Former Saskatoon mayor Henry Dayday isn’t discounting a mayoral run in the upcoming election.
The 76-year-old held a news conference Thursday. He was expected to announce his mayoral bid, but instead asked questions about councillor remuneration — specifically, about councillor’s and the mayor’s communications allowances.
Dayday said he wants to know if incumbent candidates are allowed to use communications allowances for their campaign, and noted he’d written a letter to council calling for the allowances to be repealed.
“I want to know what the rules are going to be in terms of my expenses,” said Dayday, who served as Saskatoon’s mayor from 1988 to 2000.
“Does that mean the two people who have already announced — who are incumbents — are going to be using whatever money they have in terms of this expense, this communications allowance?”
He didn’t discount a bid for mayor. He said he wants to know campaign expense rules before he decides to run.
“Before us newcomers — as I call myself — enter this race, we want to know that we didn’t give them a head start,” Dayday said, referring to taxpayer money allocated for the mayor’s and councillor’s communications allowances.
Communications allowances, which were adopted in 2013, allow councillors and the mayor to be reimbursed for promotional and advertising expenses related to city business. Tickets to charity events, messages published in newspapers and flyers, web and social media costs, and facility rentals are considered acceptable expenses under the allowance’s parameters.
The mayor is allowed to spend up to $120,000 per year and councillors can spend up to $10,000.
According to the city’s code of conduct for members of council, the mayor and councillors cannot use city resources — cellphones, computers, city email addresses, official photographs, the city crest, etc. — for any campaign-related activities between Sept. 21 and Oct. 26. They are also prohibited from using the title of mayor or councillor during the campaign period.
Dayday said he’d eliminate the allowance if he was mayor, but he wasn’t exactly clear under what circumstances he’d run in the upcoming election.
He said he’d run if the communications allowances were repealed, and said he may run if the allowances remain.
The allowances are an unfair use of taxpayer money, he said.
The municipal election is set to be held on Oct. 26.
Sitting mayor Don Atchison confirmed in late 2014 he’d be seeking re-election, and three-term city councillor Charlie Clark entered the mayoral race on Wednesday.
--- with files from Calvin To
