Naples city leaders may revise travel rules

NAPLES, Fla.- A Naples City Council member is calling for changes to the city’s travel policy following former Mayor John Sorey’s trip to China.

To attract investor Yuan Yukui, Sorey took the $4,000 trip out of the country using taxpayer money.

The former mayor defended the trip saying it was crucial to bring Yukui’s business to Naples.

“The reality is the Chinese culture, they don’t do business until they get comfortable with people,” Sorey said.

Now, council member Doug Finlay says he’d like to see all travel expenses from the city manager, the city clerk and council members to be approved by the board in an effort of full disclosure.

Current Mayor Bill Barnett agrees, but only for overseas travel.

“It’s not something that happens every week, or every month or every year for that matter,” Barnett said.

In the past year, the city had 165 travel requests from staff, 13 of which were for out-of-state travel.

City leaders will discuss changing the travel policy next week.