Working vacation?

We’re still waiting to hear whether or not Kokomo Mayor Matt McKillip and Controller Phil Williams are going to seek reimbursement from taxpayers for a portion of their trip to the Iberian peninsula.

McKillip has said he might seek reimbursement for a visit to the city of Braga, Portugal, in hopes of establishing a “sister city” relationship.

Dick Miller, president of the Howard County Council, left this past week for a trip to China to visit family.

“I’m going to try and establish a “sister county” relationship,” Miller said of his trip, joking that it might make him eligible to seek a reimbursement from county taxpayers.

There is no established “sister county” program in the U.S.

On another note, McKillip made a point of clarifying some of the reporting on his post-trip comments to Howard County Commissioner Brad Bagwell after the governmental coordinating council meeting Thursday.

While the mayor DID mention that Bagwell had “suggested” Braga as a possible sister city, he wanted Bagwell to know he never told a reporter that Bagwell suggested visiting Braga.

For his part, Bagwell said he filled out a suggestion card after an “international summit” McKillip hosted in town last year. Next to the place where the card asked for sister city suggestions, Bagwell said he wrote down “Braga.”

Greetings from exotic Portugal!

It’s probably safe to say the mayor didn’t expect the sort of reaction that greeted his return to Kokomo this week. McKillip seems to have hoped he might get credit for swinging by Braga during his own vacation.

Whether the city council (or better yet, the voting public) would have ever approved an entire trip to Portugal seems beside the point.

To hear the mayor’s perspective, having the city pay for a couple nights in a hotel and some meals was downright reasonable — at least compared to an entire junket, airfare and all.

But the fact the mayor hasn’t renounced the possibility he might ask for reimbursement has proved a windfall for local Democrats, who this week sent out “e-postcards” lampooning the mayor’s trip.

“Greetings from exotic Portugal!” is the theme of the postcards. To check them out, go to www.howardcountydemocrats.com.

Hayes says ‘absolutely not’

Kokomo Common Councilman Bob Hayes was off on a cruise — his first vacation in six years, he said — when the rumor began swirling that he and fellow Democrat Greg Goodnight had made a deal. In return for his support (and promise not to run) in the 2007 mayoral primary, Hayes would become Goodnight’s No. 2 (assuming Goodnight won in the general election).

We had the luck to see Hayes’ SUV bearing down on us outside the Tribune this week, and promptly jumped back up on the curb. Hayes, who wasn’t upset, did have three words to say about the rumor: “Absolutely not. Absurd.”

Trine on the ballot in May; our mistake

Last but not least, our apologies go out to local Democrat Dave Trine, who is running for Howard County commissioner District 1.

Last week, we suggested Democrats may have erred by not sending out a press release on Trine’s candidacy.

We still stand by that statement, but we acknowledge we forgot Trine was actually on the Democratic primary ballot this May. Trine, who was quite cordial on the phone when contacted this week, said he filed to run just before the deadline, and didn’t send out a press release.

Be that as it may, expect full coverage of the race between Trine and Republican Dwight Singer as we near the fall election.

Bob Stephenson, who has quickly become one of the go-to guys in the local Democrat organization, sent us a brief note telling us of our mistake:

“Dave Trine filed on Feb. 17th to run for this position and received 3,647 votes in last month’s primary election. The local party saw no reason to put out a press release as we assumed all local media knew of all the candidates on the primary ballot. No big deal. Thanks, Bob Stephenson.”

(Editor’s note: Honestly, Bob, you could have been a lot harder on us!)