IRVINE : Werner to Pay Her Own Way to Japan

To avoid the appearance of a taking a political junket, City Councilwoman Paula Werner said Thursday that she will pay her own round-trip air fare to Japan in November.

After word spread this week that the mayor and two council members were accompanying two city staff members on a weeklong trip to Tsukuba, Irvine’s Japanese sister city, two former council members and a few residents publicly accused the council of taking a sightseeing trip at taxpayer expense.

Werner said she wrote a $734 check to the city Thursday to refute the junket accusation. She is not challenging Mayor Sally Anne Sheridan or Councilman William A. (Art) Bloomer to follow suit.

“I’m not taking any responsibility for them or their actions,” Werner said. The sister-city relationship and meetings with Tsukuba officials, scheduled for Nov. 12-16, are important and should be attended by council members, she said.

However, Werner said she is uncomfortable with Sheridan leading the delegation because the mayor has criticized Irvine’s sister-city program and voted against forming a relationship with Tsukuba while she was a councilwoman.

“I would be uncomfortable if I were against this program to go and represent my city,” Werner said. If the Japanese read some of the critical statements Sheridan has made about the sister-city program, they would certainly question her sincerity to the relationship, she said.

Sheridan reiterated Thursday that although she didn’t endorse the sister-city relationship, she thinks it is important to work on behalf of it. “Whatever the city has committed to, we should do and do well,” Sheridan said.

By paying her own way to Japan, Sheridan said, Werner is trying to stir the political pot and make the other council members on the delegation uncomfortable. “Paula is not acting in good faith,” she said.

Werner is often at odds with Sheridan and the other two council members on issues. In June, Sheridan won the mayor’s seat from Larry Agran, and two of her present council allies, Bloomer and Barry G. Hammond, were elected.

This week, Agran and former Councilman Cameron Cosgrove, an Agran ally who also lost his June bid for reelection, criticized Sheridan for leading the Japan delegation when she had voted against the program.