The amount of payments received for travel and other expenses varies widely among Chatham County commissioners, according to records obtained through an open records request.
During the past two terms, commissioners have been reimbursed or advanced between $3,042 and $33,920.
The lowest amount was reimbursed to former Commissioner Harris Odell, who resigned in March after being appointed a recorder’s court judge.
Commissioner Helen Stone, who is involved in multiple organizations that require her to travel out of town, has received the most payments.
Stone serves on the board of the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia and as a member of the association’s public safety and federal committees. She also has served on the 911 committee after being appointed by former Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Her most recent trip was an association board retreat at the Calloway Gardens resort in Pinewood Mountain. Besides discussing upcoming legislation that could impact county income, Stone said, she got a chance to pressure the new Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner into addressing some roadway maintenance issues in her district.
Stone was advanced $726 for the trip, which paid for her personal vehicle mileage and a $53 daily meal allowance for three days.
While serving on the 911 committee Stone helped secure additional revenue for emergency response systems.
A segment of the travel expenses also comes from training opportunities, Stone said.
“Understanding how your government works is important,” she said.
Commissioner Patrick Farrell, who is on the economic development and transportation committee of the county government association, as well as a subcommittee for ports, was not far behind Stone. He has received $31,730 in reimbursements during the past eight years.
His involvement in the association is worth the expense, Farrell said.
“It not only educates me on the new stuff coming out, but as far as making policy on national and state level I have input into what’s important,” he said. “And that goes into those policies.”
Farrell’s most recent trip was to the annual National Association of Counties conference in Pittsburgh in July.
Farrell was advanced $1,483 in June for the conference. The payment covered his $71 daily meal allowance for seven days, $797 for personal vehicle mileage and $189 for parking. During the conference, he said, he had input into the upcoming legislative agenda on transportation.
A high priority is accelerating the permitting process for projects such as the Savannah harbor channel deepening, along with smaller road repairs, Farrell said.
Chairman Pete Liakakis has received $9,670 in reimbursements since taking office, but that amount could jump before his term ends this year.
Liakakis, known for attending multiple events a day, has not submitted mileage reimbursements for most of the years he has served, but said he intends to do so. Personal vehicle mileage requests he submitted in 2010 for the years 2005 and 2006 amounted to about $5,000.
Some travel is encouraged by offering higher salary for commissioners who participate in certain training opportunities. Commissioner Dean Kicklighter’s and Patrick Shay’s salary, $17,344, is about $1,300 less than most of the other commissioners, since they did not attend those classes.
Kicklighter, who once wore a swimsuit to a meeting in 2005 to protest some commissioners’ plans to attend a conference in Hawaii, has received the lowest amount of reimbursements of all the sitting commissioners.
Kicklighter said he does not oppose educational opportunities if they are not too extravagant, but has preferred to spend his time with his family. Kicklighter, with other commissioners, does attend the annual Savannah-Chatham Day in Atlanta.
“I think the atmosphere is conducive to be able to talk on a more personal level with the elected officials we may need at that time or in the future,” he said.