Traveling with Taxpayer Money

District taxpayers paid more than $50,000 for 3 members of Mayor Adrian Fenty's executive staff, 10 police officers, and three detectives to travel with Fenty as he campaigned across the country for Senator Barack Obama over the past five months. According to records provided by the Mayor's office, Fenty went on six trips to places like Manchester, New Hampshire and Dallas, Texas to campaign for the presidential hopeful.

Fenty, who has made a point of not using a security detail when he is in the District, had a two or three member detail on each of the six trips, for a total of 496 police man-hours. According to records from the District's Chief Financial Officer, the security detail spent more than $17,000 on travel expenses, and totaled 288 hours of overtime at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $32,000. At least one of the trips took officers out of town, while the rest of the force was participating in the "All Hands on Deck" initiative, where police Chief Cathy Lanier flooded the streets with every available officer to deter crime.

In addition to his security detail, Fenty was accompanied by four different staff members, including John Falcicchio, a top advisor to Fenty as well as one of his key campaign fundraisers; Tracy Sandler, a communications specialist in Fenty's press office; Veronica Washington, Fenty's aide who is by his side daily; and Sara Lasner, another mayoral aide.

Carrie Brooks, a spokesperson for Fenty, tells WTOP Sandler was on leave when she traveled to North Carolina and Pennsylvania with Fenty, but Washington and Lasner "were there as official mayoral staff and would be paid by the city."

Washington went on all six trips; Lasner went on three of the campaign trips. Fenty's office did not provide a detail of his staff's payroll or expenses, and did not say whether or not the District was paying Falcicchio for the 13 days he traveled with Fenty and Obama.

While it is not unusual or illegal for elected officials to travel on behalf of other politicians, or for their staff to accompany them, it is unusual for staff to claim the days as workdays. A spokesperson for Virginia Governor Tim Kaine says Kaine took several trips for Obama, but there was no cost to Virginia taxpayers because Obama paid for a charter plane, and staff took vacation days when they accompanied the Governor. As for the security detail, Kaine's spokesperson, Gordon Hickey says, "The Governor has around the clock protection wherever he is, so there is no added cost for taxpayers when he travels."

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley made several trips for Senator Hillary Clinton; his spokesperson says that all expenses were paid for with campaign dollars.

Bob Kabel, Chairman of the District of Columbia Republican Committee, says the taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for campaign trips.

"These costs need to be reimbursed," Kabel says. "It is actually costing D.C. taxpayers real money to do this, plus loss time of the mayor and some of his staff." As for Fenty using his security when he's campaigning for Obama, Kabel scratches his head.

"I find that peculiar," he says.

Kabel isn't the only one who doesn't understand why and when the mayor uses his security. Councilmember Phil Mendelson, who heads the committee that oversees the police department, is left wondering, too.

"I've never been able to figure that out," Mendelson said.

When asked about the expenditures and why he chooses to use his security when campaigning for Obama, Fenty declined to comment asking for more time to review the data his staff had provided WTOP.

(Copyright 2008 by WTOP. All rights reserved.)