Detroit mayor ran up $210K on credit card

AP ^ | 05/03/05 | Associated Press

[Pikamax]

Detroit mayor ran up $210K on credit card

Associated Press

DETROIT - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose city is struggling with a projected $230 million deficit, has charged at least $210,000 for travel, meals, drinks and other purchases on his city-issued credit card, public records show.

The charges, reported Tuesday by the Detroit Free Press, cover the first 33 months of Kilpatrick's four-year term that began in January 2002. They include 78 charges for meals from January 2002 through September 2004, some of them at restaurants in New York and Washington.

Kilpatrick spokesman Howard Hughey said the mayor's travels have been part of his effort to attract business to Detroit.

"As indicative of any first-term mayor, he has done so to meet with several potential public and private investors," Hughey said.

Meals make up less than a tenth of the charges to the city credit card, with travel accounting for most of the expenses, Hughey said.

Kilpatrick's immediate predecessor, two-term mayor Dennis Archer, said he normally paid out of his pocket or used campaign or other private money for meals costing more than $40. "The city really had no funds to entertain anybody," he said.

Kilpatrick, whose salary was $176,176 before he said he would cut it by 10 percent to help close the shortfall in Detroit's $1.6 billion budget, is the only city employee who is issued a credit card.

The mayor's proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 calls for 754 layoffs and assumes unions also will agree to a 10 percent pay cut, as well as changes in health benefits.

[Pikamax]

But was he rollin in a Lincoln Navigator? People need to know!

[DoctorMichael]

Laughable.........if it wasn't so pathetic.

[apackof2]

Straight out of a Fellini movie

[Rakkasan1]

stupid is as stupid does

[pabianice]

Another shining light of Blue America...

[evolved_rage]

Did this guy attend the "Marion Barry Stupid Mayoral Tricks" conference too?

[US_MilitaryRules]

I noticed that they prominently posted his political affiliation next to his name!

[Lizavetta]

Is Kwame Kilpatrick related to Kwiesi Mfume?

[conshack]

Please tell me this guy isn't a Republican.

[drt1]

The sad part of this is these charges are literally the tip of the iceberg. Detroit's citizens have been engaged in a Death Wish dance for the past 40+ years and, now that they've chased the majority of the Middle/Upper Classes out of the City (Whites AND upwardly mobile Blacks) they are resorting to eating what's left - Themselves.

[Hank Rearden]

Please tell me this guy isn't a Republican.

In Detroit?

[Political Junkie Too]

If he was, it would have been in the first sentence of the story (if not the headline).

-PJ

[drt1]

In Detroit?? No way - He's a product of the Race Pimping Dems - His mother is a US Rep (Dem of course)

[blues_guitarist]

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Please tell me this guy isn't a Republican.

Republicans are not allowed to live in Detroit.

[NZerFromHK]

Why am I constantly reminded of Tuku Morgan, John Tamihere, and the Wananga scandal?

Ping to shaggy, Neophyte, and Aussie Dasher!

[NZerFromHK]

You will find mroe Republicans among expat Americans in London than Detroit City proper. This is the worst of blue state America.

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

$6K/mo for travel? I didn't think plane tickets from Detroit to New York or Washington were that steep!

[yankeedame]

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose city is struggling with a projected $230 million deficit, has charged at least $210,000 for travel, meals, drinks and other purchases on his city-issued credit card...

"To the victor goes the spoils."

[drt1]

"Is Kwame Kilpatrick related to Kwiesi Mfume?"

They are soul mates - United in a philosophy that all Black trouble is a white Republican's fault and that, accordingly, they are entitled to run roughshod over everyone, including their own people, with the pieces to be picked up by their stipulated oppressors.