LAUREL —
Travel for members of the Laurel City Council may be deleted from the City of Laurel’s budget for the upcoming year.
City officials have been working for the past several weeks to formulate a budget for the 2011 Fiscal Year.
A public hearing on the budget was Monday. However, officials said changes are still being made to the budget. One of the changes is eliminating some of the travel funds from next year’s budget.
Last month, the council began discussing the travel issue during one of its meetings.
The discussion came when the council, during its last meeting, was presented with an order approving travel and related expenses for Councilwoman Willie Evans to the Mississippi Municipal League for 2010-11 Board of Directors meeting.
Council president Tony Wheat expressed his concern that the city was spending money on council travel.
Wheat, who also serves as chairman of the budget committee, during the Aug. 17th meeting stated that he had concerns with the city spending funds for council travel.
He said being “discipline with our spending is important in these economic times.”
A similar order had just been approved earlier in the month for Mayor Melvin Mack to attend the MML board meetings.
After a brief discussion on Aug. 17th about the need and cost of travel, Chief Administrative Officer Dennis Keveryn said “eliminating travel is a consideration.”
Following the discussion, the council on a 6-1 vote – with Wheat casting the only descending vote – approved the travel request.
This week, city councilmen discussed their dissatisfaction in the consideration of eliminating portions of the city’s travel budget.
During Wednesday’s agenda-setting meeting, Councilman Manuel Jones said he was opposed to eliminating the travel budget.
“I’m not in favor of cutting out the travel,” Jones said.
Council members Willie Evans and Trey Chinn also expressed their concern.
Jones also questioned why the city would cut out the travel, but continue to pay membership dues to the Mississippi Municipal League and National League of Cities.
Along with city officials meeting other cities’ officials at the meeting, some local officials also serve in positions with the MML.
Laurel’s City Clerk Mary Ann Hess has been elected state president of the Mississippi Municipal Clerks and Tax Collectors Association (MMCCA).
MMCCA is also an affiliate of the Mississippi Municipal League (MML), Hess will serve as the MMCCA representative and liaison to many of the MML events and committees.
Mayor Melvin Mack said “membership to these groups means a lot.”
Chinn and Evans both said city officials “benefit from the meetings.”
“Networking makes a difference,” Evans said. “Travel is being misconstrued when some members don’t network.”
Chief Administrator Officer Dennis Keveryn said if travel is not eliminated from the budget, city officials need to know “where is the money coming from?”
However, Keveryn said, not all travel is being eliminated.
“The travel being eliminated from the proposed budget is all discretionary travel,” he said. “Travel for police and fire certification and the recreation director to go to North Carolina to get the World Series will still be included.”
At the last August council meeting, Chinn said the “city council has the lowest budgeted (travel) account of any department in the city.”
Chinn said he believes council members should attend certain events and conferences where they learn about laws and meet with other city officials.
Keveryn said if some travel is eliminated, it would be a savings of $35,750 to the city for the FY 2011.
The council will vote on whether to approve the proposed changes during it’s meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Laurel City Hall.
Local News
Related Photos
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Members of the Laurel City Council talk about travel and budget issues during a recent meeting at Laurel City Hall. Photo/Eloria Newell James
Travel remains a topic of concern
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