Earlier this month, Columbus Mayor Robert Smith, Police Chief Oscar Lewis and Assistant Police Chief Fred Shelton traveled to Detroit to attend the funeral of the mother of a CPD police lieutenant, spending $4,130.79 of taxpayer money.
That expenditure was approved during the city’s council’s Sept. 6 meeting, even though five of the six council members said they were not aware of the cost at the time they approved the expenses.
Councilmen defended the blank-check vote by saying that it has long been standard practice for the city to send someone — three someones in this case — to funerals of police officers’ family members. It is good for morale in the police department, they claim.
Meanwhile, five CPD officers have left the department since the funeral. Draw your own conclusions.
We realize this is a delicate subject to broach. We agree the city is right to acknowledge such sad events. We just believe there are better, more appropriate ways to extend those sympathies.
Often, that sentiment is expressed by sending floral arrangements. Anyone who has lost a loved one will recall how meaningful those gestures were. Cards and letters and offers of support are meaningful in such times as well.
If, however, a greater expression of sympathy is warranted, a case could be made to send an official to funeral services as a representative of the city.
It’s pretty simple: Pick someone to represent the city at such events. Anyone else who wants to go can do so on their own dime. There is nothing insensitive or inappropriate about that.
Every penny taxpayers provide for city operations should be accounted for and there should be written policies that govern those expenditures. Knowing the city spends tax dollars wisely is a morale issue for taxpayers, lest city officials forget.
Also disturbing has been the city’s response to a request from The Dispatch for information on how much was spent for the Detroit trip. We were able to obtain that information only through an open records request.
While the laws that govern open record requests allow government bodies to charge for the costs of meeting these requests, we find the city engaging in some curious billing in this instance.
In this case, the city charged The Dispatch $91.96, which includes $41 for copies of documents. The city also billed The Dispatch $50.96 for one hour of work performed by the city’s chief financial officer, Milton Rawle.
It is interesting to note that Rawle’s hourly rate, based on his salary of $73,129, is a shade over $35. Why this disparity? We await an answer from the city on that.
But for an individual citizen who has the same right to public documents as the media, the cost of making that request is likely to be prohibitive. The city’s approach may not violate the letter of the law, but it is certainly an affront to the spirit of the law.
We expect our city leaders to manage taxpayer money — every nickel — wisely and follow written policy in all such expenditures.
That, too, is a morale issue.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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