{"id":230025,"date":"2025-09-16T00:31:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T00:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230025\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T00:31:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T00:31:15","slug":"beaumont-city-trips-to-harvard-nyc-mostly-covered-by-billionaire-benefactor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230025\/","title":{"rendered":"Beaumont city trips to Harvard, NYC mostly covered by billionaire benefactor"},"content":{"rendered":"

KFDM’s segment Waste Watch received questions about three Beaumont city leaders participating in a prestigious program tied to Harvard University and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

Mayor Roy West sat down with KFDM’s Aaron Drawhorn to explain that the cost was covered by Bloomberg Philanthropies.<\/p>\n

In November 2023, West made a trip to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after he was accepted to the Bloomberg Center for Cities Program for New Mayors. West said the program was a full day of learning.<\/p>\n

In July 2024, West, City Manager Kenneth Williams and Assistant City Manager June Ellis went to New York City for the four-day Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.<\/p>\n

“They reached out to me because it is an invitation-only program. It’s not something that you apply for, and I was told it is through a grant through Bloomberg Philanthropies,” West told KFDM\/Fox 4 when he decided to pursue the program.<\/p>\n

West was one of 27 mayors in the country accepted into the Bloomberg Center for Cities Program for New Mayors.<\/p>\n

Its main objective is to build an effective city hall organization.<\/p>\n

“I found it to be very enlightening and it built a lot of relationships but also learned a lot about good governance in city government” West told KFDM anchor Aaron Drawhorn.<\/a><\/p>\n

Attendees also met with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the program’s benefactor.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg Philanthropies covered the cost of West’s November 2023 trip to Harvard and last summer’s trip to Manhattan for West, Williams and Ellis.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg Philanthropies covered the conference, roundtrip airfare, meals and hotel rooms at the five-star Lowes Regency New York on Park Avenue.<\/p>\n

“You don’t write any checks. Travel to and from the airport and parking at the airport and maybe a couple of meals was the extent as I recall for those trips for me,” West said.<\/p>\n

Waste Watch obtained the travel expenses Bloomberg didn’t pick up for last summer’s New York trips.<\/p>\n

Mayor West’s reimbursed mileage to drive to Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, airport parking, meals and a New York City taxi rides cost roughly $450.<\/p>\n

City manager Kenneth Williams’ miles to Jack Brooks Regional Airport, meals and Uber rides in New York City amounted to less than $250.<\/p>\n

Assistant city manager June Ellis expenses less than $95 on the trip.<\/p>\n

Add it all up, and last summer’s trip for the three leaders was $784.41 not covered by Bloomberg Philanthropies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KFDM’s segment Waste Watch received questions about three Beaumont city leaders participating in a prestigious program tied to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":230026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,124156,105700,124157,14232,124158,12862,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,124159,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-230025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-beaumont","10":"tag-bloomberg-philanthropies","11":"tag-city-leadership","12":"tag-harvard-university","13":"tag-mayor-roy-west","14":"tag-michael-bloomberg","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkcity","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-travel-expenses","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115211159615512753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}