The best companies realize that professional training helps build better employees and better leaders.
Industry leaders are usually setting aside some money in the budget to invest in their employees. This newspaper sends staff members to conventions every year that allow staff members to attend seminars focused on topics of importance to our profession and to share ideas with other professionals in our industry. We also occasionally send staff members for specialized training.
We consider it money well spent.
That’s why we understand that local government employees also need professional training and development. We consider it worthwhile to make reasonable investments in city and county employees to help them be as effective as possible.
But we also recognize that because the taxpayers are footing the bill, there are efforts to attract public employees to needlessly extravagant events, and naturally there is temptation for public employees to want to attend as many events as possible.
I cannot count the number of times that I’ve seen the Yazoo County Board of Supervisors veto a request from an employee who wanted to attend some kind of conference out of state or break the news to an employee that they wouldn’t need a hotel for a conference that’s less than an hour away. From what I’ve observed, I think that both our city and county governments do a good job of providing employees with needed training while keeping costs as low as possible.
I’ve sometimes thought that it was ridiculous that “mandatory” training is often at casino resorts or places that are just about guaranteed to cost more, but I didn’t know the definition of ridiculous until I saw the Yazoo City Housing Authority in action. That board has taken travel to a whole new level.
One of the most absurd things this newspaper discovered in a recent public records request (one that we had to pay for, by the way) was that some board members have upgraded their seats to first class en route to conferences.
We learned during the last Housing Authority meeting that the board has already exceeded its travel budget, which is quite extravagant for an appointed board that usually meets once a month. We also learned that some of the training they’ve been traveling for is available for free from HUD.
To be fair, this wasteful spending didn’t start with the recent board members. It has been going on for years.
The often heard defense in recent days is that HUD doesn’t have a problem with it, and it isn’t illegal.That may be true, but just because you can do something doesn’t make it right. Our city and county government officials seem to recognize this, and quite frankly it seems like common sense to me.
All of that travel included with fancy holiday parties and retirement parties, and things like a Michael Kors purchase that no one seems to want to accept now that the newspaper has shined a spotlight on it, makes it easier to understand why the seats on Yazoo’s Housing Authority board are so coveted by some.
What should matter most, especially to the taxpayers, is that these problems are corrected going forward. The real problem was that the board was approving the bill each month without any detailed analysis of what had been spent. I’ve served on several boards where the director had a credit card, and a review of the statement each month along with receipts for each expenditure was required. It’s a standard practice, and an obvious need in an organization where it’s not uncommon for several thousand dollars to be spent in a month on a credit card.
I’m convinced that nothing would have changed if this newspaper hadn’t reported what was going on.
The new board members have an opportunity to fix these issues and continue the Housing Authority’s business in a transparent manner. I am optimistic that they will do just that.
