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Session 1784 May 22, 2000 Ms. Colquitt said that she wishes to attend a conference in June designed to help African- American elected officials be more efficient in office. The dates are June 21st through June 25t". The total cost is $689.11. This includes hotel and airfare. Mr. Sharpe moved approval of the additional trip for Ms. Colquirt. Mr. Schoomer seconded the motion. Mr. Wagner commented that the Council has a strict policy in place on how much total budget there is for travel and how many meetings each Councilmember can attend in a fiscal year. This policy was well considered before adopted by Council. He is willing to make the funds available to Ms. Colquitt, as long as this is charged to the number of meetings for the next fiscal year travel. This trip would take the place of her national trip allocation for the next fiscal year, in other words. He believes that it is time to revise the entire Council travel policy. He believes we have been overspending the total. He would be personally in favor of raising the total. He would rather raise the total than just ignore our own policy, year after year. Mayor Adams stated that one of the agenda items for the upcoming study session was the Council's travel policy. Responding to Mr. Munkel, Mayor Adams explained that the funds that Ms. Colquitt would need would be charged to this year's budget, but that next year, Ms. Colquitt would not be able to take a National trip, since the Council policy currently states that each Councilmember can only attend one National meeting. Ms. Colquitt says that she has attended other conferences during the year, which she has paid for herself, such as $1200 to a conference in Sterling, Michigan. Mr. Schoomer says that this conference should be approved and is of great benefit to the City. The benefit of a conference should be the overriding deciding factor when this is discussed at the study session. Mayor Adams said that in the Council's travel policy, it states that it requires a super majority of five members of Council to override the travel policy. Mr. Wagner called a Point of Order. Mr. Wagner said that the super majority is necessary to allow a particular member to exceed the quota of trips allowed during the year. It is not a vote to allow the member to exceed the budget. Mayor Adams said that he was correct. Ms. Colquitt is asking to take an additional trip over her national conference allocation, which, in itself, will also increase the budget. Mr. Wagner still disagrees with the Mayor's interpretation. Mr. Wagner states that if there is money left over in the budget, enough for 11