A Hamilton councillor says she's "concerned about the optics" after a group of employees drove a city vehicle to Washington, D.C. and attended the Women's March there.

I have never in my 46-year career as a public servant taken advantage of the taxpayer and certainly would not have taken a city vehicle on this trip if I was not doing legitimate City of Hamilton business. - Joe-Anne Priel in a letter to councillors

Donna Skelly of Ward 7 says someone contacted her anonymously pointing out that Joe-Anne Priel, the city's general manager of emergency and community services, and six other employees drove a van there for the roughly five-day trip.

Priel and the others worked while they were there, and didn't expense the trip.

CBC asked spokesperson Andrea McKinney if the van usage followed the city's rules, but her reply did not address that question. She responded with a description of the work the group did on the trip.

They visited community hubs, McKinney said. Specifically, they went to Mary's Centre health hub and the Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative.

"This model is in line with the implementation of community hubs in Ontario and is a priority of the provincial government," McKinney said in an email.

"The model is being implemented locally in Hamilton."

The visit was useful, she said, and the team picked up "ideas which they are keen to implement."

Priel says the group wanted to attend the Women's March, and scheduled some site visits for when they were there. Once they realized they'd be working in Washington too, that's when she booked the van for the trip.

This blurred the lines. I'm concerned about the optics. - Coun. Donna Skelly

The staffers were photographed at the Women's March on Saturday, and Priel appeared in a local media story discussing the need to stop the rise of Donald Trump-like politics in Canada.

Skelly acknowledges that Priel is "highly respected."

She doesn't mind staffers marching "on their own time and their own dime," she said. But she doesn't like that they used the van for a trip that was as much marching as working.

"This blurred the lines," Skelly said. "I'm concerned about the optics."

Priel addressed the issue in a letter to councillors this week, a copy of which was obtained by CBC.

"I have never in my 46-year career as a public servant taken advantage of the taxpayer and certainly would not have taken a city vehicle on this trip if I was not doing legitimate City of Hamilton business," she said.

Sam Merulla, Ward 4 councillor, would only say the employees who went are exemplary.

"All I will say is that the employees in question are incredibly astute, professional employees," he said, "that are probably in the 1 per cent of the country as it pertains to the department they work for."

Priel is a long-time city employee with a demonstrated interest in social issues.

As general manager of community and emergency services, she handles issues such as social assistance and funding for homelessness programs.

She has guided the department through, among other challenges, the implementation of the social assistance management software (SAMS).

The march took place in Washington the day after Donald Trump's inauguration and an estimated 450,000 to 500,000 attended. There were also marches in many other cities, including Hamilton and Toronto.