Patch Murrieta, CA --Invitations extended have been extended to two Murrieta city council members to travel to China, prompting city officials to look into creating an international travel policy.
City Council took up the discussion during its Feb. 5 meeting, as no international travel was budgeted for this fiscal year. Further, California state gift laws prohibit the funding of council members’ travel by private parties, and set the gift limit at $420 per year for city council members.
Consequently, any Council travel must be paid for personally or by the city, according to a report prepared by Brian Ambrose, senior management analyst for the city.
Councilman Randon Lane has been invited by Murrieta-based Continental East Regional Center to participate in an EB-5 funding related trip to China. EB-5 is a program offered to foreign investors by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that provides them with visas when U.S. jobs are created through their investment, and Continental East is designated as regional center in an effort to bring those jobs to the local area.
Mayor Rick Gibbs, who traveled to Murrieta’s partner region Shaoxing County, China in April 2012, has been invited by Shanghai Development Corporation to visit other provinces in an attempt to present the City as a good location to invest for certain industries, according to Murrieta city staff.
As a result of Gibbs' visit, city officials said a foreign student tuition agreement between the Murrieta Valley Unified School District and Tower Bridge International was born.
It was unclear when Gibbs' proposed return to China would take place, and, according to Ambrose, dates have yet to be established for Lane’s trip.
The city paid for Gibbs’ travel to and from China in 2012, according to City Manager Rick Dudley. Shaoxing paid for his travel within China, so the city’s costs were incurred by the to and from travel, Dudley said.
State law also prohibits city managers and city treasurers from accepting travel expenses from private parties, and Dudley said in many countries, elected officials are held in higher esteem anyway.
“It really comes down to the value the City Council members see in the travel...and how we translate that into business for our community,” Dudley said.
Following a lengthy discussion, City Council and staff agreed that there must be a cost-benefit analysis done for each international travel request made by Council members.
“The totality of the analysis needs to be done on a trip-by-trip basis and then brought before the Council,” said Mayor Gibbs.
City legal staff said in order to be on the safe side, the issue needs to be thoroughly examined.
“You don’t want the public’s money spent to give one council member a benefit,” Devaney said. “The benefit you want to derive as a city has to be worth the public’s money.”
Thus far, at least one development, Olivewood, which includes Farmstead Market across from Murrieta City Hall, has used the EB-5 program to bring jobs to Murrieta.
While the city was not directly involved in that deal, according to Bruce Coleman, economic development manager for the city, many developers continue to come to the city for help, he said.
“(They) come to us and say they ‘can’t get bank financing and can the city help them find bank financing that can help bring jobs to the city?’” Coleman said. “And the EB-5 program is one we have really tapped into and tried to be a regional leader on.”
Councilman Lane said he sees it as a city investment in economic development.
The EB-5 program is catching on throughout the country, which has created competition among regions when it comes to attracting investors, according to Al Rattan, manager and co-founder of the regional center in Murrieta.
“There is extreme competition,” Rattan said. “In 2009 there were 30 EB-5 centers in the U.S.; now there are more than 240...(This) will help the businesses compete and I think there needs to be a policy.”
It was decided that there is an existing International sub-committee of two Council members, which should be tasked with making recommendations for the new policy.
One City Council member was not completely convinced, however, that city money should be spent in this manner.
“I think this is also an ethics issue,” said Councilman Harry Ramos, referring to a discussion had earlier in the meeting about updating the Council’s ethics code. “In this financial climate in the city I would suggest we look for other reasons to set aside money.” Reported by Patch 3 days ago.