With a population of about 30,000, Commerce City routinely spends more per year on travel for its City Council members than some of the largest cities in the metro area.
From 2000 to 2004, the city spent on average about $52,750 a year for its council members to go to conferences and meetings. Denver, the state’s largest city, spent about $26,000 a year in that time span for its council members to travel.
Commerce City, for the past two decades, also has allowed council members to take their spouse or a guest with them on one trip a year, and the city will pick up the airfare – a policy unlike any other in the metro area.
“That is unusual,” said Sam Mamet, the Colorado Municipal League’s executive director. “Certainly … it’s more the exception than the rule.”
According to a Denver Post survey of travel policies of a dozen local cities and counties, most allow a spouse or family member to travel with an elected official, but at his or her own expense. Exceptions are made and must be approved if an event demands attendance by a spouse.
Commerce City officials say their travel expenditures are investments in the city. In recent years, it was important for City Council members to travel to Washington, D.C., to talk with federal officials about returning part of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal to Commerce City, said Perry VanDeventer, the city manager.
Those talks, in turn, prompted Kroenke Sports Entertainment to invest millions in the city to build a retail complex and professional soccer stadium.
“I can tell you, it’s a good return on the investment,” VanDeventer said of the travel costs.
Nevertheless, Commerce City recently decided to review the council’s travel policy, forming a citizen task force that will make recommendations early next year.
“We’re going to look at the surrounding cities, and we’re going to look at what we feel as a community is the best use of our tax dollars,” said council member Paul Natale, who will head the task force.
Mayor Sean Ford said this week that city leaders also have discussed suspending the guest- travel benefit while the task force reviews the policy, but the council has yet to vote formally on such a suspension.
Guest-travel accounts for a small percentage of Commerce City’s overall travel expenditures. In 2004, for instance, travel for guests cost the city about $2,600, according to preliminary figures, out of a total of about $36,400 spent for the year.
Ford defended the guest perk, saying that it has been in place since the mid-1980s, is well- known to residents and has been used to reward council members for their hard work and low pay.
Some in the city, however, think it is time for a change.
Mac McFarlin, chairman of the city’s Citizens’ Improvement Advisory Committee and a member of the new task force, said that while the council should be able to spend on travel to promote and lobby for the city, the guest perk probably is no longer needed.
“I think it will probably have to be changed, and in all likelihood it will be changed,” he said.
Commerce City Council members typically go to two of three conferences a year – two conferences sponsored by the National League of Cities and another for cities dealing with airport noise issues.
VanDeventer said the conferences educate council members about issues relevant to the city. And, he said, when they lobby on behalf of the city, they are more effective than city staff because federal officials and Colorado’s congressional delegation believe council members represent the voice of the people.
“It’s definitely work,” Ford said. “It’s not like we’re taking a leisurely vacation.”
While Commerce City officials have continued traveling regularly over the past five years, many cities in the metro area have cut back on city-council travel.
In Englewood, elected officials haven’t traveled on the city’s dime since the start of 2004.
Wheat Ridge scratched all travel for elected officials in 2003. In 2004, Wheat Ridge Mayor Gretchen Cerveny paid her own way to the Colorado Municipal League Conference.
In Lakewood, which is in the throes of a budget crunch, the travel budget was cut from $21,000 to $11,000. City officials, including City Council members, backed cutting the travel budget to steer funds toward a city publication and help keep it afloat.
Lakewood Mayor Steve Burkholder has been paying his own way to some out-of-town conferences and meetings.
Last year, Burkholder used frequent-flier coupons, and this year he’s again using coupons and expects to spend about $2,000 of his own money. “All these meetings are important because it gives you the opportunity to sharpen the saw,” he said.
Meanwhile, Commerce City has not suffered such economic woes. As a result of a boom in housing permits, among other reasons, the city expects to have a budget surplus in the $5 million range this year.
Last year, the city council went over its budget by about $6,000 for the line item that includes travel, mileage reimbursement and conference fees by about $6,000. But the city’s general fund still had a surplus.
Mamet said it’s not unusual or inappropriate for elected officials to travel to conferences and workshops. “It certainly should be subject of scrutiny, but it is not inappropriate,” he said. “What is acceptable is all in the eye of the beholder.”
Ford said he hopes the task force will give him a better idea of what residents think is appropriate. “If they want to make some adjustments on how we do these things, I’m all ears.”
Staff writer Michael McCollum contributed to this report.
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
