Charlotte, Mecklenburg leaders in Germany this weekend but haven’t finalized trip costs
The city of Charlotte can’t say how much it will spend to send multiple elected officials and staff members to Germany for an economic development trip that coincides with a Carolina Panthers game in the European country.
The trip — which will also include representatives from Mecklenburg County, the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance and the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority — could cost tens of thousands.
The delegation is scheduled to be in Germany through the weekend. The Panthers are slated to play the New York Giants at Allianz Arena in Munich Sunday.
Charlotte’s delegation includes the majority of City Council, city spokesman Lawrence Corley said: Mayor Pro Tem Dante Anderson and Council members Ed Driggs, Marjorie Molina, Renee Johnson, Tariq Bokhari, Malcolm Graham, LaWana Mayfield and Victoria Watlington. An additional six city staffers will also make the trip.
Leaders this week touted the business ties between Charlotte and Germany when discussing the trip.
“It makes sense for a wide variety of reasons … To some of our friends in the media, we can’t be acting like we’re Mayberry,” Graham said at Monday’s meeting of the city council’s economic development committee.
How much will Germany trip cost Charlotte?
After repeated questions from The Charlotte Observer about the cost of the trip, Corley said Thursday the city won’t know “the exact total cost” of the trip until some council members “submit reimbursement forms after the trip.”
The city will pay for attendees’ plane tickets, hotel and meals “that are not provided as part of the urban exchange or economic development events,” Corley said.
An itinerary for the trip provided by the city lists hotel options as the Platzl Hotel or Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski at an average cost per night of $825. The Platzl is a 4-star hotel, and the Kempinski is a 5-star hotel, according to their websites.
At that rate, accommodations alone for the 14-person city delegation across multiple days would cost tens of thousands. The city is paying “for the minimum number of nights required to conduct the assigned city business,” Corley said, and will not reimburse “amenity charges” such as in-room movie rentals and laundry fees.
Flights will be reimbursed “at no more than the main cabin coach fare rate.”
The itinerary lists the cost of game tickets for the Panthers as $150 to $175 a person. WCNC, which first reported the trip, reported via a public records request the City Attorney’s Office had ruled council members would have to pay for their own game tickets.
What will Charlotte leaders do in Germany?
Members of Charlotte’s delegation were scheduled to arrive in Germany Thursday or Friday and return home Tuesday, according to the itinerary provided by the city.
Thursday’s agenda included staff meeting with a German housing cooperative and a reception for 150 guests including “a mix of those traveling to Munich from Charlotte, existing German businesses and prospective German businesses.”
On Friday, the group is slated to participate in “expert exchanges” with Munich city staff and officials to discuss economic development, affordable housing, mobility and strategic planning. The delegation will then go to an evening event hosted by the consul general, who leads the U.S. Consulate in Munich, also attended by “NFL representatives, team owners, athletes and Munich VIPs.”
On Saturday morning, the group will take a transit tour then tour a “social housing and sustainability site.” There’s another reception Saturday night — this time with “government offices from the City of Munich, State of Bavaria and other VIPs.”
Sunday’s agenda only includes the Panthers game.
On Monday, the final day on the ground, the delegation is scheduled to attend a lunch with MSXTEC, a German company with operations in Charlotte. The group will then attend a business recruitment seminar followed by a reception with German business leaders.
A total of 215 German companies have nearly 20,000 employees in the Charlotte area, the CLT Alliance said in a report released Thursday. That’s the most of any foreign country, according to the study.
What about Mecklenburg County?
Mecklenburg County will send representatives on the trip, too: County Commissioner Susan Rodriguez-McDowell, who chairs the commission’s Economic Development Committee, and Roger Johnson, director of the county’s Office of Economic Development.
The county expects to pay approximately $6,000 per person for the trip, spokeswoman Britt Clampitt told the Observer.
Rodriguez-McDowell and Johnsons’ itinerary includes “an investment seminar, meeting Bavarian government officials and touring a manufacturing plant,” Clampitt said.
