Council Chairman Manny Rico should arrive in China today as part of a Sister Cities trip funded in part by city taxpayers.
“It’s part of my travel expense,” Rico said Friday while waiting at Nashville International Airport.
BY THE NUMBERS* $17,500: Total amount budgeted to the City Council this year for travel* $1,944: Amount budgeted for Council Chairman Manny Rico’s travel expensesSource: Chattanooga
Rico and Matt Lea, special assistant to Mayor Ron Littlefield, are traveling to Wuxi, China – one of five Sister Cities to Chattanooga. The others are Hamm, Germany; Givatayim, Israel; Gangneung, Korea; and Nizhni Tagil, Russia.
It is the first publicly funded trip by a council member outside the United States since former Council Chairwoman Linda Bennett took a trip to China two years ago.