Are These Trips Necessary?

The NYC trip was not the first or last trip. Vice Mayor Susan Burk flew to Germany to examine mechanical parking garages, when fine examples exist in the USA. The St. Augustine Record blasted wasteful spending in this 2003 editorial: Editorial: Travel idea not good for city Publication Date: 06/28/03
A pattern of feeding at the public trough has emerged at St. Augustine City Hall under the new administration, led by Mayor George Gardner. The pattern is a far stretch from the focus on public service promised before the November election.
The mayor ran on a platform of openness and need for change. He said he was determined to be more responsive to the public than his predecessors.
Well, lately, he has been making the previous administration look pretty solid by comparison. The previous administration didn't ask for big raises and free travel to Europe for their significant others. The previous administration was criticized for its stance on public issues, not its desire to spend public money on itself.
That desire to spend has become a major distraction for the Gardner-led government in the Nation's Oldest City. And the timing of the distraction couldn't be much worse, as matters of great public importance are on the agenda: the San Sebastian harbor project, the Bridge of Lions, parking plans and so on. It will be difficult to build consensus with lingering questions about ethics and motivation.
Gardner said he made a mistake recently when he asked for the mayor to receive $20,000 a year in compensation, which would have been more than the mayor in Daytona Beach, a much larger community. He apologized to the community for raising the subject, for thinking he was entitled to a larger salary for his labor. He later said he did not want a raise of any kind. But somehow his apology didn't stop him from voting for the more modest increase city staff proposed for the mayor, from $12,000 to $16,000. Maybe he won't cash the checks when the raise kicks in next fiscal year.
Then, this week the mayor brought to the commission table an idea that taxpayers should pay for plane tickets for commissioners' spouses to go on fancy trips. Wouldn't it be nice to take them all to Spain for the Aviles sister city exchange?
It turns out that St. Augustine can't pay the freight unless the spouses perform official functions while traveling. So the commission decided that the spouses can be voted in as temporary ambassadors!
Isn't that great?
The mayor said it's just too expensive to take his wife to Spain otherwise. And the move, which only Commissioner Errol Jones opposed in a 3-1 vote, would open the door, like the salary increase, for future commissioners who don't have as much money as some of the former wealthy officeholders. Commissioners Don Crichlow and Bill Lennon also voted for the measure. Commissioner Susan Burk was out of town and not present for the vote.
The Gardner logic goes something like this: How can poorer commissioners-to-be step in and function as their elite predecessors without the public's help?
Recall that Gardner, who has a home in St. Augustine, stayed two nights at the taxpayers' expense at the downtown St. Augustine Casa Monica Hotel when Spanish dignitaries visited earlier in the year.
It is possible that he just doesn't see the problem that other people see with such spending.
It is possible that he thinks it is perfectly fine for taxpayers to foot the bill for his wife to fly to Spain.
In defense of his travel position, Gardner said his wife would be asked to go to many events in Spain, that there would be much effort involved. Former Mayor Mark Alexander, who paid for his own wife's ticket to Spain, said Thursday that the most she had to do was shake a few hands, that there were no official duties to assume and that the trip was really more of a social occasion or vacation for her.
If Gardner wants to be different from the old guard, why not suggest canceling the trip?
We noticed that the Spanish delegation sent to St. Augustine did not involve an entire elected body. It involved a few key officials. And it involved a group of young entertainers, among others.
Why doesn't this administration send a group of young entertainers to Spain, along with one or two key public officials? (If others want to go, too, let them pay their own way.)
That would set a different sort of tone, more like what voters expected when they cast their lots for change.
Commissioner Lennon said Thursday that he was unaware Monday night he was voting on a general travel proposal. He said he did not know his vote would open the door for spouses to fly for free to Spain. He said he thought the vote was specifically for an upcoming League of Cities trip. He said he was shocked by what he read on Thursday's front page about the mayor's desire to send his wife to Spain. Lennon said he has always paid his own wife's way to such things.
It is up to Lennon, then, to correct the matter. He can bring the issue back up to the commission when all are in attendance. And he can insist on discussion, which was strangely absent from the last vote, whether this new "more open" commission wants to talk about the matter or not.
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