The Democrat-Gazette (not currently linkable) continues to dog the story about a sweetheart deal to give a city-purchased Chevy Malibu to outgoing Advertising and Promotion Commission director Barry Travis. The deal was financed by public money and contributions from people who did business with the commission. Travis’ hope, expressed in the newspaper today, that he could “put a period” on the story by paying $1,500 to cover the trade-in value of an earlier city-owned car that was part of the new car deal seems wishful thinking. An earlier commission controversy over no-bid advertising work, the commission’s involvement (perhaps unwitting) in controversy over the Curran Hall visitor center and now the car deal. It all adds up to a guarantee of further scrutiny of the agency — deserved if the loosey goosey handling of the car deal is any measure.
Blog reader Pavel is probably typical, commenting:
I just read the article in today’s DoG about Barry Travis’ car. This whole thing still stinks. Here are a few questions I still have after reading the story last Friday and the one today: At the end of his last day of work, did Travis drive the car home and keep it? It was supposed to be an agency car, so if he drove it home and kept it, why did he think he should be able to do that? Who is the new director of the agency, and what does he or she drive? Does the new director get a $1,000 a month car allowance just as Travis did at the end? Why was Travis given a $1,000 car allowance to drive an agency car? I have many more questions, and you probably have some of your own. How about giving the AT blogggers a chance to weigh in on this.