Mayor calls $3,000 dinner tab 'unacceptable'

[SoCalDem]

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/jan/03/vanderburgh-county-officials-outraged-cvb-christma/?partner=popular

UPDATE: Mayor calls $3,000 dinner tab 'unacceptable' | SEE THE RECEIPT

* By Thomas B. Langhorne
* Evansville Courier & Press
* Posted January 3, 2011 at 3:30 p.m., updated January 4, 2011 at 11:16 a.m.


* Itemized receipt: Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau board members' $3,079 tab for a board Christmas party, paid for with a bureau credit card

UPDATE: Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel issued the following statement on Tuesday morning:

“Spending $3,000 of taxpayer funds for a 14-person dinner, for any reason, goes well beyond 'a lapse of judgment.' It is absolutely unacceptable and a misuse of public money. I would hope that the ECVB would reject payment of this bill at its next meeting and that all ECVB board members, staff and guests who attended the dinner would split the cost of the bill and reimburse the ECVB immediately.”

PREVIOUSLY:

Five bottles of Opus One wine at $250 a pop. Cabernet, $85 a bottle. Merlot, $60 a bottle. Gin. Rum.

The expenditure of more than $3,000 in public funds on those and other items at a Dec. 13 Christmas dinner by Evansville Convention & Visitors Bureau board members prompted some outraged Vanderburgh County officials Monday to call for their resignations.

“It just appears to be a misuse of convention bureau funds — obviously a misuse,” County Council President Russ Lloyd Jr., said of the use of a visitors bureau credit card to pay for the dinner at Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano.

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[MineralMan]

1. The booze and wine was what did it.

The meals weren't really that expensive. Sounds like a good party, though... :rofl:

[napi21]

2. I've had the privilege of attending quite a fw high buck business

dinners, but $215 per person is really HIGH!

[Stevenmarc]

3. Except for the Opus One nothing was really out of line...

Although I have to say $250 for a bottle of Opus One with a restaurant markup is pretty cheap.

[NNN0LHI]

4. I never had a job where my employer paid for my food and booze

Occasionally on an extra tough and dirty job that we would knock out our immediate supervisor would buy us guys on that job a 25 cent cup of coffee. We thought that was a big deal. I am beginning to think I may have been in the wrong business.

Don