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Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle is on his second trip to Asia in as many months, but has revealed little to the public about either trip.

Carlisle left for Taiwan and China on Saturday, and won’t return until June 20. In May, he took a trip to South Korea. Gifts to the city, approved by the City Council, covered the costs of both trips.

The public schedule his press team issued on May 14, the week he left for South Korea, did not mention that trip. The mayor’s public schedule is usually issued to reporters on Fridays, but Carlisle’s office did not release a public schedule Friday, the day before he left for China.

In late April, the City Council of the China trip, which is being paid for by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Honolulu, Chinese municipal governments and a Shenzhen furniture company.

The City Council approved the acceptance of gifts to cover the cost of both trips in a .

Carlisle said in communications to the City Council that the purpose of both trips is to cultivate “sister city” links in Asia. This week, he plans to formalize Honolulu’s new “sister city” relationship with Chengdu, and to strengthen existing ties with Kaohsiung, Zhongshan and Qinhuangdao.

Paying For A Visit

In a letter to the City Council, Honolulu Managing Director Doug Chin wrote others who will join Carlisle include:

• Carlisle’s wife, Judy
• City Council member Stanley Chang (Chang about the trip)
• Ann Chung, the director of the city’s Office of Economic Development
• John Chang, an international relations staffer at the city

In , Carlisle outlines the following gifts to cover the cost of the trip:

• $4,750¹ from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Honolulu to cover international airfare for four delegates
• $3,000 from the same organization to cover local transportation, room and board for 4 delegates for 5 nights
• $3,000 as a joint gift from Chengdu Municipal People’s Government and Qinhuangdao Municipal People’s Government to cover the cost of local transportation, room and board for five delegates for four nights
• $5,000 from the Shenzhen Delicate Furniture Co., Ltd, to cover the cost of transportation, room and board for five delegates for four nights

From May 18 – 23, the mayor visited Seoul and Incheon, South Korea. the cost of that trip show Carlisle accepted $2,800 to pay for it. City that Chung, the city’s economic development director, accompanied the mayor.

The City Council approved the following gifts to pay for that trip:

• $1,600 from the Seoul Metropolitan Government to pay for international airfare for two delegates
• $600 from the Seoul Metropolitan Government to pay for local ground transportation, room and board for two delegates for two nights
• $600 from the Incheon Metropolitan Government to pay for local ground transportation, room and board for two delegates for two nights

The mayor didn’t keep his travel plans hidden. He referenced his trip to South Korea during a press conference about permit availability for electric car chargers when, after a severe coughing fit, he said he caught a cold on the airplane home.

But Carlisle hasn’t gone out of his way to provide details about the trips either. The mayor has talked about the importance of reducing city travel as a way to save money.

A spokeswoman for the mayor mentioned the trip in passing last week. When asked for details, she and an executive assistant to the mayor both said Carlisle filed the appropriate paperwork with the council, but declined to elaborate.