Posted on: Sunday, February 6, 2005
States steamed over Hawai'i conference
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When county officials from across the nation were baking in 100-degree heat in Phoenix last summer during the annual National Association of Counties conference, there wasn't much outcry about officials vacationing at taxpayers' expense.
But this year's annual gathering is in Honolulu, and county officials from Hutchinson, Kan., to Wilmington, N.C., are taking heat for planning to attend the July meeting.
"In regards to the Reno County commissioners' planned trip to Hawaii, it is incredible and outrageous that while many (if not most) of the people they are supposed to represent are trying to figure out how to exist financially, the commissioners figure out lame excuses to justify an expenditure/vacation like this at public expense," Hutchinson resident Myrna Christian wrote last week in a letter to the editor of The Hutchinson News.
Her feelings mirror those of editorial writers, columnists and other letter writers at the central Kansas newspaper, and at other publications across the nation.
Critics say the price tag of roughly $2,500 to $3,000 per person is too much to spend at a time when taxes are being increased, services are being cut and some local economies struggle.
A reader of The Daily Iberian in New Iberia, La., criticized 10 members of the parish council for planning to spend $31,450 to attend the Hawai'i conference, while cutting thousands of dollars from the local 4-H program.
"Don't forget, now, this is approved from a budget that the council members decided was too tight for the 4-H children's money," Lee McGee of Jeanerette, La., wrote.
In Reno County, Kan., the three county commissioners and the county's administrator have said they will attend. One member, Francis Schoepf, told The Hutchinson News that he will pay for all expenses except lodging and registration fees. Other members said they viewed the conference as a chance at continuing education, a way to learn how to improve in their jobs.
Several county officials in Decatur, Ala., attended last year's conference in Phoenix, but Morgan County Commission chairman John Glasscock said he doesn't think anybody from there will go to Hawai'i.
Money is part of the reason, he said, but even more important is the public's perception that such a trip would be a junket instead of a necessary meeting.
"I don't think you have to leave the Mainland and go to a very expensive vacation place for a meeting," Glasscock said. "If you go to a beach, you're on vacation."
Conference organizers argue that Hawai'i has just as much of a right to host the national conference as any other state, and people shouldn't avoid the meeting just because it's being held in an exotic location.
"That's one of the biggest misperceptions we have because we are viewed in many parts of the world as being a phenomenal vacation destination that everybody dreams about going to," said Marsha Wienert, Hawai'i's tourism liaison. "Shame on us for building our image that way."
She also noted that Hawai'i residents typically are the ones doing most of the traveling for such events across the rest of the nation.
That's missing the point, Kansas Sen. Tim Huelskamp said. The real issue is whether public officials should be spending tax money to attend such meetings when they require extensive travel and hotel stays, he said.
"We hear all the complaints about cutting aid from the state to the counties," Huelskamp said. "But every time they tell us times are tight, (county officials) come back next year and find some other way to spend money."
Karl Peterjohn, executive director of the Kansas Taxpayers Network, said he's not opposed to officials attending national meetings, as long as they come back with something valuable for the taxpayers.
