Blog note: this article references a grand jury report criticizing councilmember travel expenses. We previously posted an article saying that the city council was to consider the reimbursement request. Now it has decided.
The Vallejo City Council approved a request Tuesday night to reimburse Councilwoman Rozzana Verder-Aliga for her upcoming travel to three of Vallejo’s sister cities.
The action wasn’t unanimous as Councilman Robert McConnell voted against the expenditure. Meanwhile, Vice Mayor Katy Miessner was absent from the meeting.
Verder-Aliga will be reimbursed $1,520 for her airfare to the city’s sister cities in South Korea, the Philippines, and Japan from July 11 through 29.
Billed as a goodwill mission, Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan said it was more than that.
He noted that the city and its sister city, Jincheon South Korea have engaged in exchanging interns. Sampayan said Jincheon has sent a person for a year to learn about Vallejo’s planning process.
“We have also been able to garner business from the Philippines,” the mayor added.
He said there have been an effort between Vallejo’s Filipino markets to bring new products to the city.
“I think it’s an excellent project,” he said.
Verder-Aliga defended the trip, explaining that a 40-plus member delegation would be traveling. Verder-Aliga said she was asked by the delegation to attend the trip.
She further noted that the city is paying for the $1,500 airfare while she pays for the rest of her trip, which is expected to total $3,400.
“I will be representing the city of Vallejo and will do my best to represent our beautiful city,” she added.
The lone dissent to the move came from Vallejo resident Anne Carr who said Verder-Aliga could use Skype to communicate with the sister cities.
Carr questioned if the reimbursement was the best use of cities monies.
She also brought up a 2016 Solano County Grand Jury Report which criticized a 2015 trip taken by then-Mayor Osby Davis and Verder-Aliga.
Both traveled to Japan and the Philippines with the council setting aside a combined $3,100 in travel reimbursements for the pair. Davis requested and ultimately received $2,098.76 for his travel expenses.
Prior to the council vote, McConnell requested that the city manager agedendize a council discussion about the allocation of monies to the sister city commission.
May 9, 2018
Vallejo Times-Herald
By John Glidden
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