4 county officials plan trip to Hawaii

Ann Arbor News ^ | 6-25-05

[NonValueAdded]

Next year, the conference will be held a little closer to home, in Chicago.

Says it all, right there.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I also didn't realize before that the travel cost of $7000 was for 4 people, not just one. That makes the price pretty reasonable. $1750 for a 5-day conference isn't bad. It's not smart to schedule something like this in Hawaii, though. The public is going to be crying abuse no matter how good the prices are. Like the article says, if this had been scheduled in St. Louis, nobody would have given it a 2nd look.

And yes, my last business trip was $1100 and some change. But I was looking at aircraft parts and machining processes, not attending a conference. And the flight between Salt Lake and Cleveland was only about $380, which is pretty low. Most of the 3- or 4-day trips I take are right around $900-$1000, so maybe my company just has a really good contract with the airline. And I'm usually looking at facilties, aircraft parts, and machining processes so there's no conference fees or costs like that.

[Ferris]

This one is easy.

All the county needs to do is force some private, local citizen off his or her land using the soon to be monster popular eminent domain, and then sell the land for a tidy profit to some other private entity, and Voila....

Plenty of money to go party it up in Hawaii!!!

[Flyer]

The trip comes at a time when Washtenaw County faces growing budget problems. Some 132 county positions have been eliminated over the past couple of years, the county has trimmed $2 million from its budget and 15 to 20 employees have been laid off, according to Guenzel.

It doesn't sound like the time and money spent on past conferences has paid off too well.

[This Just In]

This is true. One can find "plate lunch" in Hawaii at a "lunch truck", or local fast food restaurant, which is nothing like fast food chains such as McD's, and pay $5.00 for a large meal. But you have to know where to go. Something visitors to the islands are not aware of unless they've spent a lot of time in Hawaii.

[This Just In]

"off-peak"?!

Braddah, you gotta be kidding me.

July is an off-season? I can just hear the suntan oil covered epidermis sizzling in the hot summer sun.

[Conan the Librarian]

The folks from Chatham Co. Ga were getting ripped off! They were having to pay $18,000 for 5 people. One has dropped out since the newspaper got hold of it.

Funny thing, they day they plan on leaving, the Commissioners are set to vote to raise taxes and not give the county employees their 3% pay raise. Its funny how that happens....NOT.

[Kirkwood]

$18,000 for 5 people is ridiculous. My guess is that they were flying business class and/or they waited to the last minute to buy airline tickets. I have nothing against people flying business class (I do it all the time), but they need to pay the difference between economy and business class out of their own pocket.

One problem with flying on government money is that you are REQUIRED to buy a refundable ticket, which can sometimes raise the price by 100% or more over nonrefundable. Once I was supposed to fly on a ticket that cost $900+ for an economy seat. I refused to let the taxpayer pick up that tab and I paid the $375 for the nonrefundable ticket out of my own pocket.