BALTIMORE —Baltimore City ethics officials are reviewing a question raised by WBAL-TV 11 News in a report Tuesday about the travel habits of the Baltimore City Council, the WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team has learned.
Should elected officials get to pocket travel rewards when taxpayers foot the bill for their trip? This is a question federal, state and local governments have dealt with in places other than Baltimore since frequent flier miles and reward points have value. But Baltimore is apparently missing a policy, and the most-traveled member of the Baltimore City Council appears to be piling up the points.
Twice in the past five months, Hawaii has been the destination of Baltimore City Councilwoman Helen Holton. She's there this week and she was there in December, each time, for a meeting of the National Association of Counties, for which Holton is a board member. The cost of the two trips is more than $5,000, all paid by taxpayers.
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9 comments:
I would say yes.
Traveling for business is not fun and takes you away from your family. A very slight perk like this is nothing.
If you're not paying for it, as a Public servant, what I would do...is donate the miles to veterans. But that's me.
I would say NO! In my opinion, the points should all go back to the City and use them for future business trips (notice I said business and not personal). Yes 732PM, traveling for business is not fun but they are getting paid when they are traveling. I am sure a lot of them are racking up free nights for themselves by staying in hotels with rewards program also being paid by the taxpayer and earning more FREE nights on our dime.
No. Points go to the credit card payer/ owner.
Period.
Hotels and rental car perks as well.
Period.
If they are traveling on the tax payers dime then they should not get the points. They could be used on future travel expenses. If it is a private company it is up to them to decide how it works.
We also need to stop sending people all over the place on these trips. I guess it was really a hardship to this employee to leave their family behind so they could travel to Hawaii twice in 5 months!
Fun? It's call W-O-R-K.
Absolutely! Well said.
Asolutely Not, they should not get the points. If they pay for their own travel, then get all the points you want, on my dime, no.
NO, IT WAS ON GOVERNMENT MONEY AND POINTS SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN TO THE PERSON.
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