Who spent how much?

Documents from FOI request reveal expenses

By Jennifer Jacob Brown

jbrown@themeridianstar.com



It happens at almost every meeting.

The members of the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors seem to have a bottomless pit of things to argue about. The number one culprit: travel expenses.

Usually, the arguments are pretty predictable. Ray Boswell, Wayman Newell, or Hank Florey battle Craig Hitt or Joe Norwood.

Boswell, Newell, and Florey complain that Hitt and Norwood do too much traveling on the county's dime. Hitt and Norwood say travel to conferences is necessary to help the county grow, and that Boswell, Newell, and Florey ought to go out of town to promote the county's issues more often.

Most of the time, the arguments are none too civil. Seldom does a travel issue get by the board without voices being raised. All too often, strong, colorful words are thrown around during public meetings.

Because the supervisors have aroused such controversy around travel expenses, the Meridian Star has accessed public records to see just who spends how much money on what. We looked at the records for individual supervisors and collective county departments for fiscal year 2009.

Amongst supervisors, Norwood, who represents District 4, spent the most money collectively on travel, fuel and cell phone use. Individually, Boswell spent the most in the categories of Fuelman Card usage ($2,223.69) and cell phone usage ($1,487.60); Hitt spent the most in reimbursed travel expenses ($5,645.64).

Norwood travels to meetings out of town regularly and also makes use of a county Fuelman card to purchase fuel. While he doesn't have a county-paid cell phone, he does have an internet PC card — which allows him to connect wirelessly to the internet — registered in his name which costs $606 a year. His total expenses for fuel, travel and PC card for Fiscal Year 2009: $6,903.50. That includes $4,856.98 in lodging, registration, and per diem, and $1,440.52 in fuel.

Norwood said he believes the expenses are "very necessary."

When there is an event that could affect Meridian or Lauderdale County, "Some of us need to be at the table," he said, "because if you don't have somebody at the table, you get left out."

"We have board members that don't go anywhere," Norwood said. "They don't even go to stuff that's mandated. And with this job, there are so many (legislative) bills and things that change, somebody needs to keep abreast of that."

Supervisors, Norwood said, should concern themselves with more than just potholes and paving. By traveling, he said, he is able to find ways the county can benefit in every department from economic development to health.



Bottom to the top





While Boswell spent the least of the supervisors on out-of-town lodging, he charged the most to his Fuelman card and had the highest cell phone bill in Fiscal Year 2009. Boswell drives a county vehicle, a 2002 Ford Explorer. The most recent Fuelman statement provided showed that the vehicle had 191,013 miles on it and got 14.6 miles per gallon. Supervisors are expected to vote on the purchase of a new vehicle for Boswell, possibly a new or used pick-up, said County Administrator Mike Sumrall. But no purchase orders have been approved, he said.

Boswell could not be reached for comment.

All of the supervisors except Hitt make use of county vehicles. Florey drives a 2003 Crown Victoria, Newell drives a 2002 Dodge Extended Cab, and Norwood drives a 2000 Crown Victoria.

Collectively, the supervisors were ninth out of all county departments on Fuelman spending, having charged $6,055 on the cards in FY09.

Supervisors are only supposed to use the Fuelman cards when they are traveling on official county business, and must reimburse the county if they use the cards to pay for anything besides unleaded gasoline, Sumrall said.

Three county supervisors have county-paid cell phones — Boswell, Newell and Florey. Hitt and Norwood don't have county cell phones but do use county-paid wireless internet PC cards that cost about $606 apiece in FY2009.



Traveling supervisor





Hitt, who represents District 3, spent the most on lodging, registration fees, and per diem — but he spent the least on fuel. Hitt chooses not to use a county Fuelman card or drive a county vehicle, and instead is reimbursed for mileage when traveling in his own vehicle.

Hitt spent $5,299.82 on lodging, registration fees, and per diem in FY2009. He was reimbursed for $345.82 in mileage costs. Add those two numbers together, and Hitt spent a total of $5,645.64 on travel last year.

Like Norwood, Hitt said the county can miss out on important opportunities by not traveling. He used the trip that he, Norwood, and Florey took to Washington D.C. to speak to Mississippi's congressional delegation early this year as an example.

"I have never been to Washington where I did not see representatives from another city or county meeting with the same people we meet with," he said. "What that tells me is that if we don't go, they (legislators) will hear other counties' needs and not ours."

Hitt gave specific examples of how supervisor attendance at the International Council of Shopping Centers Conference, held annually in Las Vegas, Nev., has benefitted the county. He said the past attendance of city and county officials there has led directly to the development of the Meridian Crossroads shopping center, Meridian's two Super Wal-Mart locations, and the Meridian Sam's Club.

Boswell's (Dist. 5) spending was the opposite of Hitt's - Of all the supervisors, he spent the least on lodging, registration fees, and per diem, but the most on fuel. For all travel costs except fuel, Boswell spent only $198.08. He went to one conference, the Mississippi Association of Supervisors Mid-winter Conference in Jackson, and most of his travel costs in FY2009 were for the $150 registration fee there.



Not a big spender



Out of all of the supervisors, Florey (Dist. 1) spent the least on travel. His travel costs for FY2009, including Fuelman charges, totaled $934.

Florey went on three trips — the MAS mid-winter conference in Jackson, a trip to meet with legislators in Washington, D.C., and a transportation conference in Jackson. Florey reimbursed the county for the lodging and per diem costs from the transportation conference.

Hitt and Norwood went on the most trips.

Hitt's trips included the MAS mid-winter conference in Jackson, the National Association of Counties conference in Washington, D.C., another trip to Washington where he met with legislators, an E-911 meeting in Tunica, an MAS conference in Biloxi, another MAS conference in Starkville, and the ICSC conference in Las Vegas. He also made a trip to Tupelo, but the records provided by the county did not specify the reason for the trip.

Norwood also attended the NACo conference in D.C. and the MAS conferences in Jackson, Biloxi, and Starkville, as well as one in Vicksburg.

Both Norwood and Hitt had bills of more than $500 from Corrigan Travel Agency.

Hitt pointed out that he joined the MAS education committee last year, and normally only went to one MAS conference a year prior to that. Norwood pointed out that a portion of his travel expenses were reimbursed by boards that he serves on and was traveling on behalf of.

Of his own volition, Norwood provided detailed records of his own travel expenses in addition to the records provided by the county.

In many cases, the records provided by the county were not specific in the type of travel the county paid for. The records would, in numerous cases, only say "lodging" or "travel expense". That includes $953 for "Hitt lodging expense" and $1105 for "Norwood travel expense".

The records provided by Norwood showed that the $1105 was spent on the NACo trip, and included $906.84 for lodging. The other charges were for meals and flight-related expenses.

Collectively, the supervisors spent $17,767 on travel last year.



DID YOU KNOW?



Lauderdale County Supervisors earn $44,700 a year. The salaries are based on state law that uses assessed value of county property to determine their pay.



County cars, county fuel



Here's a look at what type of vehicle each county supervisor drives, and how much they spent on fuel in FY2009. The list does not include Craig Hitt because he does not drive a county vehicle or use a county fuel card. Hitt received $345.82 in mileage reimbursements:



1. Ray Boswell - 2002 Ford Explorer - $2,223.69

2. Wayman Newell - 2002 Dodge Extended Cab - $1,991.07

3. Joe Norwood - 2000 Ford Crown Victoria - $1,440.52

4. Hank Florey - 2003 Ford Crown Victoria - $554.15



Supervisor spending



Here is a look at how much each Lauderdale County supervisor spent overall on travel, fuel and cell phone use — including lodging, per diem, registration, cell phone, internet card and fuel — on the county's dime in Fiscal Year 2009.



1. Joe Norwood: $6,903.50

2. Craig Hitt: $6,251.64

3. Ray Boswell: $3,909.37

4. Wayman Newell: $3,092.31

5. Hank Florey: $1,417.17



Here's a look at how much Lauderdale County Supervisors spent on cell phone use in Fiscal Year 2009. Supervisors Craig Hitt and Joe Norwood do not have county cell phones but they do use an internet PC card that costs about $50 a month.



1. Ray Boswell: $1,487.60

2. Wayman Newll: $633.32

3. Craig Hitt: $606

4. Joe Norwood: $606

5. Hank Florey: $483.10



On the road again



Here's a look at how much each supervisor spent on travel in Fiscal Year 2009, including reimbursements for meals, hotel, registration and other travel expenses.



Craig Hitt: $5,645.64

Joe Norwood: $4,856.98

Wayman Newell: $467.92

Hank Florey: $379.92

Ray Boswell: $198.08



Top biggest fuel users



These county departments spent the most money using county Fuelman cards in FY2009 (amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar):



1. Road Department: $348,736

2. Sheriff's Department: $121,493

3. Sanitation: $108,397

4. LEMA: $27,207

5. VFD: $21,235

6. Jail: $12,429

7. Animal Shelter: $6,615

8. Supervisors: $6,055

9. Agri-Center: $5,933



The department that spent the least amount of money using Fuelman cards was E-911, at 196 dollars.

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