Note: the video of this meeting is now available on the City’s website; the travel policy discussion starts at about 1:02 into the video.
Last night’s council meeting was mostly uneventful, with the exception of an extraordinary “From the Mayor and Council” segment, which went on for over an hour. The agenda (which I apologize for having been too busy recently to post in advance) had contained an item under the “Ordinances, Resolutions and Regulations” segment titled “Resolution of the Mayor and City Council Establishing a Mayor and City Council Travel Policy for the City of Gaithersburg Background Material (pdf format)”. This was to be a continuation of the Council’s consideration of a travel policy that was prompted by articles in the Town Courier and the Gazette regarding the lack of such a policy and the routine payment for the travel of Council members’ spouses. The new draft policy (linked above and pasted in below) contained only minor changes from the original draft policy which had been discussed two weeks ago at a work session on this topic, and in particular still contained a default $50 per diem, or up to $65 possible with receipts and documentation.
This new draft was not universally popular. In fact, Mr. Schlichting was unhappy enough to request that the item be removed from the agenda — he didn’t even want to discuss it, he wanted staff to go back and watch the video tape of the work session and come up with a new draft that reflected the direction that was given in that meeting. The Mayor did not appear to like this suggestion, and did not initially entertain making such a change and wanted to move on to the next thing. However, Mr. Sesma said that he agreed with Mr. Schlichting, thus bringing the issue back to the table. City Attorney Cathy Borten pointed out that Mr. Schlichting could make a motion in this regard if he so wished. The Mayor continued to not be happy with this. Mr. Schlichting did eventually make the motion, which was immediately seconded by Mr. Marraffa — thus making it clear that the motion would pass. The Mayor remained reluctant to take the vote — he and Ms. Edens both preferred that the topic be discussed that night and repeatedly asked Mr. Schlichting to provide more information about what problem he had with the draft, to which Mr. Schlichting would only say that the direction was provided at the work session. The Mayor insisted that he did not remember the work session the same way, and Ms. Edens agreed — Ms. Edens also pointed out that the Gazette reported the outcome of that session the same way that she remembered it. Eventually the vote was taken, passing three to one with only Ms. Edens opposed. This part of the discussion took a little more than seven minutes, but they weren’t even close to done — having decided to remove the item from the agenda, they continued to discuss it for another three quarters of an hour — until 1:56 into the video.
In fact, most parts of the travel policy were uncontroversial. No one objected to the policy as it addressed transportation, hotel accommodations, spouse travel or alcohol. The entire discussion was over meal reimbursements and the per diem. There appeared to be a basic, deep-seated disagreement among the Mayor and Council members over the purpose of the policy and what should be considered proper. In part, this may reflect the differing backgrounds of the participants — The Mayor is a small businessman who has been involved in the City government for a long time. Mr. Schlichting works for a developer (he is a managing director of The JBG Companies), Ms. Edens is an attorney, Mr. Sesma is a government scientist, Mr Alster worked at a non-profit (the Red Cross) prior to retirement, and Mr. Marraffa’s background is in construction and software sales.
To my perception — and this is not at all to suggest that I fully understand their thoughts on this issue — the Mayor and Ms. Edens seemed mostly to want to have a relatively standard travel policy and to remove any appearance of impropriety, while Mr. Schlichting appeared to think that the per diem was either not necessary, too low, or both. Mr. Sesma seemed to think that the policy did not fully reflect the reality of the places to and purposes for which the Mayor and Council travel — that, for example, the per diem did not come close to the US Government per diem for many of the places they routinely travel, such as Annapolis and Ocean City. Mr. Marraffa seemed to believe that the way that things have operated in the past has worked just fine, and that the adoption of this travel policy would suggest that there was something wrong with what they were doing previously — he would have preferred that they simply write down in words what they used to do on an informal basis. No one seemed to have trouble with the idea of providing receipts, and they seemed to be reaching a conclusion that the per diem was so low that they would rarely be able to take advantage of that option. One of the sticking points was that, at some of the meetings they attend, there are group meals at which business is conducted, and for which each participant pays a fixed price. This price is often high enough that it would exceed the per diem just for that one meal.
What I think about all this is that:
- This really is much ado about nothing. We’re talking about the money spent on a half-dozen poorly-compensated people a few times a year, and by all reports the budget for their travel — which is maybe one or two tenths of a percent of the City’s overall budget — has never been exceeded. There are a vast number of topics — historic preservation policy, for example — that I would have much preferred they spend an hour discussing in public, but I’m afraid will never capture their attention.
- Most of the functions that they attend are meetings of municipal leaders, from across the state and the country. While staff appears to have asked other municipalities what their travel policies are and concluded that what Gaithersburg provides is on the high end, this leaves open the question of how all those other cities deal with the apparent high cost of those meetings. Is everyone else paying out of pocket? In fact, as far as I know staff never reported, at least publicly, how other municipalities deal with exceptional situations.
- I really wonder if the City is attempting to apply the right standard. They are using what would be a typical travel policy for staff. But the Mayor and City Council are not staff, they are elected officials. What are the travel policies for other elected officials? When Ike Leggett travels, does he get a $50 per diem? How about Phil Andrews? Martin O’Malley? Chris Van Hollen? Barbara Mikulski? Personally, I think that our elected officials have a special role in representing the City, and the support that the City provides in allowing them to attend these functions should reflect this importance.
- What I think they should do is to simply appropriate themselves a budget and then just keep within it. They could decide among themselves how to allocate it and delegate the City Manager to handle reimbursement. This would, among other things, eliminate the small problem of having the City Manager deciding what his bosses can and can’t do.
Following is the draft policy which triggered all the discussion and desire for a lack thereof. Please note that the PDF on the City’s website contained only OCR’d text, and thus I had to go through and add all the punctuation and formatting and correct spelling errors. I also colored the changed text red, where it was only bold in the original document. Therefore this could still contain errors and the original should be consulted for an authoritative version.
Mayor & City Council Travel Policy
Purpose To establish criteria for payment and reimbursement of travel expenses incurred by the Mayor City Council members, and members of City Boards and Commissions who travel in the performance of their official functions.
General Policy The City of Gaithersburg recognizes that the Mayor, City Council members and members of City Boards and Commissions travel to locations within and outside the State of Maryland for the purpose of representing the City at conferences and meetings, as well as to receive education and training to enhance their skills relating to the performance of their duties within the City government. In formulating this Travel Policy, it is further recognized that tangible benefits are gained through attendance at such events, including the informal networking and information exchanges that often occur The expense of such travel is therefore appropriate for the City to bear.
It is understood herein that an individual traveling under this Policy is expected to exercise reasonable care in incurring travel expenses. Excess costs, circuitous routes, luxury accommodations and/or meals, and unnecessary services solely for the convenience or personal preference of the traveler are not acceptable under this Policy. Travelers will be held responsible for any additional expenses incurred for personal preference or convenience.
Travelers agree to complete needed documents (including pre-travel forms) in a timely manner and will submit all appropriate receipts within 15 days of their return. All expenses for travel will be included in the approved City budget.
Meal Expenses
The City employs a per diem system for meal expenses. The aggregate daily total per diem is $50, which will be reviewed and amended as needed from time to time Travelers can receive this amount as an advance, be reimbursed, or use a municipal credit card for meal expenses. No receipts are required to be submitted to receive the per diem rate.
Reimbursement for meal expenses of up to $65 per day may be made if accompanied by receipts and the expenses are deemed in conformance with this Policy. Any meal expenses in excess of $65 per day are the responsibility of the traveler unless exceptional circumstances exist that would justify a higher amount. The City Manager shall determine if expenses in excess of $65 per day will be approved on a case-by-case basis. In the event the Mayor or a Council Member finds it necessary and appropriate to exceed this amount, they shall provide a written explanation of the reason and itemized receipts to the City Manager upon their return.
Lodging/Transportation Expenses City staff will arrange for accommodations (lodging) and transportation (airfare, train, etc.) with an emphasis on obtaining the best price taking into consideration reasonable time and location constraints. Staff will make reservations with sufficient lead times to obtain the highest discounts. Airfare will be coach or business class whichever is less. Lodging at conference venues often offers a higher value, even though the nightly rate is slightly higher, as transportation costs (cabs, etc.) are reduced and additional time is made available for conference activities. Whenever possible, municipal credit cards will be used to ensure that the most accurate records are maintained. Travelers using personal methods of payment are eligible to receive reimbursement provided proper receipts are provided.
Spouse Travel A spouse of the Mayor or a member of the City Council will be allowed travel privileges (airfare, lodging, meal per diem, etc.) only to the National League of Cities and Maryland Municipal League main conferences each year.
Alcohol No alcoholic beverages may be included in any request for reimbursement under this Policy.
