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Councilwoman Peggy Neely spent $42,455 on FOOD. $33,000 of that went to Roy's Restaurant at the JW Marriott.
Phoenix former councilwoman Neely No. 1 in expenses by Lynh Bui - Jul. 5, 2011 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic Former Councilwoman Peggy Neely's district had the highest office expenditures of any Phoenix City Council district, with almost half of the money spent on food, according to a review of Phoenix City Council expenses. Neely is running for mayor and the spending has at least one of her mayoral rivals questioning the expenses. But Neely's campaign said she lived within her council budget, and while elected officials choose to spend on newsletters or other expenses, she chose to spend it on reaching out to constituents. According to a review of City Council spending from July 2007 to December 2010, Neely's office had the highest expenditures charged to the city, totaling nearly $108,000 with about $42,455 reported to be for food. Much of that, $33,000, was for food at Roy's Restaurant at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. Expenses reported at Roy's surpassed $1,000 for each date visited, but Paul Bentz, a representative with Neely's campaign for mayor, said those figures don't reflect the fact that residents paid $5 each to attend the breakfast events to help cover the costs. [Sounds like she is giving away free meals to get votes - works almost every time!] "Anywhere from more than 100 folks would attend these events," Bentz said. "Peggy has a long history of wanting to meet with constituents and give them the opportunity to engage in the political process and understand what is going on in the city, the region and the state." [How you have an hour long breakfast with 100 people and get to meet each of them. That's less then 60 seconds with each person] Mayoral candidate Wes Gullett questions why so much of Neely's budget has been spent on food. "If this is how she's going to run the city, I don't think we can afford her," Gullett said. Neely's replacement, Councilman Bryan Jeffries, has opted to have pancake breakfasts he pays for out-of-pocket to meet his constituents. Some council members opt for coffee and doughnuts at a community or senior center in their district. But Bentz said Neely found this to be the most successful way to get high turnout at her constituent events. [Giving away government money usually works pretty well] "Peggy has lived within the means of her constituent-outreach budget," Bentz said. [I think it's time to cut back their constituent-outreach budget, if the best they can use it for is to give away $40,000 in free meals] Neely first started holding constituent breakfasts at Mimi's Cafe until they got so large she had to change locations, and eventually moved to Roy's, Bentz said. Archived city press releases show that residents could attend the monthly event and partake in the breakfast buffet for $5 a person. The "Info and Issues" breakfasts would allow District 2 residents to learn more about the city and often featured Phoenix officials or community leaders such as former Police Chief Jack Harris, Mayo Clinic CEO Dr. Victor Trastek or Arizona officials from the secretary of state to the governor. Neely chose to hold these events as a service to District 2 residents, while other elected officials may choose to spend money on printing newsletters for residents, Bentz said. Councilman Claude Mattox, also running for mayor, reported about $70,567 in expenditures during the same time period. About $34,789 of that was spent on postage and printing services. [So Councilman Claude Mattox spent $34,789 of OUR tax money on postage to help him get reelected, that's just as bad as giving out free food to buy votes] Council District 6 reported the least expenses during the same period, with spending totaling about $33,734. That timeframe covers one year that Greg Stanton - also running for mayor - was the city councilman for District 6 before he left in February 2009 to work as deputy state attorney general for Attorney General Terry Goddard. The rest of the time, Councilman Sal DiCiccio has represented District 6. In fiscal year 2007-08, when Neely, Mattox and Stanton were all on the council, Stanton's office spent the least at $23,608. Mattox's office spent the most at $34,797, and Neely tallied $29,657. Mattox and Stanton spent the most on printing and postage costs, at more than $28,546 and $13,082, respectively. The largest expense category for Neely that year was about $18,800 on food. Stanton said he tried to operate his office as efficiently as possible, and those printing costs were for postcards to notify the public of town-hall meetings or other city events. "It was to invite the public to community meetings, which is what the community expects," Stanton said. Mattox said he switched to electronic newsletters "once the economy went south," and the newsletters and postage he spent money on before was to inform residents of successful projects in his district and to gather public input. "Our money was focused on constituent work," Mattox said. Bentz said different elected officials choose to engage residents in different ways. "Peggy wanted to give constituents something of value, not only in the content of the presentations, but also being somewhere so they could do something they would enjoy." |