Colorado Springs taxpayers may have to say bon voyage to several City Council members as well as the first two council meetings scheduled in May.

A handful of council members are planning to fly off to Portland the second week of May for a trip led by the local Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has been organizing trips to different cities for at least the last three years to expose city officials and civic leaders to best practices elsewhere.

Since council President Scott Hente will be off that week on personal business, the council may not have a quorum for the May 7 informal or the May 8 formal meetings.

Hente said both meetings likely will be canceled.

“I’ve been talking one-on-one with my colleagues, and I think what I’m going to do (in April) is move to cancel the meetings in early May because I don’t think we’re going to have a quorum,” Hente said Thursday.

“That will give us a month to prepare so the media knows, the public knows, the staff knows, and we can take whatever items are going to come then and either push them up to the last meeting in April or push them back to the second meeting in May,” he said.

(Should council members travel to Portland in May? Vote in poll.)

Hente said the money for the trip, which costs $900 per person, will come out the council’s travel budget. The council has to approve all out-of-state travel requests, and Hente said he expects to receive formal requests from his colleagues in the next week.

“We’re still in compliance with the charter. All the charter says is we have to meet once a month,” he said.

Councilwoman Angela Dougan doesn’t plan to go on the trip, saying taxpayer dollar precious and that she has plenty to keep her busy in Colorado Springs.

Dougan said she hopes one of her colleagues who has gone on one of the chamber’s previous trips decides not to go.

“I would hate to skip a meeting just because four council people wanted to go on the trip,” she said.

“I understand they want to. It’s their prerogative. But I really do hope maybe someone who has been there before might say, ‘Hey, I can skip this trip and be here in the city doing the city’s business.’”

Dougan also questioned whether the city was getting a return on investment.

“I understand it’s really good to see what other cities are doing in practices,” she said. “But my bigger question is: Are we bringing something back from these trips and actually implementing them and making it worth the taxpayer dollars we’re spending?”