DELTONA, Fla. — The Mayor of Deltona is speaking out for the first time after he was accused of going to the presidential inauguration on the city’s dime. Mayor Santiago Avila Jr. said he was only in D.C. for the US Conference of Mayors.
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The mayor claims he did get approval for the trip. But he admits that approval didn’t come from the commission. The mayor said the city manager was aware and signed off on it.
We asked the city if that was true and were told the city manager doesn’t have that power but is in favor of any commissioner attending events where decision-makers are present.
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“I spoke to the city manager, I said look the U.S. Conference of mayors, I got a cool email from Senator Scott’s office, they gave me a personal invitation to be at the inauguration,” said Mayor Avila.
We learned the Mayor’s Conference has a $1,500 registration fee and a city spokesperson said Deltona didn’t pay for that. Instead, the spokesperson said Avila attended as someone’s guest.
Commissioner Dori Howington said she doesn’t care why he was in D.C.; she just wanted to be made aware.
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“That isn’t a factor. Because the fact that he got there without our permission, that’s a concern,” said Howington.
Howington also believes city business could have been handled in Florida.
“He can travel within Florida! He can actually attend up to three conferences here in Florida without commission approval,” said Commissioner Howington.
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We asked the mayor if he was aware of the travel policy, and he said he was aware of one from 2013 but that commissioners were going off one from 2007.
We looked at both policies and each says elected officials must get commission approval before traveling out of state.
The commission has agreed to discuss a vote of no confidence for the mayor’s actions at the Feb. 17 meeting.
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