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Should the city of Menlo Park help fund international travel for delegations of city officials to visit “sister” or “friendship” cities?

That’s a topic the Menlo Park City Council discussed briefly Aug. 22.

Councilwoman Catherine Carlton agreed to look into alternate ways to fund staff or council travel from Sister Cities International, the organization the city works with to facilitate “Sister City” partnerships. She plans to report back to the council within a month.

In June, Menlo Park hosted a delegation from Galway, Ireland, and the question of Menlo Park sending a delegation elsewhere was discussed among the members of the council-appointed Sister and Friendship City Committee.

In the past, when council members visited Menlo Park’s sister or friendship cities, they were not compensated by the city of Menlo Park. However, staff noted, that means that whether a mayor can make such trips depends on his or her ability to pay.

“The result,” according to Jim Cogan, housing and economic development manager, “is that the interaction between our cities is somewhat limited and relies on elected officials to absorb travel costs.”

Menlo Park has one sister city, Galway, Ireland, under a formal agreement via Sister Cities International; and three cities with which it has “friendship” agreements to facilitate business, cultural or educational exchanges: Bizen, Japan; Changchun, China; and Kochi, India.

Councilman Peter Ohtaki also suggested funding one staff member to travel on one trip per year. Typically, the primary cost for such trips is airfare; lodging and food are often provided by the sister city, he said.

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6 Comments

  1. The Daily Post reported this story very differently. It noted a debate at Council on this topic and Mueller objecting to city funds being spent on these trips.

  2. The Daily Post article (from August 25, 2017) does not include any variation of the word object. That same Daily Post article reads, “Menlo Park’s four sisters cities are Bizen, Japan, Galway, Kochi, India, and Changchun, China.” Except for Galway, we believe those are “friendship” cities, not “sister” cities.

  5. Why on earth is it in our town’s best interests to pay for travel expenses? What tangible, measurable economic benefit results from such trips? Sure, these are nice things to do. But we have more important things to pay for in town, like an improved library for Belle Haven, quality downtown parking lots (most of ours are 3rd world quality), continuous safe bikeways, etc.
    These are boondoggles and totally inappropriate for city funds to pay for travel.

  6. In the video, Mueller says he ran surveys on Facebook and NextDoor because he didn’t think the public would “stomach” footing the bill for this. Although that is an innovative idea, I’d prefer to see concerned residents come speak at the council meeting.

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