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Three Winona County commissioners are signed up for the National Association of Counties' (NACO) annual conference this summer in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The county will pay nearly $7,000 total for Duane Bell, Jerry Heim and David Stoltman to attend the four-day event.
The other commissioners have refused to go and say the cost is too high. "Personally, I don't think it's the proper use of Winona County taxpayers' funds," said county board chairwoman Marcia Ward, who along with commissioner Dwayne Voegeli will not attend the conference.
Those planning to make the trip say it is beneficial to the county, and worth every cent.
"The main thing I go for is to converse with other commissioners from around the country," said Stoltman, who has attended NACO's annual conference every year since joining the board in 1999.
Stoltman cites land-use, roads, human services and economic development as topics that he learns about at the conference.
By attending the conference, which usually draws between 3,000 and 4,000 attendees, county commissioners have a voice in setting the agenda of the national group that lobbies the federal government on behalf of counties.
"It's important for counties our size to attend," Stoltman said. "Too often it's only the big counties that can afford to go who dominate the agenda."
NACO holds its annual conference in a different city each year, most recently in New Orleans, Milwaukee and Phoenix.
Last year, it cost $2,621.56 to send three commissioners — Bell, Stoltman and Charles Meyer, who has since lost his seat to Heim — to the conference in Phoenix, according to the county's finance department.
This year's conference will cost more than $2,200 per commissioner, not including meals and incidentals. The county will pay $415 for each commissioner to attend the four-day conference. Six nights at the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort n in a garden-view room n will cost $1,170 each. Air fare and a rental car will add another $683 per commissioner.
Commissioners are also eligible to claim a $50 stipend for each day of the four-day conference, which could cost another $600.
"It just doesn't look right or feel right for the taxpayers or county staff, especially when we've asked our department heads to pinch pennies for the past two years" said Commissioner Dwayne Voegeli, who is not attending. "There are other workshops and meetings closer by."
Last year, commissioners spent $11,782.13 traveling to conferences, classes and meetings. The county has budgeted $11,700 in 2005, and as long as commissioners do not exceed the budget they do not need pre-approval for such expenses.
Winona's six city council members, who must have pre-approval from the mayor or the council president for any travel, spent a total of $4,932.09 on travel in 2004.
Bell, who sits on NACO's public land committee, said networking with other commissioners alone is worth the cost, but also points to other learning experiences. At the 2004 conference, in Phoenix, Bell said he toured a 20,000-prisoner "tent-city" jail.
"I think it's worth it, or I wouldn't be going," he said.
Bell notes that the commissioners chose not to attend NACO's winter legislative meeting in Washington, D.C. to save money this year.
"A lot of the problems coming to us are working their way in from the coasts," Stoltman said. "You can't get that information anyplace else other than your peer group."
There are other ways of communicating with commissioners from other counties, said Ward, who argues that commissioners would be better off networking with other county officers from Minnesota and letting the Association of Minnesota Counties, which sends a delegation to the national conference, lobby on Winona's behalf.
Heim defended the conference as not a junket.
"We're not going there to get sun-tanned," Heim said. "It's very important. Whatever they've got going on will be interesting."
Heim also said he plans to pay for some of the expense himself.
"I'm not going to abuse the system completely," he said.
Reporter Chris Hubbuch can be reached at (507) 453-3511 or chubbuch@winonadailynews.com.
