For a little more than a week now, stories have trickled out about a trip to Hawaii by members of the Asheville Regional Airport’s governing board. Four board members planned to spend more than $17,000 in taxpayers money to attend a convention of airport executives, though one board member backed out.
Today, the Asheville Citizen-Times notes that this is not the first time that airport board members have traveled to Hawaii for such a trip. My guess is that for the past several years, airport board members have gone.
The spending – questionable in good times – appears outrageous in these lean times. Here’s my question: have our other local boards been good stewards of taxpayers’ money?
The Asheville Housing Authority has a local board that oversees probably millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. How has the board handled that money?
The Metropolitan Sewerage Board oversees millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. Have any of its board members conducted questionable travel over the past year?
There are ABC boards in Asheville, Weaverville and Hendersonville. Are they taking good care of our money?
Buncombe County commissioners and Asheville City Council members, as well as their top managers, might have traveled in the past year. Perhaps we could have a little government transparency and post, on a Web site, all the taxpayer money spent on travel for these two entities.
I think we’re talking about the tip of the iceberg here, folks.
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I have to correct myself. Mark Barrett was consistent in the use of "Public Money". After conversations with both him and John Boyle I reviewed the articles. He did not use tax dollars.
Mr. Freeborn makes some good points. Distinction between "tax dollars" and "user fees" is helpful. Barrett had a side bar this morning on how airport is funded.
This Web site has a good discussion ;http://www.tcpilots.org/funding.html. It does point out that “State and local governments also contribute funding to make sure that their airports remain viable and meet the needs of local businesses and communities. In some cases, state and local governments or airport authorities use tax-exempt bonds to fund major capital improvements “
Mr. Freeborn may not be aware of “tax money” from the county. Here’s an interesting statement from the county’s budget: “At the end of the current fiscal year, Buncombe County is able to report positive balances in all three categories of net assets, both for the government as a whole, as well as for its separate governmental and business-type activities. This is the first time in several years that this has been the case. In previous years, the County has reported net deficits in governmental unrestricted net assets as part of its legal obligation to provide capital funding for the two local school systems, a community college, and the airport authority. While the assets are funded by the County, they are owned and utilized by the respective entity and reflected as assets on their financial statements. Therefore, the County has incurred a liability without a corresponding increase in assets. At the end of the fiscal year, approximately $105.4 million of the outstanding debt on the County’s financial statements was related to assets included in the financial statements of the school systems, community college, and the airport authority. This amount was $116.1 million in the prior year.
The government’s net assets were increased by $9.5.”
This is one reason why we need our journalists to investigate/research/report on these matters. One of the new blogs you told us about has further thoughts: http://randomasheville.blogspot.com/2010/01/updates-and-corrections_12.html
Ash…I think your right about "The spending – questionable in good times – appears outrageous in these lean times. Here’s my question: have our other local boards been good stewards of taxpayers’ money?" Myself and other board members never hid the fact that we went on trips via our service to the airport. It was never a problem because we were actually getting tangible results from those trips, our operating and capital budgets were good, we were making major improvements to the airport while putting money aside for future needs, we did not raise fees, and everyone was happy. That is the airport.
Now if it was city council and the city’s taxes funding a trip like this it would be a different story. I know the Mayor and Councilwoman Cape have made a number of trips on the city’s dime. They seem to justify them by saying they used those trips to get federal money and the public has given them a pass.
The AC-T is missing the boat on this one. What most people do not get about the airport issue is that the industry, laws, and the doling out of user fees is based on the conversations that take place at conferences like this one. If you are not part of the conversation or make sure that the players know about your airport, the likelihood of your airport getting capital improvement funds is small.
When you look at the amount of money spent on travel to conferences like this one by the airport and the additional federal and state funding that has been leveraged it is a no brainer. These trips are a great value for our airport. I still maintain my contacts from the 4 or 5 trips I took on behalf of the airport. You have to know your industry and you have to market your organization with in that industry. Otherwise you will get looked over.
Most of the neigh-sayers about this issue are not operating at this level of business or have the back ground on the issue to make an informed comment. Even Mark Barret the reporter from the AC-T did not understand the difference between taxes and user fees and how the airport is run off user fees, not taxes until I educated him about it via phone interview yesterday. This is a guy that has been covering the airport for 3 years. I guess he is really paying attention. Notice the change in his language from "tax dollars" in earlier stories to "public money" in today’s article.
One problem is sending a majority of your board. Sending a quorum anywhere out of town is a bad idea unless it is being covered by local press. One or two members and the director is one thing. Three or more is just over kill. To any conference.
The second problem and why this trip is even getting coverage is due to budget irregularities that have occurred over the last year. Apparently airport over reported the money they had and have come up short on operational funds. The airports most recent audit did not come back clean, which may be a first. The letter from the auditor raises a number of red flags that need to be further investigated. When pressed about this. Mark Barret from the AC-T did not seem to even think there was something to look into. When asked if he even goes to the board meetings he confessed that he did so infrequently and missed the last few.
Advantage West. Advantage West. Advantage West.
This organization is the biggest waste of taxpayer’s dollars in all of Western North Carolina.
I know for a fact that the Chamber of Commerce indirectly receives significant tax dollars from the Buncombe County Govt. These county tax dollars are paid to the Chamber to fund staffing and projects, particularly of the Chamber’s Office of Economic Development Coalition (EDC).
People like Rick Lutovsky, Laura Copeland, Ray Denny (and the 9-person!) staff of that one department are all highly paid and do little to justify their existence. From the money Buncombe County pays, there are several junkets that the Chamber people hold and participate in each year.
Knowing this leads me to believe that the Chamber of Commerce is subject to public scrutiny.
Ashvegas did a good service to the community a while back when it revealed that CEO Rick Lutovsky was paid $241,000 salary. Nice work for a man who cuts ribbons and spends much of his business day jogging and working out at the gym.
I have a friend on the housing board and he is definitley someone who would abuse the system if he could. And I know that he has never gotten any fabulous perks from that board or he would be bragging about it.
Carla, thanks for your note. The chamber issue is a little different, in my mind – they’re not spending taxpayers’ money, are they? I agree with you that the airport officials should reimburse the airport board for their trip as soon as they return.
Yes indeed. Take a look at what the various executives and departments of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce do in this regard. CEO Rick Lutovsky and his gang are notorious for this sort of thing — junkets, "fact-finding" missions, etc. etc. It goes on and on.
The situation with the Asheville Airport is especially outrageous. Hawaii in January — are these Board members smoking weed?? There is no way a small regional airport like Asheville can ever justify this.
Susan Fisher should be voted out ASAP and should resign her post and return every penny of the money spent on her second Hawaiian junket.
This really pisses me off!!!