Columbus councilman Bill Gavin’s motion to require any city employee or official wishing to travel on taxpayer money to submit a written request and cost estimate will be reviewed in a future meeting.
Councilmen voted 5-1 to table Gavin’s motion after he voted against approving Tuesday’s consent agenda and read a prepared statement which included the motion during general comment time for the mayor and council. Charlie Box seconded the motion before Joseph Mickens made a substitute motion to table the request until all councilmen could obtain written copies and evaluate them. Gavin said he would “be glad” to provide copies but would not rescind his motion. He was the only vote against tabling the matter.
If his motion were to be passed in a future meeting, department heads or a person requesting to attend a conference or training session would have to provide a statement explaining the purpose of the travel, the benefits to the department and city as well as the cost estimate. Upon returning, the travel cost would be disclosed publicly.
Administration over travel budget
Through 11 months, the city’s expenses for administrative travel is already more than $5,600 over budget.
Several consent agenda items in recent meetings related to travel only contained letters of request and no other supplemental information revealing the expected cost of the trips.
The Sept. 3 consent agenda contained a request for three councilmen to attend a conference in Washington, D.C., which caused a debate between Gavin and councilman Kabir Karriem after Gavin had the item moved to the policy agenda for discussion and questioned the merits of the trip.
On Tuesday, a consent agenda item requesting approval for councilman Gene Taylor to attend a National League of Cities conference in Seattle next month was supplemented only by a letter from Columbus Mayor Robert Smith. No cost estimate is provided for the trip, nor is there one for a consent agenda item to “Ratify Municipal Court Judge attending the ‘Tenn-Tom Waterway Conference’ that was held in Point Clear, (Ala.) and approve payment for cost of registration, lodging and the reimbursement of meal expenses.”
That conference, held last month, was attended by five councilmen and several other city officials. The city’s August financial report shows $9,077.61 in travel, lodging and registration expenditures in the department of finance and administration. It is unclear if all that amount is related to the Tennessee-Tombigbee conference.
Through 11 months in the current fiscal year, that department budget contained expenditures of $11,733.89 for travel, $7,944.10 for meals and lodging and $12,315 for registration fees. The amount initially budgeted for those categories was $8,794.51, $7,559.17 and $9,991.34, respectively, which means the city is $5,647.97 over budget for administrative travel.
Some travel request consent agenda items did contain cost estimates with their requests, including one requesting three firemen travel to a training event in Jackson for about $539.08.
Smith provided an estimate for travel for he, Taylor and Mickens to attend a Municipal League Conference in Tunica next month. That amount would be about $297 for each of them between registration, lodging and meals.
‘An obligation to be transparent’
Gavin said he didn’t disagree with the consent agenda or its contents but said he felt the council had been failing to be accountable to taxpayers.
“I could have asked for some of these items to be moved to the policy agenda. That would have only caused more tension, finger-pointing, accusations, distrust and division. I don’t think that does any of us any good,” Gavin said. “Everyone in government nowadays is having excess spending. We’ve made some mistakes in the past and we can’t do anything about them. Yes, we have a significant amount of travel money for the budget, but that doesn’t mean we have to spend it.”
Gavin said if the city plans to spend money on travel and training, the city has “an obligation to be transparent, accountable and answer to the taxpayers.
“If the training or travel is that important, it should not be hard for us to explain the benefits and interests to the people,” he added.
Box’s agenda request passes
Box’s motion to have city attorney Jeff Turnage write new guidelines for council agenda deadlines and present them for review at a future meeting passed unanimously.
Box said he wanted a policy in place that would allow the mayor and councilmen to add last-minute items to the agenda on an emergency basis while making sure all other items are placed there with more notice. This would give more time for councilmen to review each item prior to meetings.
Karriem referenced Mickens’ substitute motion to Gavin’s travel policy request as an example of the board meeting process playing out.
“Mr. Gavin had a position on travel. Councilman Mickens asked for the matter to be tabled so he and the rest of the council can look into it. I respect what Mr. Box has mentioned tonight, but I think a procedure and process is already in place,” Karriem said.
“I think it’s incumbent upon us if we have an issue that comes before us that if we’re uncomfortable with a vote then we ask for it to be tabled until we investigate it a little bit more. I don’t think we should do anything to completely take away our authority on the council because up until the council meeting and the agenda is approved, we have the right to put something on the agenda.”
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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