Junket Junkies
Most folks these days know Pete Kaliner as the nine-to-midnight talker on WBT 1110-AM. People with a little longer memory know that Kaliner was also one of the best frontline news reporters to cover a beat in Char-Meck. Which is why it’s no surprise that he dug up this gem on city, county and school officials getting ready to blow through more than $80,000 for a three-day junket to Boston, part of the vaunted Inter-City Visit put on by the Chamber.
As Kaliner detailed on his show, local leaders will be living large in Beantown this month, courtesy of our tax dollars, taking in everything from duck boat rides and a game at Fenway Park to ritzy cocktail receptions and gallery crawls. Hotel accommodations? The Four Seasons, naturally, where regular room rates check in at about $500 per night.
Lest anyone think it’s all just a mini-vacation on the public dime, rest assured our esteemed leaders will be working in some workshop sessions on the likes of economic development and education. I think the longest one lasts almost three grueling hours.
A quick rundown of local officials scheduled for the junket, at about $2,700 a head, shows: county commissioners Jennifer Roberts, Harold Cogdell, George Dunlap, Dan Murrey and Karen Bentley, along with County Manager Harry Jones.
On the city side: Mayor Anthony Foxx and councilmembers Michael Barnes, Patrick Cannon, Nancy Carter, Warren Cooksey, Andy Dulin, David Howard, Patsy Kinsey, James Mitchell and Edwin Peacock, along with City Manager Curt Walton, Assistant City Manager Ron Kimble, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority chief Tim Newman and Charlotte Area Transit Systems Director Carolyn Flowers.
Not to be left out of the party, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman is also scheduled for the trip, along with Central Piedmont Community College President Tony Zeiss and UNC Charlotte Chancellor Phil Dubois.
Wonderful. Thank goodness we’re not having any money problems on the home front or like, you know, closing libraries, shuttering parks, and firing schoolteachers by the hundreds. I mean you get into a stone-broke situation like that, why it’d just be flat irresponsible for local leaders to pocket a fat wad of cash and go off junketeering. Right?
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