Next time, book in advance

Sedgwick County officials have known for months that some of them would be visiting Little Rock’s Alltel Arena to gather ideas for Wichita’s downtown arena, so there should have been no need to buy seven airline tickets on short notice at a whopping $921 each. That said, this week’s $8,000 one-day trip by three county commissioners and four other officials will have been money well-spent if it leads to smart decisions about how to make the arena both architecturally striking and cost-effective. And as County Commissioner Ben Sciortino said, “It shows we need more affordable airfares around here.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman

8 Comments

  1. kansassam
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 5:08 am | Permalink

    They could have each had their own seat in a 15 passenger van!

  2. J M Walker
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 6:08 am | Permalink

    They’d get lost. Wait . . . that might be a good thing.

  3. JUSTA GUY
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 6:27 am | Permalink

    Smart decisions? Come on Rhonda. Of course it wasn’t taxpayer’s money they wasted; it was county funds.

  4. Joe Williams
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 8:26 am | Permalink

    Wow! I wonder how many cities they had to stop at to get to Little Rock.

    They could have charter a plane for less.

  5. VC
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 10:47 am | Permalink

    No money spent on the arena is well spent!

  6. Ray Thomas
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 11:14 am | Permalink

    $921 each for a 450 mile trip? That is disgusting. Gives you an idea of what the ‘county officials’ think of responsible use of taxpayers’ funds.

    Bad enough to be sold a bill of goods with an unjustified arena, now it is an excuse to waste thousands and thousands of dollars. Inexcusable.

  7. Ben Huie
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 12:33 pm | Permalink

    Symptomatic of an overall problem – they just no longer relate to how the rest of us live. If anyone here were going to Little Rock with a group they would have done precisely what kansassam said – drive a van. WE are accustomed to living on a budget.

    This reflects in other ways. They are operating under the assumption that we will all happily buy overpriced tickets for their Arena and overpriced drinks at a fancy bar nearby. I don’t think that will come to pass.

  8. ProudLiberal
    Posted January 12, 2006 at 12:40 pm | Permalink

    What do they care? It’s OUR money they’re spending . . . just like on the arena.