City of El Paso to consider new travel transparency policy after ABC-7 investigation into County expenses

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Recent ABC-7 reports on the travel expenses of El Paso county leaders is now creating impact in other parts of local government.

The City of El Paso is set to discuss a new policy to increase transparency on how much city council and the mayor spend on official travel.

A couple of years ago, city council approved a specific fund for council member travel, up to $6,000 a year.

District 8 City Rep. Chris Canales put an item on next week's agenda "requiring the public disclosure of any city-funded travel expenses by members of the City Council and the Mayor." The backup documents detailing the reason for the proposed policy cites "recent public scrutiny of travel expenditures in other local government entities."

This comes after ABC-7's reporting on the travel expenditures by members of the El Paso County Commissioners Court showed nearly a quarter of a million spent over the last few years.

"I think there was a lot of public interest in the county's travel numbers," City Rep. Canales said. "And, you know, to a lot of people, I think it was a surprise because there were multiple years of travel spending that kind of all got shared all at once. And so I think it's a much better system to just proactively share those expenditures as they happen."

City Rep. Canales said he opposed the creation of the extra travel fund to begin with, and wants the city to at least be proactive with information on what is being spent.

"But I think the next best thing is making sure that as the city council expends these travel funds that are dedicated within our office budgets," City Rep. Canales said, "that is shared proactively with the public."

City Rep. Canales is up for re-election on the November ballot. ABC-7 also spoke with his opponents in the District 8 race - who largely agreed with the action. You can watch their responses above.