Read this news story - This is how your tax money is being spent !!

Oshawa taxpayers on hook for MBAs

Oshawa taxpayers footed at least a $40,000 bill for two MBAs for one city councillor and Mayor John Gray’s executive assistant.

Regional councillor April Cullen and Gray’s executive assistant, James Anderson, are earning MBAs in community economic development from Cape Breton University courtesy of Canada’s motor city.

Outraged Oshawa councillor Louise Parkes told the Sun on Monday that the city’s policy for corporate training is being stretched way beyond what council intended, and is giving an elected official and a political staffer a “parachute” into a whole new education.

Under the city’s corporate training and financial assistance policy, staff and council can use city cash, up to $2,000 in one year and $5,000 over three years, for “cost-effective training and educational opportunities.” Any extra cost must be approved by the department head and city manager but Gray, not the city manager, signed off on both MBAs — something he says he’s entitled to do as CEO of the corporation.

“(The policy) wasn’t meant for this,” Parkes said. “Ultimately it comes down to judgment and this isn’t good judgment.

“No one in a million years would expect them to pull an MBA out of (the policy).”

Parkes said if they were truly following the policy, the city manager, not the mayor, should have approved the MBAs.

She herself used the policy to get $200 for courses in speed reading and computer skills.

The mayor defended dinging taxpayers for the tuition.

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it,” Gray said, adding council unanimously amended the policy.

Gray said he has noticed already an “improvement” in Cullen’s analytical skills and said Anderson has also “expanded his horizons.”