Documents Reveal More Details on Fenty Travel
A few more details have emerged regarding Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's travel schedule. Not a whole lot---but a few.
The revelations come from documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request filed in April by Judicial Watch, the conservative watchdog group famous for bulldogging Bill Clinton during his presidency, in addition to other various, mostly Democratic politicians.
The 17-page set of documents [PDF] shows how Fenty, in December 2007, received an invitation from acting Beijing mayor Guo Jinlong. While in China, according to a draft itinerary, Fenty was scheduled to take tours of the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the historic Beijing neighborhoods known as hutongs, and he was also slated to attend a reception at the Capital Museum hosted by the municipal government.
According to an accounting signed by District Secretary Stephanie D. Scott, Fenty also visited Shanghai and Hong Kong. The Beijing and Shanghai governments gave in-kind gifts totaling $8,800 for accommodations, food, and transportation; the Chinese People's Association for Friendship, associated with the Chinese government, gave $2,500 toward additional transportation expenses.
As for his controversial trip to the United Arab Emirates, fewer details are to be had. The trip was valued at $25,000, and the donor was listed as Yousef Al-Otaiba, UAE's ambassador to the U.S. and Mexico. The purpose of the trip was listed in city documents as "Cultural and economic exchange," but no itineraries were provided.
Perhaps most interesting is an accounting of Fenty's travel paid for by the city. A spreadsheet lists eight trips taken during his first 18 months in office. A couple were known---his trips to the yearly shopping center conference in Las Vegas. He also traveled to New York on four occasions, twice simply for "Meetings," once for "Education Meetings," and once for an "Agency Rating." Fenty traveled to Dallas in May 2008 to give a graduation speech at Paul Quinn College, a historically black institution with fewer than 1,000 students; less than a month later, he attended the U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Miami. Those trips, together, cost taxpayers about $2,600.
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3:18 pm
$2600 of City taxpayer financed trips!?! That's all they could find, geez, come back when you got some real info! That little bit of money is almost an insult. Either Fenty is doing a good deal of hiding information or this is a NON-STORY! LL, the rain must be on your brain today.
BTW, what's with the slight towards Paul Quinn College? Just because it is an HBCU and has less than 1000 matriculating students doesn't mean it is insignificant. No, it is not Georgetown, but it is a college nonetheless.
3:23 pm
Never said it was insignificant! Never heard of it though; thought that would be the case for others, so offered a little context.
3:50 pm
More insightful is that the DC Charter school Board has much higher funding than the State Board of Education. Just amazes me that as much as everyone talks about reform no one digs into the weeds and see's that reform is really elimination of public schools
4:04 pm
That's because it's not, Tom.
5:13 pm
Eight trips, in total, cost $2,600? That's an average of just over $300 bucks a trip.
How the hell does the Mayor, and presumably some security entourage or at least an assistant, travel to New York, Dallas and Miami 8 times for 300 bucks a pop? I need to get his travel agent working for me.
Not that the actual cost would be a ridiculous amount of money in the grand scheme of things. But it was never about the money. It's about the fact that we don't know what the hell is going on with him, ever, and he acts like there's no reason we should care what our mayor is doing.
7:08 pm
# Tom Says:
June 4th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
More insightful is that the DC Charter school Board has much higher funding than the State Board of Education. Just amazes me that as much as everyone talks about reform no one digs into the weeds and see’s that reform is really elimination of public schools
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Tom - you're right, but many of us have been squawking about that for years.
8:37 pm
There is no documentation re expenses of Fenty's "security" apparatus. Also, where is the funding re Fenty's family? Did Fenty or his wife pay taxes on the gifts from the Chinese government or the UAE government?
8:55 pm
The two trips to Dallas and Miami together cost $2600. The New York trips were considerably cheaper.
12:46 pm
I would hope the sec. for the city is not hiding info....because their is no way fenty, family, seciruty and an extra woman can travel all those places for 2600.00