WWAY INVESTIGATION: Dinner’s on you!

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — It’s not unusual for a county commissioner to travel for meetings or conferences but the question is just how much are they spending and what you, the taxpayer, is getting for it.

Last fall WWAY got a tip to look at the spending for Brunswick County Commissioners.

In a WWAY investigation we found county policies might leave loopholes that mean dinner is on you.

Brunswick County Commissioners spend thousands of dollars on travel every year. According to records we obtained through a public information request, the spending gets bigger year after year. During the past three years the commissioners have spent $4,730.34 in fiscal year 2012, $7,169.17 in FY 2013, and $10,380.42 in FY 2014. We also found one commissioner stands out from the crowd. Republican Marty Cooke spent almost $14,000 during those three years. That’s more than three times that of all other commissioners combined.

“I have the free time to do it. Plus I’m associated with different issues,” Commissioner Cooke said about his being able to travel. “This travel has been approved by the county chairman, reviewed by the county commission also reviewed any expenses reviewed by the county manager.”

In FY 2012 Cooke spent more than $3,000 going to conferences across the state. Instead of driving back and forth to a conference in Wrightsville Beach from his home in Brunswick County taxpayers put him up in a hotel, for two nights, including the night before the conference. County policy says, “the county will pay expenses for extended overnight stay when significant savings may be realized.” According to his records, based on the then rate of 55.5 cents per mile, Cooke was reimbursed $52 for his round trip drive, but taxpayers also paid $89.00 plus tax a night for the two-night hotel stay. So instead of paying $104.00 for the trip, you paid almost $250.

The bigger issue might be how is county money really being spent? The county uses an IRS approved per diem that gives employees $51 a day for meals, but there’s no accounting on if it is actually spent on food.

County Manager Ann Hardy says it’s a common practice for big companies and even many government agencies, because the costs associated with accounting for how the money is spent can be significant. However, the system is a little different for the elected commissioners.

“County commissioners have county-issued credit cards. Therefore they’re required if they charge a meal to the credit card to provide an itemized receipt,” Hardy said, but that’s not really the case.

Hardy admitted hours after our interview she was not sure what the county’s policy said. When we asked for a copy of the policy on using a county credit card, Hardy sent us a form which shows it requires a receipt but says nothing about itemization or how it applies to elected officials.

Take for example the accounting of Cooke’s spending. Based on the information the county provided us, while Cooke usually has itemized receipts for fast food joints like McDonald’s and Arby’s he rarely has them for sit-down restaurants like Outback or TGI Friday’s. He says sometimes the restaurants just do not give him an itemized receipt, so he does not have one to turn in.

“I really don’t know how they itemize. I just pay a bill like anybody would,” Cooke said.

So what do taxpayers stand to gain from all of this traveling and spending? Cooke says the meetings he attends give him knowledge and influence that ultimately helps Brunswick County taxpayers. Still the county manager says there may be ways the county can do better.

“What we’ve done is we have tried our best to have a fair and objective method, and we believe that the IRS reimbursement rate is a fair and objective method for the majority of travel,” Hardy said. “As with any policy, we are always willing to look at it and see where we may improve.”

For example, some commissioners, including Republican Frank Williams, who spent the third most on travel in the last fiscal year at more than $2,700, would like to see a more thorough accounting of what was gained from commissioner travel.

“One of the things that I’ve suggested in our most recent meeting that I’d like to see us start doing is any time one of us goes to a function is to bring back a report and present something, whether it is orally or in writing, that says here’s what we gained from it,” Williams said.

That’s something that is not done right now, but for Williams it appears this is something he’s taken to heart. Within a couple hours of our interview Monday, we received an e-mail from Williams responding to a news release sent out six days earlier with a written explanation about what he gained from his most recent trip on your dime.

It’s not just travel and dinners commissioners are spending your money on. At their meeting last week, the Brunswick County Commission approved sending Cooke to the North Carolina Coastal Local Governments annual meeting at Pine Knoll Shores. They also approved spending $1,000 on a platinum sponsorship, which puts the county’s logo in a program and on a website and covers up to two registrations, which are $95 each on their own.