Mayor's European trip cost what?

This was the junket promotional tour during which Villaraigosa spoke about L.A.'s ground-breaking work in combating climate change and building the green economy (who knew?). From KTLA's Eric Spillman:

According to the documents, the Mayor and his staff employed a "full-service meeting and event management bureau" in Copenhagen at a cost of $33,899. The company organized transportation (3 minivans with drivers at a cost of $22,329), a hostess, dinners, and other nice perks, too, including passes to the Arndal Spa for workouts ($283). While in Copenhagen, the Mayor and his staff dined well. The receipts include expenses for three dinners totalling $3576. The tab for Restaurant Herman was $1128. A dinner at Bistro Boheme ran $1139, and a meal at a place called the Custom House cost $1316, including a $236 tip. The invoices did not detail how many people ate at those dinners.

Add everything up and you're talking $120,000, give or take. Notice a pattern here? Some of the expenses for the trip were shared by the Port of Los Angeles and the DWP, so it's not clear how much L.A. taxpayers were actually on the hook for.


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Mark Lacter
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.
 
Mark Lacter, business writer and editor was 59
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