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Detroit
pension
funds
spend
$380K on
travel
DETROIT
--
Trustees
and
others
who work
for
Detroit's
two
municipal
pension
funds
have
spent
$380,000
on
publicly
funded
travel
in the
past
year, a
newspaper
reported
Sunday.
The
Detroit
Free
Press it
sued to
get
travel
records
and says
officials
continue
to
withhold
many
records.
General
Retirement
System
Trustee
Sheila
Kneeshaw
spent
$34,000
over 50
nights
traveling
to
events
in
locations
that
include
Edinburgh,
Scotland;
San
Diego;
and
Scottsdale,
Ariz.,
the
records
show.
"I'm not
going to
make any
comment,
because
anything
I would
say
would be
misrepresented
in the
press,"
Kneeshaw
told The
Associated
Press on
Sunday.
Ronald
Gracia
spent
the most
of the
21
trustees
on the
pension
boards,
the
newspaper
said.
One
system
serves
general
city
workers
and the
other
serves
police
and
firefighters.
Gracia
billed
the
General
Retirement
System
$105,000
for
travel,
the
newspaper
said.
That
includes
about
$55,000
for
three
trips to
Singapore
and
about
$19,000
for
travel
to Hong
Kong.
In an
e-mail
message
to the
newspaper,
Gracia
said
pension
fund
trustees
have an
obligation
to stay
educated
about
global
economics.
"I would
opine
that in
today's
world of
global
economics
and the
interrelationships
of
multiple
markets
on many
continents,
it is a
very
steep
learning
curve
for new
trustees
these
days,"
Gracia
said.
He also
said the
pension
funds
are in
good
financial
condition.
Gracia
attended
a
meeting
in
Singapore
in
November
on Asian
oil and
gas,
records
showed.
They
said he
also
visited
Singapore
in
February
and in
March.
John
Chamberlin,
a
University
of
Michigan
professor
of
political
science
and
public
policy
who
teaches
courses
in
ethics,
said
much of
the
trustees'
travel
seems
like "an
abuse of
the
public
trust."
"It's
not
clear to
me why
one
would
need to
go to
Singapore
or Dubai
to get
educated,"
he said.
Former
city
Auditor
General
Joe
Harris
said the
travel
spending
is
"symptomatic
of the
abuse
and the
negligence
... in
which
the
pension
funds
are
being
managed."
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