The San Jose City Council has avoided voting against its own travel policy with two of six elected officials suddenly backing out of a trip to Ireland.
The city clamped down on how many councilmembers can travel during council sessions back in 2018 when more than half of the city council took a trip to the sister city of Okayama, Japan — disrupting San Jose’s ability to govern. The policy bans more than five councilmembers from traveling at the same time if their absence affects meetings where they are needed. In the past, multiple legislative meetings had to be canceled because there wasn’t a quorum.
The council averted the dilemma on Tuesday when Councilmembers Omar Torres and Peter Ortiz spoke ahead of the vote to bow out of the Dublin, Ireland trip scheduled for next month.
“I have to start preparing for fiestas patrias, which has happened here at San Jose City Hall,” Torres said. “I’m pretty active in organizing that major community event for our Mexican American community. And so with that, I want to take myself off consideration for going.”