Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman Blasts City Council Members' Trip To Paris
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)- The City of Light, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc of Triumph... and Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman's point of view on a trip to a Paris suburb by two city council members to attend a conference. He offered some criticism, first taking his comments to social media.
"I absolutely think it's a vacation at taxpayers' expense," Coffman said.
City council members Juan Marcano and Crystal Murillo were attending the International Making Cities Livable conference. Last year it was in Indiana, this year a Paris suburb where CBS4 reached Marcano.
"Yeah, I'm not really interested in how the mayor wants to make political hay out of business trips and conferences. I'm interested in the information we picked up at the conference and I'm excited to bring that back to Aurora," said Marcano.
Those on the city council are given a $7,000 a year travel budget. But the mayor thinks the people shouldn't have to pay for international trips.
"I'm putting forward a proposal for a vote that would simply prohibit future travel like this from ever happening again," Coffman said.
The mayor himself has traveled to El Salvador but says that was at the city's request. Councilman Marcano says his trip cost taxpayers $3,500.
"What's interesting is my colleagues who are griping about the cost are about to take a two-three day trip to DC that's going to cost more."
He plans to present what he learned in the Paris suburb to help improve the City of Aurora. The mayor says he has asked the city manager for a review of the council members' expenses on the Paris trip.
