Cole' Travels

Councilman Joel Fritzler likes to tweak Mayor Cole about his travel expenses during city council meetings every so often. Enough so that I got curious and asked to see the Mayor's travel vouchers for the past year. Turns out Springfield and Washington DC are the top two destinations for the Mayor, mainly to jawbone the state legislature and as part of his duties as a board member of the National League of Cities. I thought he traveled to foreign climes quite a bit more than he apparently does, as there's only one record of an overseas trip on city business, to Taiwan earlier this month:

6/12-16, 2009 Providence RI US Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting—City Livability Awards presentation.

6/17-20, 2009 Washington DC/Tampa Fl NLC Finance Committee Meeting/ All-America Cities Awards Competition

7/9-11, 2009 Denver CO National League of Cities BOD Meeting

9/15-17, 2009 Washington DC Mississippi Delta Grassroots Caucus Annual Legislative Conference

9/24-24, 2009 Chicago IL Illinois Municipal League 96^th Annual Conference

11/10-14, 2009 San Antonio, TX NLC 200 Congress of Cities and Exposition

12/4-5, 2009 Chicago IL IML Winter Board Meeting

1/15/2010 Peoria IL Annual meeting, Illinois Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.

2/8-9, 2010 Springfield IL Meetings with State Legislative Leaders

3/9/2010 Springfield IL Pension Fairness for Illinois Communities—Legislative Hearings/Negotiations

3/11/2010 Springfield IL Pension Fairness for Illinois Communities—Legislative Negotiations

3/13-17, 2010 Washington DC NLC Congressional Conference & BOD Meetings

3/24-25. 2010 Springfield IL Meeting with state officials re. budget cuts/IML executive committee meeting.

4/1-2, 2010 Little Rock AR Mississippi Delta Grassroots Caucus Annual Conference

4/14. 2010 Springfield IL IML Legislative Day and Spring BOD Meeting

4/15-17, 2010 Washington DC Legislative meetings for federal funds.

4/2-23, 2010 Springfield IL Pension Fairness for Illinois Communities—Legislative Negotiations.

4/26-27, 2010 Chicago IL Chicago Global Cities Forum

5/3, 2010 Springfield IL Pension Fairness for Illinois Communities—Legislative Negotiations.

5/23-25, 2010 Las Vegas NV International Council of Shopping Centers Conference

5/25-27, 2010 Springfield IL Legislative meetings.

6/8-10, 2010 Washington DC NLC Finance Committee Meeting.

6/12-17,2010 Taiwan City Taiwan Sister City Visit and Ceremony.