Reeves's travel story had a lot of legs

Some are calling it Travelgate, evoking images of intrigue and scandal. A better tagline for the latest antics feeding the already compromised image of the Cambridge City Council might be "Ken's crazy Chronicle kerfuffle."

After Cambridge city councilors unanimously approved a doubling of Mayor Ken Reeves's travel budget last month, the weekly Cambridge Chronicle went to town. The paper blared out a headline accusing Reeves of blowing through his allotted travel funds halfway through the budget year, followed by weeks of stories on the paper's battle to get detailed spending information from a reticent Reeves, a rebuttal from an aide suddenly dubbed the mayor's spokesman (an apparent first in Cambridge history), capped by an ad taken out in the paper last week by Reeves to counter what he says has been a string of misinformation.

For cheap entertainment in a city where political theater isn't what it used to be, the travel tiff has filled a winter void. But it has done little to enhance Reeves's public image -- or that of his eight City Council colleagues, who now look like supporting players in the absurdist drama.

For starters, the Cambridge mayor isn't exactly a real mayor, at least not in the Menino sense of the word. Under the city's Plan E form of government, a professional city manager is in charge of city departments and the day-to-day functions of government. Every two years, the nine-member City Council elects a mayor from its own ranks, a largely ceremonial position whose only tangible added duty is serving as chairman of the School Committee.

But none of that has stopped Cambridge mayors from trying to make the most out of essentially being voted class president by their peers -- and Reeves has never shunned the perks or added visibility of the post.

The budget order for a $19,750 increase to the mayor's $20,000 travel allowance said the funds were to cover added travel costs for various meetings, including the US Conference of Black Mayors, the Gay and Lesbian Elected Officials Conference, and visits to out-of-town school districts.

Contrary to the Chronicle's initial report, Reeves had not burned through his initial travel budget. Reeves says he sought the added outlay only to have "the kind of freedom, I would call it, to do meetings I choose." If the money goes unused, it will revert to the city treasury, says Reeves.

Some are asking why he couldn't live within his budget. Others wonder how Reeves managed to turn a relatively minor matter into a running headline war. "What was a non-story became a four-week story," says City Councilor Michael Sullivan .

Sullivan, who served as mayor immediately prior to Reeves, says his approach has always been, "I directly return my own press calls."

That seems like a good way to get your side of a story out, but Reeves has operated differently.

"In 18 years, I've rarely called them back, so why would this be different?" Reeves says of a longstanding standoff with the Chronicle, which includes jousting over stories in the mid-1990s on his appetite for expense spending during an earlier mayoral stint.

In the wake of the travel stories, Reeves assigned mayoral aide John Clifford , who serves as his "education liaison," to double as his spokesman. Clifford told the Chronicle he is now the "point person" for news media matters. (The veteran Reeves ally may be better known as having owned the Green Street Grill in Central Square for many years.)

The five staff positions in the mayor's office have long been rewards given to top political functionaries. This year the City Council further bulked up staff spending by approving funds for each member to hire a 30-hour-per-week "research assistant."

Whether it's the added mayoral travel budget or the new outlay for council staff assistants, City Councilor Craig Kelley says it ought to be made much clearer exactly what the public gets from such spending. "The general public may look at this as indicative of a bigger problem," he says of broader questions about the accountability in city government.

As for the quick, unanimous passage of the added travel budget, Kelley says, "There should have been discussion about that. We as a council and the mayor blew that."

Michael Jonas can be reached at jonas@globe.com.