Shortly after we posted the item below concerning the mysterious $20 bill from David Dean that wound up in the city council horseshoe this morning, Mayor Laura Miller responded with her thoughts about what's turning into a nasty, messy situation. This is what she has to say in an e-mail sent to Unfair Park:
"If David Dean wants to start withdrawing or repaying the city for inappropriate and extravagant travel expenses, there are a lot more of them than the $20 bill he cavalierly flipped to a City Hall employee this morning to reimburse us for his employee's beer tab at two dinners. Councilmember Bill Blaydes decided to distribute a xerox copy of that $20 bill to the City Council this morning, though his name was not on it, and I had to ask aloud who had put it at our briefing room places to see. I took that opportunity to show the council a large, heavy stack of Dean, city council and city staff travel receipts, totaling more than $100,000, that I am currently combing through and will be distributing the highlights of to my colleagues shortly.I also publicly asked the seven who voted last Wednesday to significantly increase this professional lobbyist's fees and expense account to a minimum of $515,000 a year - Blaydes, Griffith, Oakley, Natinsky, Salazar, Garcia and Medrano - to please move to reconsider their vote at next Wednesday's council meeting so we can review all of these expenditures and add some long-overdue restrictions on how he spends taxpayer money. Any one of them can move to reconsider their 'yes' vote, but I need to know by Friday so I can post it on the council's upcoming agenda. So far, none of the seven wants to reconsider his or her vote."
That last part doesn't come as a surprise. Just read the item below, specifically the last paragraph. --Robert Wilonsky
