Well, a contingent of Shawnee officials went to Wash DC recently for the National League of Cities Conference. Attendance at these types of conferences can be beneficial to the city. My only question is why did we need to have four people go? Actually, it was planned for five originally but Neal Sawyer had to cancel because of business commitments.
Now, the Shawnee Dispatch published the dollar figures at http://www.shawneedispatch.com/news/2010/mar/31/city-officials-detail-recent-trip-dc-trip/
This is what they showed:
Not listed on the city Web site are the expenses incurred on the trip. Gonzales, who was in D.C. from March 14 to 16, had expenses totaling $1,637.56.
Kuhn attended the conference from March 12 to 16 and had expenses totaling $2,560.72.
Sandifer attended March 12 to 17 and had expenses totaling $3,184.55.
Meyers attended March 14 to 16 and had expenses totaling $1,495.56.
Elected official expenses
Listed below is the breakdown of expenses at the National League of Cities Congressional Conference in Washington, D.C.
• Dawn Kuhn, Council member
(attended five days) — lodging: $1,076.32; transportation: $384.40; registration $445; classes: $360; meals: $295.
• Jeff Meyers, mayor (attended three days) — lodging: $538.16; transportation: $347.40; registration: $445; meals: $165.
• Mickey Sandifer, Council member (attended six days) — lodging: $1,345.40; transportation: $568.15; registration: $445; classes: $480; meals: $346
What gets me is Mickey Sandifer, the man who spent quite a bit of money traveling to Texas for a meeting and now is the council member that spent the most in DC and was there the most number of days. The same man that was concerned about the potential loss of city emergency services because of budgetary problems. C'mon Mickey, get real.
My next question is why plan for 5 people? Couldn't we have done just as well with 2? The mayor and the city manager?
I was wondering, back in February when the trip was mentioned at a council meeting how it was determined as to who went, especially with regards to council members. I erroneoulsy had been lead to believe that they were "selected", so I sent an email to the city manager and she explained the process. This is from her reply to me on 2/23/10:
Ray,Each year staff reminds Governing Body members when the time to registerfor Spring NLC comes and asks whoever is interested to respond. We have always left it up to individual council members to make their own decision on whether to attend or not.
Carol
So, I guess that means that the council members who did not go, chose not to go, and therefore chose to save the city money.
