In February 2022, ABC submitted an Open Records Request for the expenses (registration, travel, meals, etc.) associated with the Council, Mayor, and City Staff to attend Mississippi Municipal League (MML) conferences during 2021. The City responded to the request that same month but provided incomplete records that excluded certain City Staff and did not reflect everyone that attended or their complete expenses associated with the July 2021 conference in the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi. Based on the incomplete information provided, ABC could not determine whether the City paid registration fees and the staffers did not attend, alternative attendees went as substitutes for registrants, or the City forgot to include staff expenses. Rather than pursuing the answer from the original records request, the City asked that the clarification request to be submitted as another public records request that was then submitted in March. The City took until last month, October 2022, to provide most of those answers.
The City originally failed to send the travel reimbursement documentation for two members of City Staff, the Director of the Trotter and a former CFO, to attend the July 2021 MML Conference. In October, the City sent reimbursement voucher for mileage that showed the City pre-paid each prior to even attending the conference. Each was paid a different amount, one $291.20 and the other $256.48. Neither signed the reimbursement request. Instead, one reimbursement request was signed by the mayor and the other was signed by the assistant to the mayor.
The same former CFO turned in no meal expenses (not unusual because the conference includes some meals). However, that was not the case for the Trotter Director. Based on the number of beverages charged, someone appears to have joined the Trotter Director for each meal turned in for reimbursement. And, the Trotter Director chose the highest ticketed item for each reimbursement. (For example, the $35 crab dinner was turned in as opposed to the $12 chicken lunch.) These lunch meals were charged to the City although lunch was provided during the conference. Further, although the conference provided breakfast, the Trotter Director of the Trotter charged $3.48 for “breakfast” but only submitted a credit card payments slip instead of an itemized receipt.
On Tuesday of the MML Conference, the Trotter Director skipped the “Lunch with the Exhibitors” (included in the fees the City paid) and went to a Chili’s in D’Iberville about 20 minutes away instead. The timestamp was 1:52pm but the seminars started back up at 1:30pm. On Wednesday, the last day of the conference, there was an included conference luncheon from 11:15am to 1pm with sessions starting “immediately after the luncheon.” The Trotter Director’s lunch receipt showed a timestamp of 1:43pm. The conference ended the evening of Wednesday, with a dinner reception and band. There were no events on Thursday. However, the City reimbursed the Director of the Trotter for a Thursday lunch in Biloxi. What about that City employee four-day work week? The Director of the Trotter signed her reimbursement form for $96.76 in meals for which the City already paid. Yet, someone approved the reimbursement.
The Councilman from Ward 5 also skipped the “Lunch with the Exhibitors” and the Awards Luncheon the next day and requested the City reimburse his meals. The day after the conference the Ward 5 Councilman lingered down south and turned in a receipt for lunch– timestamped 3:10pm. The Councilman from Ward 5 signed his form and the Mayor approved his $75.73 in meal expenses. Only one lunch of $14.99 may be considered legitimate as that was Monday’s “lunch on your own” day of the Conference.
One of the courses included – Travel and What Makes an Expenditure Legal -A discussion of important information municipal officials need to know regarding travel laws and legal and illegal purchases. Tom Chain, Office of the State Auditor, served as the course presenter. Tom Chain also assisted in the presentation of a Municipal Law course with Tom Hood, Executive Director, MS Ethics Commission, and Cammie Ainsworth, MS Office of Attorney General to give a general overview of the state laws that pertain to municipalities. The conference agenda included both courses during the Monday afternoon session. The City’s expense reimbursement form states, “I hereby state that this foregoing information is true and correct.” The objective of traveling and dining to learn from ethics and law courses that are not attended poses a challenge unless the objective is to increase government waste.
To Summerize:
*Conference offered course on travel expense rules but the learning objective was not met
*City staff still submitted excessive expenses
*The City advanced travel funds prior to incurred costs
*Expense reimbursement protocols failed to prevent waste
