Others Subsidized Williams's Travel

Some Expenses Are Unexplained; City Tab is $20,000

Anthony A. Williams's trips as mayor included a stop in Paris on July 4. Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe is at right. (By Jacques Brinon -- Associated Press)

Over his last 15 months in office, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams hopscotched the globe, traveling to London to tour a library and to San Diego for a baseball game -- among other trips that cost District taxpayers nearly $20,000, city billing records show.

Williams (D), who left office Tuesday, traveled more than 400 days during his second term. Some of the trips stemmed from his role in 2005 as president of the National League of Cities. Williams has said that the travels raised the profile of Washington, promoted trade and were good for the city.

The Washington Post reviewed city records from Sept. 30, 2005, to Oct. 6, 2006, to examine Williams's travel expenses. As Williams has pointed out, the city did not pick up the bulk of the bills.

The review also provided new details about who stepped forward: The National League of Cities provided $2,000, and foreign governments, corporate sponsors and other sources paid more than $69,000 of the travel expenses.

Williams used his city-issued credit card for expenses such as $12,000 in airfare, $1,400 in train tickets and $3,000 in hotel accommodations, the records show. The taxpayer costs included $1,498 to attend the World Baseball Classic in San Diego, $1,462 to travel to London for the library tour and $618 to fly to New York for a gun violence conference.

The city documents reviewed by The Post included Williams's travel credit card and other records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. In a handful of cases, expenses appear to be duplicated or were for unexplained travel. Williams and other officials were unable to provide further explanations to answer questions.

For example, Williams purchased two tickets for just under $900 for a January 2006 trip to Fort Lauderdale a week before he was scheduled to attend a National League of Cities meeting in Key West. The credit card transactions, one of which was made in December 2005, list Williams as the passenger on both tickets and the travel dates a day apart.

There was no record detailing how five train tickets were used in 2005 and 2006.

In those cases, Williams said that he'd "have to look and see" but was adamant that he used the credit card only for official business. He said the train tickets were probably used for trips to New York, although his schedule did not show trips to the city during that time.

Another question stemmed from Williams's purchase of a last-minute $1,019 ticket to fly to Los Angeles, his home town, five days before Christmas 2005. Williams purchased the ticket on his travel credit card the day he left. Neither Williams nor his spokesman, Vince Morris, could provide the nature of the official business conducted.

"I wouldn't use that card to go home to L.A.," Williams said. "I would not use it for a personal trip, period."

Morris said that the mayor's public schedule "doesn't always encompass" all his activities but that it "doesn't mean he's not doing government work."