Trim Travel Plans, Mayor Urges Council : Inglewood: City Council members draw criticism for racking up $62,000 in city-paid trips in a recent 1 1/2-year period.

Inglewood’s mayor, responding to a sharp increase in travel by City Council members, has called on his colleagues to stay at home more and stop racking up frequent-flier miles at taxpayer expense.

“This job is local,” Mayor Edward Vincent said his week. “It’s about fixing potholes and trimming trees. It’s not global. This isn’t the Senate, and we’re not making war policy.”

City documents show that travel by the council and mayor increased from $27,910 in the 1988-89 fiscal year to $41,091 in the 1989-90 fiscal year, which ended last June 30.

And during the 17 1/2-month period between Nov. 1, 1989, and last April 16, the mayor and council visited 10 states and one foreign country at a total cost of $62,355, according to recent budget figures released by the city.

Leading in travel expenses during the 17 1/2-month period, according to the figures, was Councilman Garland Hardeman, who billed the city $21,904 for 13 trips. Close behind was Councilman Daniel Tabor, who took 15 trips worth $18,624 during the same period.

Vincent, who has run into controversy in the past concerning his own travel, spent the least, $3,587 for three trips during that time.

In a recent memo to his four colleagues on the council, Vincent said he plans to personally review all future travel requests except for trips to routine conferences sponsored by such groups as the California League of Cities and the National League of Cities.

Vincent said he will administer what he calls the “straight-face test” to those who request out-of-the-ordinary trips.

“If they tell me with a straight face where they are going and how it applies to city business . . . then they can go,” he said.

Currently, council members simply submit travel plans to city staff members, who then arrange air fare and lodging. Other expenses are reimbursed upon their return.

Vincent said his new, informal review policy will stand unless council members insist on a council vote concerning it.

None of the other council members interviewed this week had decided whether they want to bring the policy to a vote.

Hardeman, however, accused Vincent of raising the issue not as a matter of public interest, but as a political attack on him. Vincent and Hardeman have been political rivals since Hardeman first challenged a Vincent ally for a council seat in 1987.

“There is no formal policy set as to where you can go and where you can’t go,” Hardeman said. “If there is a policy, I will abide by it. If Ed Vincent is going to use this politically, I just won’t go to conferences. These attacks are childish.”

Hardeman also complained that he has requested travel records from the city staff so he can investigate the total cost of his trips, but has yet to receive the documentation.

Vincent denied that he had raised the travel issue for political reasons, but other Hardeman rivals were quick to use the travel figures as ammunition against Hardeman, who was elected to a second term last month.

“I think Garland Hardeman is abusing travel and wasting the taxpayers’ money,” said Councilman Anthony Scardenzan. “He should pay it back.”

Scardenzan, who took six trips at a cost of $8,069 during the recent 17 1/2-month period, questioned Hardeman’s attendance at a three-day conference on the management of sports facilities last month in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“Garland Hardeman has no authority to run the Forum,” Scardenzan said, calling the trip “three days of vacation in Florida on the taxpayers of Inglewood.”

Hardeman called the meeting, for which he billed the city $1,496, perfectly legitimate, saying that he has both the Forum and Hollywood Park race track in his council district and is active in monitoring both facilities.

Scardenzan also criticized Hardeman for planning to travel to Eastern Europe last year on a trip sponsored by the League of California Cities.

“I said to the mayor that if somebody is close to qualified to go over there, it is me,” said Scardenzan, a local businessman who speaks German and Italian. “But I had no interest in going because it had no connection to the city.”

Hardeman said he told the mayor that he was interested in traveling to Eastern Europe to learn more about international trade, but never requested that the city pay for the trip and ultimately did not go on it.

It was Scardenzan who made the only overseas trip at city expense in the last year and a half. He visited his native Italy, where he attended a conference in Rome sponsored by Sister Cities International to organize festivities for the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ voyage to America. The city picked up his plane fare of $1,158, but the sister-city group paid for the rest of his expenses.

Scardenzan said Inglewood, which has four sister cities, plays an active role in the international organization. His presence at the conference was requested by the international group and he acted as an interpreter during meetings, said Scardenzan, who formed Inglewood’s first sister-city arrangement with his hometown of Pedavena, Italy.

Councilman Jose Fernandez, who attended eight conferences at a cost of $10,171 over the 17 1/2-month period, said he receives information on many out-of-town meetings but must decide which are essential to city business.

“You get things on your desk on a daily or weekly basis,” Fernandez said. “You have to pick and choose. . . .

“There are conferences that council members definitely should attend. It would be negligent not to have city representation. But there are other conferences that are in a gray area. They deal with government but they may not directly related to the city. Those are the ones that need scrutiny.”

Tabor attributed his trips to his active role in the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials, of which he is president, and the National League of Cities.

“The day after you’re elected to the City Council, people think you are an expert, but you haven’t been to school to be an elected official. The only way you can learn is by associating with other elected officials and professionals in the field,” Tabor said.

“What I know about economic development, I learned by attending workshops and looking at other cities and comparing. The same with housing.”

The National Black Caucus is organizing a trip to southern and western Africa next spring to foster communication between elected officials in America and Africa.

“I’m planning to go,” Tabor said. But he also acknowledged that it would be difficult to justify charging the trip to the city.

At Tuesday night’s council meeting, community activist William Jenkins criticized council members’ travel and recommended that Inglewood set the same $5,000-a-year travel limit per councilman that Torrance has. Any expenses over the limit should be paid for out of the elected officials’ pockets, he said.

“We didn’t elect city officials to travel around the world three or four times,” he said. “There’s better things we can do with the money.”

Vincent’s past problems concerning city-financed travel came to the surface in 1989, when he paid $4,850 in civil penalties to settle a lawsuit filed against him by the state attorney general. Vincent had been accused of double-billing the city and his campaign fund for trips to Northern California, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C.

In settling the suit, Vincent denied intentional wrongdoing and attributed the double-billing to accounting errors.

TRAVEL BY INGLEWOOD CITY COUNCIL

The following figures cover the travel expenses reported by Inglewood City Council members for the period from Nov. 1, 1989, to April 16, 1991.

Council Member Total Trips/Cost Selected Itinerary Jose Fernandez 8 trips National Assn. Latino Elected for $10,171 Officials conference in Miami for $873 Garland Hardeman 13 trips Sports facilities management for $21,562 conference in St. Petersburg, Fla., for $1,496 Anthony Scardenzan 6 trips International Sister City conference for $8,069 in Rome for $1,158 Daniel Tabor 15 trips Congressional Black Caucus for $18,624 meeting in Washington, D.C., for $2,183 Mayor Edward 3 trips Martin Luther King Jr. Day Vincent for $3,587 national planning meeting in Phoenix for $426 TOTAL $62,355