Taxpayers Foot Bill For Council’s Weeklong Sister City Trip to Japan : City Government: Fukui City is expected to sign an agreement linking it with Fullerton during ceremonies on Nov. 5.

The City Council will travel at taxpayer expense on a weeklong visit to Fukui City, Japan, where ceremonies are scheduled to inaugurate a sister city relationship between the two towns.

Mayor Molly McClanahan and three of her council colleagues will leave Tuesday and return on Nov. 7, requiring cancellation of a council meeting originally scheduled for that day. The fifth council member, A.B. (Buck) Catlin, was invited, but is on a Mediterranean cruise.

Fullerton taxpayers will foot the bill of $4,000 for round-trip air fare to Japan, as well as $4,000 for Fullerton materials to be used in an international trade fair and $500 for such gifts to local Japanese hosts as pen sets and a sculptured American eagle.

Officials in Fukui City--who first proposed a sister city relationship 15 months ago and have made three trips to Fullerton since then--are paying all hotel, meal and ground transportation costs for the entire delegation.

In addition, the Japanese are paying all costs to host representatives from the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce, the Fullerton Rotary Club and even Fullerton’s very own Fullertowne Strutters, a Dixieland jazz band.

The Japanese offered to pay the air fare for the Fullerton City Council as well, but the city declined.

“We felt we should not take advantage of our host too much,” said Councilman Richard C. Ackerman, who first traveled to Fukui City in 1987 while serving as Fullerton’s mayor.

No one opposed the trip when it was approved by the council in a meeting Sept. 5, and it has since drawn little opposition.

“They’re (the Japanese) trying to buy our country out from under us,” said Ray Merryman, 71, a disabled veteran from World War II who was an unsuccessful candidate for the Fullerton council last November.

But another unsuccessful council candidate, Mary-Evelyn Bryden, said the council deserves some perks for an otherwise hard and thankless job.

“Being a council member is not just a game,” Bryden said.

Mayor McClanahan defended the trip as being of great importance to Fullerton’s 111,000 residents. Fullerton could benefit greatly from what McClanahan termed Fukui City’s expertise in earthquake preparedness, waste management and transportation. Fukui City, situated in the central part of Japan’s archipelago, is home to 250,000 people and is known for its textile industry.

The benefits of a sister city relationship are “primarily social and cultural exchanges and educational opportunities for both children and adults,” according to an Aug. 29 study of the proposed sister city relationship prepared for Fullerton.

Ackerman said that having ties to any city in Japan can also help Fullerton business people.

“The Japanese people give you the red carpet treatment if they know you have any connection to a city in Japan,” Ackerman said.

McClanahan said the two cities have much in common, despite their cultural, language and geopolitical differences.

“We have an arboretum and they have a botanical garden. They have several museums. We have a museum and cultural center,” McClanahan said.

“This is the initial establishment of the setting up of a sister city,” McClanahan said. “It is important if you are going to do it from an official standpoint to have the whole city come.”

Fullerton is one of a growing number of California cities which have developed sister city ties with Japan, according to Sheri Erlewine, spokeswoman for the League of California Cities in Sacramento. The growing number is because cities in Japan and California have so much in common sharing the booming Pacific Rim, Erlewine said.

It is not uncommon for entire city councils to venture overseas to seal sister city bonds, Erlewine said. The Japanese attach great importance to doing business with an entire council rather than with just a few members, she said.

The Fullerton-Fukui City ties actually date back about a decade, when Rotary Clubs between the two cities began exchange visits, Ackerman said. Two years ago, in his visit to Japan on behalf of Fullerton, Ackerman said interest was mutually expressed in forming sister city ties.

Fullerton already is a sister city to Morelia, Mexico, located in the impoverished state of Michoacan between Guadalajara and Mexico City.

The highlight of the trip will be Nov. 5, when the Fullerton city officials join Mayor Yokio Ohatke and other Fukui City officials for a sister city signing ceremony, which is to be broadcast live on local television.

The itinerary for the rest of the week calls for daily tours of museums, temples, schools and municipal facilities, as well as shopping, banquets and Japanese artistic performances.

“We intend to have a wonderful time,” said McClanahan. “We’re learning Japanese.”