Does Miami Beach Mayor Matti Bower really want to be a commissioner, or does she want to travel to some other exotic place next year on the taxpayer’s dime?
Bower, who is termed out but decided to run for commission after she thwarted an attempt to stop her, has come under fire before for her jet-setting ways, which have already become fodder for her critics in this election. Ladra has admitted not knowing much about Beach politics, but it seems that almost everyone I talk to brings up the travels. A couple have even dubbed her “The Swiss Miss.”
Like Mike Burke, a Miami Beach activist who filed a complaint against her last year after she flew to Switzerland over the summer with a city-sponsored Art Basel delegation. The Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust investigated, but apparently found that it was appropriate because the mayor was on official city business. The commission is familiar with Beach travel expense policies: A year earlier investigators found that then-city manager Jorge Gonzalez failed to disclose his wife’s publicly funded travel to Europe as a gift from the city.
This past February, Bower was part of a delegation of 12 that attend the World Out Games II in Belgium, a 12-day event that begins with a Human Rights Conference and ends in a sports competition with more than 30 events and 5,000 participants from more than 115 countries around the globe. Also with her was State Rep. David Richardson (D-Miami Beach), Bob Balsam of the Miami Beach Convention Center, and George Neary and Barry Moskowiz of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. There was obviously official business going on here.
The group met with the Antwerp host committee and representatives of the Gay and Lesbian International Sports Association (GLISA) International. At the opening ceremony, Richardson made some remarks and introduced Bower, who gave the keynote address, sharing the city’s achievements and advances in equal rights.
Total cost: $4,589. Airfare was $1,368 and lodgings were $3,221. What do you Beach residents think? Was it money well spent?
Obviously Burke does not. He sent me this for my editorial cartoon Sunday feature.
Miami Beach Mayor Matti Bower’s travels may chase her added by Ladra on
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