I know you anti-Vision Vancouver types will roll your eyes over this one, but the mayor’s party actually has at least one real gentleman.
Surprisingly, it’s not one of the charming elected officials.
It’s the party’s treasurer.
His name?
Ross…Gentleman.
A rim shot, please!
Anyway, never met Gentleman but heard him speak Sunday at Vision’s AGM. I was particularly interested in what he had to say because he was talking about money.
And the gentleman treasurer that he is, Gentleman came equipped with “a balance sheet” and “income statement,” which he projected onto a big screen above the stage.
Luckily for me, I happened to have one of those handy smartphones and snapped some images of the numbers before they vanished.
The documents covered the period from Oct. 1, 2012 to Sept. 30, 2013. According to the balance sheet, Vision was in a deficit of $133,559 at the end of that period.
“The good news part of it here is that three months later, that was all wiped out,” said Gentleman, noting the party had carried a debt for a couple of years. “We’re starting the calendar year 2014 in a positive position, which is where we want to be — which is where we intended to be coming into an election year.”
Switching to the “income statement,” the document showed Vision had a total revenue of $728,088 for the period ending Sept. 30, 2013. Almost $600,000 came from “events income,” another $133,000 from “general income,” $2,041 from memberships and $9,262 from in-kind donations.
Total party expenses for the same period totaled $557,219, most of which — $303,916 — came from operating an office and paying staff expenses. Another $175,703 was spent on “fundraising and outreach.” The document showed a surplus of $170,869.
What the documents didn’t show was the names of contributors or what Vision took in recently from the widely reported $25,000-a-plate lunch realtor Bob Rennie hosted for the mayor.
Don’t worry, the law states us media types and the public will get a full look at what all the parties said they collected and spent once the election is over.
It’s a requirement for parties and candidates to disclose names of contributors, expenses, funds raised and all that other stuff, as of Jan. 1, 2014.
For now, the financial race is on and both Vision and the NPA are each expected to spend upwards of $2 million or more on their respective campaigns.
“The NPA may not be able to find a mayoral candidate yet, but we can be sure they’ll be able to find several million dollars,” warned Maria Dobrinskaya of Vision’s executive during the AGM.
The NPA will look to collect some serious cash with a 350-seat fundraiser Wednesday night at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
I plan to be there.
And I sure hope the party offers up an equal gentleman or gentlewoman to Vision’s money guy. Comparing the financial books of the city’s two mainstream parties before an election would be interesting, don’t you think?
I think so.
I’m guessing voters would, too.
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