The following item was on the Dec. 3 Town Council agenda, and as best as could be determined, it was put there by Council Member Bill Garner.
DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION TO ADOPT TOWN COUNCIL
POLICY #3 – COUNCIL MEMBER TRAVEL AND TRIP REPORTS.
Well, after lengthy discussion and much "pussyfooting," Paula Abbott finally mentioned the motion had to do with "overseas travel."
It was interesting to note that Vice Mayor Al Kunisch said on three occasions he thought this motion was "really petty." He noted that Mayor Loomis took a trip to Europe and gave the council much information.
Well, excuse me! Our readers may recall we reported previously that in May 2008 Mayor Loomis took a trip, at taxpayer expense for ( if I recall) 7 days to visit boiotech companies in Switzerland & Germany. If I'm not mistaken, the cost was $11,000. and to date, no report was ever given to the council or the citizens. Was anything gained by the mayor taking this trip? Not that I know!
In any case, the motion with a couple of amendments was approved 5-2. Not surprisingly, the mayor & vice mayor voted "No."
Once again, the majority of this council agrees with Bill Garner when he says we should have a more transparent council.
1 comment:
Who approves travel for town employees/council members? Somebody had to ok this? I thought the town had some type of economic development position, can't recall the exact title. I don't think it would be the mayor's job to be traveling at taxpayer expense to do somebody else's job Also if the purpose of the trip is jobs, or attraction of jobs, then I would think this would have to be more of a regional type effort not left to the mayor of a town
Ok, I support the council vote to monitor more closely the travel of council members
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