“High on the Hog” : Mayor Botts orders $ 65 Filet Mignon

2/1/10 – City employees are being laid off.  Due to  a severe budget crisis Banning  City Hall remains closed on Fridays  .  But Mayor Bob Botts doesn’t seem to care  : on an all-expense-paid trip to Washington D.C. in 2009 he ordered a Filet Mignon for $ 64.95 at the plush “Ruth Chris”  Steak House  – and charged it to the Banning taxpayer ( view ).  Way to go, Bob !

During a time when many Banning residents are struggling to pay their taxes , lose their jobs, receive food stamps and are desperately trying to make ends meet,  Mayor Bob Botts shamelessly lives “High on the Hog” at taxpayer’s expense.

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NOT AN  ISOLATED INCIDENT

During the same trip to Washington D.C.  Botts stayed at the luxurious “Marriott  Wardman Park” and raked up a $ 1,512.96 hotel bill ( view bill ). During fiscal year 08/09  alone, Botts has charged a whopping $ 5,315.14 to the taxpayer , mostly for travel, lodging and food.

Another luxury hotel stay occured when Botts stayed at the high-end “Westin Long Beach”. The hotel bill ( view ) describes his room as

“Deluxe”, with a “Heavenly Bed”, as well as a “Heavenly Bath, Elegant Decor, Spacious Well Lit Bathroom, Minibar and Safe”.

In light of all this luxury, Botts apparently felt that self-parking his car was  inappropriate , so he chose Valet Parking for an extra $ 18.00 a day instead. The invoice shows that two guests occupied the room ( him and his wife ? ) . In total, the taxpayer forked up $ 467.74 for this 2 day hotel stay.

Other than raking up expenses, what exactly did these extravagant trips accomplish for the City of Banning ?  The short answer is :  nothing !   Come November, it may be time to vote this clown out of office  …..

LOCAL MEDIA SILENT

Why is it that we never read stories like these reported by our local media ?  For several months now, The Banning Informer has uncovered and documented many issues that are  of utmost concern to the community :  CRA Chairman Don Robinson not paying his taxes yet getting re-confirmed, the City Council violating the Constitution (Prop. 218) by using a water bond for the new $ 13 M police station, the Banning Cultural Alliance being unaccountable and violating clearly defined contractual obligations to the City, Barbara Hanna’s shady “campaign contributions” from beneficiaries of  CRA  funding , the Redevelopment Agency funding projects that have turned into complete disasters –  all those issues are well documented on this website , yet  the local media consistently looks the other way.

When you read the paper, why does the reporting always seems to indicate that everything is just fine ?  What happened to “investigative journalism” ?  Why is it that private citizens now have to do their own research in order to get to the bottom of these major issues ?  Isn’t that the job of the media ?  Instead of being the community’s “watchdog”, have the Record Gazette and Press Enterprise finally turned into harmless “lapdogs” , out to please their masters ?  Makes you wonder, doesn’t it  ……..