October meeting)
November meeting: $197.91
December meeting: $200.48
TOTAL: $2,670.13

Transit commission

January special meeting: $29.97
January regular meeting: $45.66
February regular meeting: $33.73
February special meeting: $101.38
March regular meeting: $47.28
April orientation: $35.18
April regular meeting: $88.11
May regular meeting: $41.27
June regular meeting: $92.67
(No July meeting)
August regular meeting: $69.72
September regular meeting: $41.63
October regular meeting: $68.72
October special meeting: $41.63
November regular meeting: $60.56
December regular meeting: $44.32
TOTAL: $841.83

Ottawa Public Health Board

March orientation session #1: $393.93
March orientation session #2: $281.28
April regular meeting: $398.42
May regular meeting: $173.16
June strategic planning meeting: $661.31
June regular meeting: $166.79
June special meeting: $41.90
July special meeting: $166.28
August regular meeting: $146.50
August training: $118.35
September regular meeting: $125.32
October special meeting: $140.35
November regular meeting: $133.79
TOTAL: $2,947.38

Ottawa Public Library Board

January: $243.21
February: $185.80
March: $341.46
(No April amount)
May: $265.97
(No June amount)
July: $600.45
August: $25.00
September: $651.34
October: $345.83
November: $387.98
December: $1,312
TOTAL: $4,359.76

Another draft 2012 branch budget was approved today without debate. Actually, the $53.7-million gross information technology budget sailed through the IT subcommitee without a word, other than “carried.”

It’s been fairly tame on the budget front this month. There were some waves at transit commission with the students and the u-pass, and Innes Coun. Rainer Bloess tried to add $5.5 million to the OC Transpo budget, but was stopped when he didn’t have offsetting savings.

The only substantial change to the budget happened at last week’s environment committee meeting when councillors took a scalpel to the community sustainability budget.

Councillors, like Keith Egli and Allan Hubley, couldn’t wrap their heads around why community sustainability needed to spend at extra $605,000 next year. The answers weren’t satisfying, either. (Part of the budget was to be used to hire temporary staff, which, interestingly, don’t show up in the full-time equivalent staffing numbers presented in the budget).

By the end of the meeting, the committee reduced the sustainability budget by $200,000 and transferred the money to forestry for tree planting.

Truth be told, the sustainability folks knew this line of questioning was coming. Some councillors began grilling staff well before the budget discussion at committee.

So, it wasn’t really a budget reduction since the money was just transferred to another branch. It appears councillors on Nov. 30 will be fairly content with signing off on a budget with a 2.4% property tax hike, no more, no less.