Bill Slaughter, Lowndes County Commission Chairman

VALDOSTA — On a chilly evening in February, 14 people gathered at a trendy steakhouse in downtown Atlanta for dinner.

It was five Thomas County commissioners and County Manager Mike Stephenson. It was five local legislators, including House Rep. Amy Carter and State Sen. Ellis Black and his wife.

They had assembled to chat about a proposed road project on South Pinetree Boulevard in Thomas County. The project engineer and his assistant were also there.

The food was pricey — tender ribeyes at $38 a pop, sizzling filet mignon for $42 a plate, and a tuna dish for $28.

In all, with tax and tip, the meal totaled $800. Thomas County — a.k.a. the taxpayers of Thomas County — footed the bill.

Most local governments have a meal cap for elected officials and employees, a maximum number of dollars they can spend on food while traveling on government business. But that isn’t the case with Thomas County.

While Thomas County employees have a food limit — $28 a day and $36 in major cities — elected county commissioners can spend as much as they want dining out.

So far in 2017, Thomas County has shelled out $1,235 on meals for officials and employees, which is double what the county spent on meals for all of 2016.

Two-thirds of that $1,200 came from the single $800 meal in February. In contrast, Lowndes County spent zero dollars on meals for its county commissioners and county manager during Fiscal Year 2017 (July 2016-July 2017; Thomas County fiscal years run January-December).

Lowndes commissioners are allowed to ask for meal reimbursements while traveling on official business, but they choose not to, which is why the group’s meal total for the past budget year is non-existent, excluding the $500 spent for meals at the county’s annual two-day retreat.

Lowndes County Commission Chairman Bill Slaughter said he and the others usually pay for their meals out of pocket to be conscientious of taxpayer dollars.

“I think that meals and vehicle use is something that could be taken advantage of and misused, so it’s just best not to do it,” he said.

Thomas County commissioners spending $800 on a single meal in an upscale restaurant isn’t illegal; their policy allows for it. However, a specific expense from that night did break the rules.

The bill included three glasses of wine totaling $33. That’s a no-no because Thomas County, like most local governments in the region, has a strict policy on spending government money on alcohol — it’s not allowed.

Stephenson said the wine should not have been paid for with county funds. It was an expense he had accidentally overlooked on the credit cart receipt, he said.

The violation didn’t stand unresolved for long, though. When Stephenson discovered the expense soon after the meal, he personally reimbursed the county for the cost of the wine.

Alcohol isn’t the only thing banned from a local government’s list of acceptable expenses. Cities and counties in the SunLight Project coverage area — Dalton, Milledgeville, Thomasville, Tifton, Valdosta, Live Oak and the surrounding counties — do not pay for entertainment.

Combing through the receipts and budgets detailing how much local governments dish out in travel costs reveals a few notable differences, but the biggest similarity is the bulk of travel costs goes to training for government employees.

  

Most of the time, travel costs = training costs

“When people think of travel, they might think of vacation, but it’s not vacation,” Valdosta’s Public Information Officer Sementha Mathews said. “We’re not going to the Bahamas.”

Mark Barber, Valdosta’s assistant city manager, agreed.

“Really it’s training,” he said.

Out-of-town training is a firm staple of government’s operations, officials said. It could be accountants getting re-certified. It could be firefighters getting hazmat training or crime lab workers learning about drug chemistry. It could be newly elected officials learning the ropes.

Much of the training is mandatory, meaning the associated travel costs are also mandatory — meals, hotels, mileage reimbursements and any fees for the actual training event.

North Georgia’s Whitfield County (population 104,000) spent $243,000 for travel to “conventions and seminars” in FY 2016 (which for Whitfield means January-December).

In addition to education and training, Suwannee County (Fla.) Commissioner Ricky Gamble said he uses the travel budget to attend legislative sessions in Tallahassee, Florida’s capital.

“It is important to have a local voice in Tallahassee and at legislative hearings,” Gamble said.

He said “the training opportunities have helped me be better able to do my job as a commissioner.”

Suwannee (population 43,000) budgeted $130,000 for travel for FY 2016-17 (October 2016-September 2017). The costliest department on the list is the county commission at $28,000.

A lot of governments don’t spend everything they’ve set aside for travel and training. The City of Live Oak (population 7,000) in Suwannee budgeted $51,000 for FY 2015-16 (also October-September) but only spent $40,000.

The City of Valdosta (population 56,000) budgeted $227,000 for travel for FY 2017 (July 2016-June 2017), which comes to a quarter of a percent of the overall budget. But in the end, the city only spent approximately half the amount, about $118,000.

Valdosta gives traveling employees $35 a day for meals and $50 when traveling to bigger cities. The city’s elected officials get more money for food — $50 a day and $75 for metro areas.

Mark Barber, the city’s assistant manager, said elected officials get more money because they’re allowed to put their spouses on the bill.

While a per diem traditionally means an employee gets a certain amount of money to keep even if there’s some leftover, that’s not how it works in Valdosta.

The city only pays for what its people spend on food, and there’s even a limit to how much they can spend per meal. If a conference provides meals, a worker’s per diem is lowered. When traveling, Valdosta employees are issued a travel card that is setup to only pay for meals and lodging.

“A lot of our employees say, ‘Well it’s a bit restrictive,’ and they’re right and we want it to be. There’s a reason for that,” Barber said.

Lowndes County (population 114,000) differs from other local governments in that it doesn’t have money leftover in its travel budget because it only sets aside the exact amount of money needed for the year. Every travel expense has to be listed out and planned for in advance.

“It has to be by occurrence. You can’t just say, ‘I might think I need,'” Lowndes County Clerk Paige Dukes said. “It has to be where are you going and how much is it estimated for each trip?”

Lowndes spent $25,000 on travel during FY 2017 (July 2016-June 2017). All but $1,600 of the amount was for education and training. The county increased its travel budget by more than $10,000 for FY 2018. Dukes said certain years may see more training events, and the cost of certain events may be higher than previous years, which is the reason for the increase.

Baldwin County (population 45,000) also increased its travel budget recently. The county set aside $113,000 for FY 2017 (January-December), which is up from $99,000 the previous year.

When it comes to specific government departments, travel prices are like a box of chocolate — you never know what you’re gonna get.

  

Not all departments are created equal

By nature, certain government departments eat up more travel money than others.

For example, Thomasville’s utilities department uses more travel money than any other department in the city.

Thomasville (population 19,000) spent $270,000 on travel in 2016. About $211,000 of that amount went to travel expenses for utility departments, which includes electric, water, natural gas, sewer, sanitation, Rose.Net, CNS, marketing and technical services.

City Manager/Utilities Superintendent Steve Sykes said the disparity is caused by the heightened level of training and regulation affecting the departments.

“For instance, our linemen are not allowed to do their job without proper training,” Sykes said. “It is the same with natural gas. Both are heavily regulated utilities.”

In Valdosta, half of the travel budget goes to public safety.

The majority of the money spent on meals and training for the City of Dalton (population 34,000) in 2016 went to the police department — $143,000 out of the $250,000 spent overall.

Tifton (population 17,000) budgeted $52,000 for travel for FY 2018 (July 2017-June 2018). The costliest department from that pool of money is the city council, which is getting $12,000.

The same goes for Milledgeville (population 19,000), with $45,000 of the city’s $110,000 travel budget going to the mayor and city council.

  

One way governments keep costs down

Valdosta said it takes advantage of technology to save on travel costs. If a certain type of training can be done through a webinar, the city opts for that instead of sending people out of town.

Also the city has several employees who are qualified to host training sessions in-house, meaning government workers from other towns come to Valdosta instead of the other way around.

“It’s economic development for our city, but it also means that we don’t have to travel,” Mathews said.

  

The SunLight Project team of journalists who contributed to this report includes Patti Dozier, Charles Oliver, Will Woolever, Jessie Box and Eve Guevara, along with the writer, team leader John Stephen.

To contact the team, email sunlightproject@gaflnews.com.