Why no Travel Donation?

Recently there has been scrutiny over Tulsa City Councilors flying in Mayor Kathy Taylor’s private jet, or Mayor Force One, as Chris Medlock likes to call it. It occurred to me last night, and I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone bring it up, but why weren’t these trips voted on by the council as travel donations?

Taylor took councilors to other cities so that they could judge for themselves the transformational power of a downtown ballpark in order that they might make better decisions regarding the move of our own ball club to downtown. Usually I like to call a trip that furthers my responsibility at work, a business trip. With regard to the city of Tulsa, when someone else pays for the business trip of a city employee, it’s called a travel donation, and it must be approved by the council. For example, take this regular addenda item from the city council meting on Apr 24th, 2008, where the council voted on a travel donation from the American Water Works Association for Ken Hill.

3. MAYOR’S ITEMS f. Travel donation from AWWA Southwest Section ($422.50) for Kenneth Hill to attend the Arkansas Waterworks and Water Environment Federation in Hot Springs, AR. 08-1271-2

Now you might argue that City Councilors aren't city employees. I think officially, you are correct, but technically I'd say they are employees. According to the charter "Council shall receive a salary of twelve thousand dollars ($12,000.00) per year payable as employees of the city are paid." True, it does fall short of calling them employees, but they do also get medical benefits, so at best the issue is gray. My assertion is that councilors are close enough to employees that they should qualify for the same treatment as regular employees. Also, the possible ethical implications of donating travel to elected officials demands the a certain level of openness that a vote from the council provides.

It seems to me that it is hard to construe these trips as anything other than business trips. Indeed, I think that with the exception of a business trip, Tulsa city employees/officials have no business on Taylor’s Jet. So I ask again, why weren’t these trips voted on by the council?


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Kathy Taylor
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