With growing travel plans ahead for City officials, time is long overdue for a Travel Account listing on City Website

2020 seems destined to be another good year for collecting baggage claim tags for Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain, who if previous years are an indication is perhaps one of the most travelled of city Mayors in recent history.

Just this week the Mayor made note of his first major out of town trek for 2020, recounting for Council on Monday evening of his work in Prince George with the Resource Benefits Alliance, the Mayors travels taking him to the Central Interior City during the annual BC Natural Resources forum of January 27-31.

This week was also a good week for potential travel to come, with the Mayor outlining his new membership in Climate Solutions Council, with the Mayor celebrating his appointment to the panel through his Facebook page. Though at that time he did not indicate as to how much travel and attention to those matters would require him to be away from his other civic duties as Mayor.

Short of the City's communication Manager creating weekly videos along the lines of "Where in the World is Mayor Brain" for the cit's You Tube page, the time it would seem for some kind of regular update on the now Full Time mayor's travels is at hand.

Among the options that should be considered and acted upon, the posting of a Daily itinerary to the civic website, detailing the Mayors status as in town or out and if possible who he is planning to meet with each day.

And just so he doesn't feel like he's being singled out, considering the growing opportunities that seem to be available for out of town travel for the Mayor, Council members and Senior City Staff, the city should also be providing a monthly list of travel destinations, purpose of travel and review of the expenses occurred for  all those who head out of town on the taxpayer's dime.

It should also make for a theme at an upcoming City Council session, so Council members can all be on the record as to what level of out of town travel they believe is required and whether other options such as video conferencing could not fill in from time to time.

No one would call into question the need to leave town from time to time in pursuit of civic affairs, however, the need for more transparency on the theme is something that City Council members should be providing some guidance to the public on.

That way, the residents of the city can weigh the benefits and the expenses that come with that travel.

For more notes on items of interest from City Council see our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.