A SLIGHT TITLE CHANGE- "IF YOU WERE GOING BROKE, WOULD YOU TAKE A TRIP TO SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS ?"

After last week's revelation that Mayoral Chief of Staff Susan McMullen jetted off to an all expense paid vacation to Florida with ten of her City Hall allies, I am somewhat surprised to hear of more taxpayer paid travel. But then again, why should anything happening at Hartford City Hall surprise anyone.

Council Majority Leader Rosezina "rJo" Winch will this week be taking her show on the road as she jets off to San Antonio, Texas on the Hartford taxpayers dime. Winch will be attending the "NBC-LEO" Congress of Cities and Exposition in San Antonio November 10th through the 14th. All expenses paid by the taxpayers of Hartford, at the same time that employees are being laid off.

Hopefully, Winch will avail herself of the training seminars available during the four days, I might suggest Wednesday's class from 9:00am to noon in room L13"Building Public Trust Through Performance Leadership", if that is full try room L16
"Guarding the Public Checkbook: Local Government Finance".

I am sure when the issue is raised, Winch's response will be similar to McMullen's, that they actually save the city money by taking these trips. That may be true, but drastic times call for drastic measures. If laid off employees are facing foreclosure because they lost their jobs, is it really proper spending any money that is not necessary to vital functions of the operation of the city?

Maybe it would be proper to take part of your salary as a councilperson and pay for your own trip to further your social networking. Didn't the Council call for a travel ban at budget time?

Here is the link to the conference website http://www.nlc.org/CONFERENCES___EVENTS/CONGRESS_OF_CITIES___EXPOSITION/Backtomain.aspx