Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Detroit Mayor Ran Up $210K on Credit Card
Detroit Mayor Ran Up $210K on Credit Card - Yahoo! News: DETROIT - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose city is struggling with a projected $230 million deficit, has charged at least $210,000 for travel, meals, drinks and other purchases on his city-issued credit card, public records show.
The charges, reported Tuesday by the Detroit Free Press, cover the first 33 months of Kilpatrick's four-year term that began in January 2002. They include 78 charges for meals from January 2002 through September 2004, some of them at restaurants in New York and Washington.
Kilpatrick spokesman Howard Hughey said the mayor's travels have been part of his effort to attract business to Detroit.
"As indicative of any first-term mayor, he has done so to meet with several potential public and private investors," Hughey said.
Meals make up less than a tenth of the charges to the city credit card, with travel accounting for most of the expenses, Hughey said.
Kilpatrick's immediate predecessor, two-term mayor Dennis Archer, said he normally paid out of his pocket or used campaign or other private money for meals costing more than $40. "The city really had no funds to entertain anybody," he said.
Kilpatrick, whose salary was $176,176 before he said he would cut it by 10 percent to help close the shortfall in Detroit's $1.6 billion budget, is the only city employee who is issued a credit card.
The mayor's proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 calls for 754 layoffs and assumes unions also will agree to a 10 percent pay cut, as well as changes in health benefits. ¶ 7:40 PM
The charges, reported Tuesday by the Detroit Free Press, cover the first 33 months of Kilpatrick's four-year term that began in January 2002. They include 78 charges for meals from January 2002 through September 2004, some of them at restaurants in New York and Washington.
Kilpatrick spokesman Howard Hughey said the mayor's travels have been part of his effort to attract business to Detroit.
"As indicative of any first-term mayor, he has done so to meet with several potential public and private investors," Hughey said.
Meals make up less than a tenth of the charges to the city credit card, with travel accounting for most of the expenses, Hughey said.
Kilpatrick's immediate predecessor, two-term mayor Dennis Archer, said he normally paid out of his pocket or used campaign or other private money for meals costing more than $40. "The city really had no funds to entertain anybody," he said.
Kilpatrick, whose salary was $176,176 before he said he would cut it by 10 percent to help close the shortfall in Detroit's $1.6 billion budget, is the only city employee who is issued a credit card.
The mayor's proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 calls for 754 layoffs and assumes unions also will agree to a 10 percent pay cut, as well as changes in health benefits. ¶ 7:40 PM
