City won't pay for Nutter trip to inspect oil spill

On Monday, Mayor Nutter said the city would pay for his trip to New Orleans to learn more about the oil spill.

On Tuesday, the mayor called for a do-over.

Nutter, through his spokesman Doug Oliver, said the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which organized the trip, would pick up two-thirds of the roughly $2,700 in costs. The mayor will pay the remaining $900 from his campaign fund.

Nutter traveled to Lafitte, La., with New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, and with mayors and officials from Gulf Coast states, as well as Long Beach and Santa Barbara, Calif., and Burnsville, Minn.

Philadelphia officials reconsidered the wisdom of having the city pay after realizing that it could send a confusing signal in the midst of a budget crisis, Oliver said.

"There is a legitimate concern about the city's spending money at a time when we are trying to tell people that we don't have any," Oliver said.

Nutter traveled to Louisiana with one of his legislative aides, Tumar Alexander, and a member of his security detail.

The mayor also traveled to Oklahoma earlier this month for the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. That trip cost $5,000 for the mayor and three staffers for four nights, Oliver said. But the city also won a $500,000 grant from Wal-Mart for participating in that meeting.

Contact staff writer Miriam Hill

at 215-854-5520 or hillmb@phillynews.com.