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Columbus, Franklin County leaders’ journey prices
From Japan to Ireland, Columbus and county officers led world delegations and attended conferences in 2025.
- Columbus and Franklin County elected officers took quite a few journeys in 2025, together with internationally, per data.
- Mayor Andrew Ginther’s journey totaled about $70,000, with the U.S. Conference of Mayors overlaying most of it.
- Franklin County paid over $60,000 for Commissioners Erica Crawley and John O’Grady to journey for conferences and financial growth.
Columbus and Franklin County’s prime elected officers led delegations to Ireland, Italy, Poland, Canada and Japan in 2025, along with different journeys.
Annual monetary disclosures metropolis and county elected officers have been required to file with the state by May 15 reveal how a lot they spent on journey for work in 2025. Leaders say the journeys permit them to study coverage finest practices and foster enterprise relationships that profit the area’s financial system.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther loved about $71,115-worth of paid journey in 2025. Most of it, $58,097, was paid for by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which Ginther was the president of within the first half of 2025. The Dispatch has beforehand reported on how Ginther has traveled to symbolize the convention, together with in Warsaw, Poland, and Ottawa, Canada. Ginther spent one in eight days away from Columbus in 2025.
Ginther has mentioned that his job consists of selling Columbus nationally and internationally and bringing house funding.
The metropolis additionally paid $8,349 for Ginther to journey final 12 months, a small worth in comparison with town’s $1.23-billion 2025 working funds. Ginther’s marketing campaign additionally spent $4,669 on his journey.
Franklin County Commissioners Erica Crawley and John O’Grady expensed extra on journey in 2025 than they did the earlier 12 months. The county paid $24,458 for O’Grady’s journey and $35,852 for Crawley’s journey in 2025.
Among their journeys, Crawley and O’Grady traveled to Tokyo in September for a few week together with County Administrator Kenneth Wilson and one other county staffer for the annual Japan-Midwest U.S. Association convention and enterprise conferences.
“We bring back best practices,” Crawley mentioned of the aim of their journey. “We also share what we’re doing here in Franklin County with other counties across the country … With Japan, that’s economic development.”
There are over 150 Japanese corporations that make use of over 25,000 area residents, in line with a county spokesperson. It’s vital to keep up these relationships, Crawley mentioned.
Crawley additionally traveled to Reggio Emelia, Italy in 2025 to study in regards to the metropolis’s famend framework for early childhood schooling.
“We have brought that back,” Crawley mentioned. “There’ll be more to come on Reggio Emelia.”
O’Grady and Ginther traveled to Ireland in October on a visit organized by Greater Columbus Sister Cities International.
Crawley, O’Grady, Ginther and different officers additionally went to home conferences in 2025 just like the National Association of Counties convention.
The third Franklin County commissioner, Kevin Boyce, expensed $636-worth of journey paid for by the county to journey to the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. Boyce is married to U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Akron, however has represented the county on the convention even earlier to their marriage.
Here’s what different Columbus and Franklin County officers reported about their journey in 2025:
- Franklin County Prosecutor Shayla Favor obtained $7,915-worth of paid journey by the county to attend 4 conferences. Nonprofits Fair and Just Prosecution and the Vera Institute additionally paid $2,765 for Favor’s journey.
- Franklin County Coroner Nathaniel Overmire reported the county spent $7,626 on his journey.
- Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin expensed $886-worth of journey paid for by town to attend the National League of Cities’ City Summit in Salt Lake City. Hardin’s marketing campaign paid $3,805 for journey.
- Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein didn’t report any journey paid for by town. His marketing campaign spent $5,139 on his journey and the 2025 NewDEAL Leaders paid $1,050 towards his journey to D.C. for the group’s convention.
- Columbus City Councilmember Emmanuel Remy’s marketing campaign spent $5,230 on his journey. He didn’t report any city-funded journey.
- Columbus City Councilmember Christopher Wyche’s marketing campaign spent $1,715 on his journey. He didn’t report any city-funded journey.
- Franklin County Treasurer Cheryl Brooks Sullivan reported her marketing campaign spent $883 on her journey in 2025. The county paid to ship her to conferences in Washington and Las Vegas in 2025, however officers will not be required to report data on conferences held by a nationwide or state group to which dues are paid to for them.
Government and politics reporter Jordan Laird might be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X, Instagram and Bluesky at @LairdWrites.
This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its unique location you’ll be able to go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2026/05/26/columbus-franklin-county-leaders-spend-thousands-on-global-trips/90182554007/
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