AURORA, Colo — Aurora's Republican Mayor Mike Coffman is criticizing two progressive city council members for using taxpayer money on a trip to France for a conference.
City Council Members Juan Marcano and Crystal Murillo went to the conference in a Paris suburb last week.
Whether it was a justified work trip or a European vacation depends on who you talk to. On Monday, Coffman posted a tweet calling the trip "an insult to the hardworking taxpayers of this city."
The International Making Cities Livable conference picks a different location every year. It focuses on how to make cities more accessible and ecological.
In 2021, it was in Indiana. Marcano went to that event too.
"There's not really a conference that draws the level of expertise that I have been able to find – from a city planning standpoint, city managing standpoint," Marcano said.
"[Coffman] is trying to attack the progressives on council," Marcano said. "People who actually have a vision and want to improve our city and bring best practices from around the world."
The mayor and city council members are allocated annual travel budgets to attend conferences -- $11,000 for the mayor and $7,000 for each council member. Each council member has discretion to use their travel budget in accordance with city policy.
Marcano and Murillo each spent roughly $3,000 within their annual travel budget for the trip, according to the city.
"I take our taxpayers’ dollars seriously," Murillo said. "These conferences are incredible opportunities to learn. I learned a lot and am excited about sharing that with council, the people of Ward 1, and putting this information to work."
In 2021, Coffman. Marcano and Council Member Alison Coombs each spent $2,350 for a trip to El Salvador, where many Aurora residents are from. Coffman said this trip was different than the France trip because it was at the city's request.
"I don't think El Salvador is a tourist destination, unfortunately," he said. "I hope someday it is. Paris is, and I think the optics of that and the taxpayers of this city look at that and think this is not appropriate."
He said the optics for the trip to France are so bad that he plans to introduce a proposal to ban some future international trips.
"They are certainly authorized a certain amount of money to spend on travel," he said. "I don’t think it’s appropriate to take an international trip that has not been requested by the city."
Marcano thinks banning trips like the one he took for a conference in France would end up hurting taxpayers.
"What he would be doing is killing any kind of international economic development trips that the city plans," he said.
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