Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.
In Part 1 of this series, I explained the use of the city’s credit card and how seriously travel expenditures using the ProCard are viewed. It is taxpayer-funded, and the expenditure is expected to benefit you, the taxpayer, by attending conferences or meetings that will improve an employee’s productivity. The city requires accountability in the form of receipts and transparency by publicly posting.
There is a lot of information that had to be organized and simplified. It was no easy feat. That is why it is taking so long to share this information with you. Special thanks goes to “anonymous” who helped me to break down the over 500 pages of documents I received through my public information request.
One way that anyone can view travel expenses for city councilmembers is to go to the city’s Follow Your Money page. Here is the link: https://www.glendaleaz.com/your_government/city_council/council_expenditure_reports
Since we are reviewing Councilmember Turner’s expenditures, for purposes of comparison I also looked at Councilmembers Malnar’s and Tolmachoff’s expenditures. I did not compare the Mayor’s travel expenditures as they would be quite different to those of a councilmember. I also did not compare with Councilmembers Guzman, Baldenegro or Conchas as they are new and have no previous years of expenditures. Here is what is publicly available regarding Councilmembers Malnar, Turner and Tolmachoff:
Malnar travel
Malnar Maricopa Association of Governments Economic Development Committee Trip Mexico City February 2019
Malnar NLC Washington DC March 2019
Malnar Annual League of AZ Cities & Towns Conference in Tucson, AZ
Malnar NLC City Summit in Kansas City, MO Nov 2022
Malnar Annual League of AZ Cities & Towns Conference in Tucson, AZ 2023
Malnar NLC City Summit in Atlanta, GA Nov 2023
Malnar NLC Conference Washington DC March 2024
Turner travel
Turner NLC Washington DC March 2019
Turner AZ League of Cities August 2019
Turner WATEC Conference Nov 2019
Tolmachoff travel
Tolmachoff NLC Los Angeles Nov. 2018
Tolmachoff NLC Washington DC Mar. 2019
Tolmachoff NLC San Antonio Nov. 2019
Tolmachoff NLC City Summit in Kansas City, MO Nov 2022
Tolmachoff NLC Congressional City Conference Mar. 2023
Tolmachoff League Annual Conference Aug. 2023
Tolmachoff NLC City Summit Atlanta Nov. 2023
Tolmachoff NLC Washington DC Mar. 2024
What is astounding is that Councilmember Turner has only listed travel expenditures for one year, 2019. Yet expenditures from 2019 to 2024 should be listed but are not. The question is why? Your guess is as good as anyone else’s. I’m sure he’ll try to provide a reasonable explanation, but it does not excuse the fact that he has not bothered to list 5 years’ worth of travel expenditures.
So much for a councilmember that repeatedly calls for transparency and accountability. We can see that he has traveled quite a bit and yet not bothered to publicly list any of it. All information obtained through a public information request as it is not publicly posted under Follow Your Money.
Let’s begin with a list of all of the travel that Turner did not bother to post publicly. (This information was obtained via my public information request. Please note I received no public information on travel expenditures prior to November, 2022. It is most likely due to COVID in 2020 and 2021). Here is the list of Turner’s travel not publicly available:
- National League of Cities Summit, Kansas City, MO, November 16-19, 2022, $3285.79
- National League of Cities Conference, Washington, D.C., March 26-28, 2023, $3650.37
- Indoor AG Tech Innovation Summit, New York City, Jun 29-30, 2023, $3165.36
- Sister Cities trip, Memmingen, Germany, July 19-23, 2023, $917.46
- League of Cities and Towns Conference, Tucson. AZ, August 29 – September 1, 2023*
- Renaissance Weekend, New York City, October 5-9, 2023, $3683.63
- Colorado River Water Users Association, Washington, D.C., October 17-20, 2023, $1353.21
- National League of Cities Conference, Atlanta, GA, November 15-18, 2023, $1979.50
- Colorado River Water Users Association, Las Vegas, NV, December 13-15, 2023, $1651.32
- Renaissance Weekend, Charleston, SC, December 28, 2023 – January 1, 2024, $4661.51
- National League of Cities Conference, Washington, D.C., March 9 -13, 2024, $4631.96
Total expenditures for these 10 trips: $28,980.11 (*League August 2023 expenditures unknown).
City travel policy states under Section D, examples of what is not allowed: “Priority boarding fees and airline seat premiums or upgrades, unless other options are not available.”
For the trips listed above $836.73 was charged for seat upgrades/preferred seats/main cabin extra seats.
There is certainly more to cover but this is enough overload for you, the reader. In Part 3 of this series, we will take a deeper dive into Turner’s travel expenditures.
© Joyce Clark, 2025
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