Nutter’s summer travel not a big tax-payer expense
Of the four countries Nutter has visited on official business this summer only one - Mexico - was paid for with city money.
Since June, Mayor Nutter has traveled on city business to Rome, Mexico and this week he visits Frankfurt, Germany and Tel Aviv, Israel. Of the trips, only Puebla, Mexico was paid for with city money, said Mark McDonald, spokesman for the mayor's office.
McDonald said the trip to Mexico, which Nutter made along with Desiree Peterkin-Bell, the city's Director of Communications and Fernando Trevino, Director of the city's Office of Immigrant and Multi-Cultural Affairs, cost $4,638 for airfare and lodging.
In Puebla, Nutter met with Mayor Jose' Antonio Gali-Fayad and discussed immigration as well as an economic partnership between the two cities. Mexico is already one of the state's biggest trading partners.
The costs for the other two trips are unknown but were not funded with tax payer dollars.
Nutter's trip to Tel Aviv and Frankfurt, for which he departed Tuesday, was funded by Select Greater Philadelphia, which describes itself as a business attraction, marketing organization dedicated to growing companies in the Greater Philadelphia region.
The trip to Germany will include the signing of a "sister city" agreement with the mayor of Frankfurt – the first since 1992. In Tel Aviv, which signed a sister-city pact with Philadelphia in 1967, Nutter will aim to present Philadelphia as an attractive location for Israeli companies to set up their U.S. headquarters, among other business talks.
From June 21st to the 25th, Nutter traveled to Rome along with a delegation of 35 others to finalize planning for the pope's visit in September. The five-day trip which included meetings with Vatican officials, the mayor of Rome and security officials, was paid for by the Mayor's Fund, a nonprofit set up to "advance the Mayor's goals through facilitation of public-private partnerships for the benefit of the people of Philadelphia," according to its website.
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