Her Aggrandizement, Your Dime

Still speaking of Chumney, in this Commercial Appeal article, by Blake Fontenay about Chumney's recent "town hall" meeting, it says:

About 50 people attended the meeting, although roughly half of them were city employees on hand to answer questions from the public.

But if you go read Blake's Blog, you'll also learn:

About 50 people gamely took seats at the East High School library's wooden desks for the two-hour session, but roughly half of them were city staff members paid to be on hand to answer questions.

Yeah, paid. Our taxes went to Carol Chumney's little "look at me" exercise in raising her Mayoral profile for the next election. How much did it cost you and me? Does this kind of thing happen with other City Councillors and public forums?

I wanna know.