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Independence residents call for councilman's resignation

Councilman spent thousands on travel
Posted at 4:45 PM, Sep 14, 2018
and last updated 2019-12-30 17:58:44-05

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Across social media, people from Independence are calling for the resignation of an Independence city councilman.

The swift backlash comes just hours after a 41 Action News investigation revealed Tom Van Camp, councilman for District 4, spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on trips that don't appear to be related to city business.

Several people have shared their anger and frustration about the councilman's travel on the 41 Action News Facebook page:

Janet Jones Rush writes, "Stay on this 41 Action News! There needs to be a lot more refunded to the tax payers by all of them!"

Marcie Gragg, a former Independence councilwoman, also commented saying, "Tom did a lot of traveling, even before I left the Council. He never shared anything with Council that he learned on his trips though."

Several people are also calling for an independent audit on the matter. 

The 41 Action News investigators examined travel records for all members of the city council dating back to January 2015. 

Since that time, council members Mike Huff, Curt Dougherty, Karen DeLuccie, Scott Roberson and John Perkins have not spent any money on travel, according to city records. 

Mayor Eileen Weir is on par with Van Camp in terms of travel expenses.

They've both spent around $24,000 since 2015. 

However, nothing appears to be out of the ordinary, or personal in nature, in regards to the mayor's travels.

In Independence, there is no cap on the amount of money elected officials can spend on travels pertaining to city related business.

41 Action News attempted to speak with Van Camp again on Friday.

E-mails to Meg Lewis, spokesperson for Independence, were not immediately returned.

Several people have also said they plan to attend Monday night's city council meeting.

On an Independence citizen's group Facebook page, one person wrote, "We all need to attend Mondays meeting at city hall and demand answers."