Mayor’s Visit Is Questioned in Carlsbad

Carlsbad Mayor Buddy Lewis’ plan to visit the coastal community’s sister city in Japan has been tainted by council members questioning the value of the trip as well as spending taxpayers’ dollars on the good-will mission.

Councilman Mark Pettine disapproved of the trip’s financing, saying that the journey was originally planned with the understanding that it would be financed privately. Councilwoman Ann Kulchin said more time should have been invested to plan a trip that would build stronger business ties with the city, Futtsu.

When the Carlsbad City Council first considered in January accepting the invitation to Futtsu, a city south of Tokyo with 56,000 residents, discussions focused on having the private sector sponsor fund-raisers to finance the trip.

But city and community leaders said organizing such events became difficult on short notice--Futtsu Mayor Masanori Kurosaka’s official invitation for the trip, scheduled for Oct. 23 to 28, arrived just last month.

Allocation OKd

Eager to nurture the fledgling Sister City program, established in January to build stronger cultural and economic ties with Japan, council members voted 4 to 1 last month to allocate $2,500 to pay the way for Lewis and one staff member.

The dissenting vote came from Pettine, who believes the Far East mission lacks significant goals and tagged it as an example of fiscal irresponsibility.

Lewis, however, said the trip merits the use of city funds and disputes claims that the trip is a junket. In fact, the mayor offered to pay his own fare until the city voted to pick up the tab.

“I told the council that if they felt that this was out of line I would be more than willing to pay,” Lewis said.

Disagreement Voiced

The mayor also disagreed with Pettine about original plans to finance the trip.

Lewis said each group member of the Sister City Steering Committee, consisting of 18 public and private organizations including the City Council, was expected to raise money for its representative. According to such a financing plan, Lewis said it would be appropriate for the council to pay for his trip, and that the money would be well spent.

In addition to the cultural value gained through the sister-city program--Futtsu and Carlsbad students have already exchanged art exhibits, Lewis said--the upcoming trip will provide him with insight to municipal problems facing both cities.

“This is going to be a real working trip . . . a blitz trip,” said Lewis, who plans to study waste recycling facilities in Futtsu and evaluate child-care programs for Japanese mothers.

Diversity Wanted

Kulchin expressed confidence that the mayor will make the trip a success, but said she is disappointed that a larger and more diverse delegation is not going. Twelve people, all steering committee members and some of their spouses, are going on the trip.

“I think (the mayor) will work very hard,” Kulchin said. “I just wish we could have had more time to prepare for this and send a larger delegation, including more professionals from the business community.

Kulchin had hoped that Carlsbad’s first official trip to the Asian economic power could have been used more as a tool to attract Japanese businesses to contribute to Carlsbad’s growing industrial base.

However, Carman Cedola, the steering committee’s chairman, said that recruiting business partners is not the primary purpose of the trip. He also said that the participants--including students, city officials, business leaders and restaurateurs--represent a good cross-section of the community

“The goal of the first trip is not to be so heavy-handed in a business sense,” said Cedola, a bank vice president. Cedola said business commitments will prevent him from going on the trip.

“The reason why we’re going is to build a better rapport with the people of Futtsu,” Cedola said. “Establishing economic ties is an important goal, but it’s something we plan to do further on down the road.”