LANDIS — Concerns about high spending during a 2015 conference is causing Landis to look at implementing a travel policy for elected officials.

According to town credit card statements, reimbursement requests from four aldermen and meeting fees, the previous Landis Board of Aldermen spent approximately $17,000 — more than half of their yearly travel budget — during an August ElectriCities conference in Myrtle Beach.

Town Manager Reed Linn said that despite the high dollar amount, the board stayed within budget.

“The town has always budgeted for the ElectriCities conference and Town Hall Days,” Linn said.

Landis budgeted $30,000 in travel expenses for aldermen during the 2015-2016 fiscal year, $5,000 more than the 2014-2015 budgeted amount.

“No one has ever questioned the line item that’s there,” Linn said.

Mayor Pro-Tem Dorland Abernathy said that the ElectriCities conference is the biggest travel expenditure of the year, but feels that the 2015 trip may have gotten a little out of hand.

“There was no accountability at all. And when there’s no accountability it can get wild — and evidently for us it did,” he said.

Former mayor James Furr said that spending at the 2015 conference was “considerably more than usual.”

Credit card charges made by aldermen fall into three categories:

Hotel: $8,684.36

Food: $2,191.43

Gas and parking: $273.55

Credit card statements show charges as high as $174 made at a single restaurant location.

Alderman Dennis Brown said that some restaurant charges are high because aldermen would share a tab, and Abernathy confirmed that the board did pool meals at the 2015 conference. However, the charge in question, made at Martini of North Myrtle on Aug. 4, appears on credit card statements for Dennis Brown, Tony Hilton and Roger Safrit.

Hilton and Safrit both ran for re-election, but lost to Tommy Garver and Seth Moore. Brown ran for mayor in the 2015 municipal elections, but lost to Mike Mahaley. Brown still has two years on his term as alderman.

Abernathy also admitted that he and his wife went to Charleston on the way home from the conference and charged their meals to the town credit card.

“Had we been traveling directly home, we would have had had breakfast and lunch in the Myrtle Beach area and dinner somewhere on the way home,” he said in an e-mail narrative of the trip.

When asked if he had a moment to discuss the charges made to his town credit card, Hilton replied, “No. No, I don’t have a moment,” and hung up the phone. Hilton would not answer further phone calls.

Abernathy said that currently, the board’s travel policy is “whatever.”

“Whatever the members want to do, they do; whatever they submit for reimbursement, they are reimbursed; whatever they think the practice should be, it is,” Abernathy said at the board’s Jan. 4 meeting.

At the same meeting, Abernathy alleged that not all of the aldermen attended the full conference.

“At the ElectriCities conference, some of our representatives attended two days of meetings in a three-day conference and yet requested meeting pay for seven days,” he said.

The three-day ElectriCities conference began on Aug. 6 and ran through Aug. 8, but the two aldermen requested reimbursement from Aug. 4 to Aug. 10. Credit card charges by Tony Hilton also occurred in North Myrtle Beach on Aug. 4 and continue through Aug. 10, but a reimbursement request was not submitted.

“So essentially the town is giving you a free vacation,” Abernathy said.

Safrit said he attended the entire conference, and used the extra time to prepare for the conference. Brown said that in the two days prior to the event they met with engineers and other officials.

Safrit said that no questions were raised about items listed on his reimbursement request, and everything was approved.

“I don’t think anything was done wrong,” he said.

Brown mentioned that no one had any concerns during the town’s July budget hearing. The board did not exceed budget during the ElectriCities conference, Linn said, and because there is no travel policy for elected officials, no policy was violated.

“We did not break any general statues. We did not break any ordinances,” Brown said.

But it’s an issue more than one board member — previous and current — feels should be addressed.

“This has been a concern of mine for quite some time,” Furr said.

In the past, Furr alleged, there had been issues with purchasing alcohol on town credit cards, or submitting reimbursement for alcohol purchased. Abernathy alleged that on previous trips board members had been known to order a separate meal when one was provided. However, neither of these occurred during the 2015 conference that they were aware. Brown and Safrit also stated that no alcohol was purchased at last year’s conference.

Furr said he brought up high spending on the part of the board at least twice, but never tried to instate a policy because he felt it would fail.

“The lack of the board’s reaction to this is one of the reasons I chose not to run for re-election,” he said, “I expressed concerns on this and had no reaction.”

While Furr no longer has a stake on the town board, he’s glad this is finally coming out.

“It’s the public’s money and there’s a right to know this,” he said.

Abernathy said there seemed to be an attitude among past boards that large spending on town trips was compensation for low pay. It was always something that didn’t sit well with him.

“I realized that every dollar spent by the town was not the town’s money,” he said, “It’s money coming out of the pockets of somebody.”

Newly elected Mayor Mike Mahaley said that he was asked to look into the previous board’s spending during municipal elections, and called previous spending “out of line.” Since the Board of Aldermen has two brand new members, Mahaley thinks it’s important to have a new policy to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

“There was no laws broken, there was no rules broken. The biggest things was — there was no rules,” he said.

There’s little chance that Landis would choose to hold an ElectriCities-style retreat at home – the training received is just too valuable, officials say.

“I didn’t realize when I ran for council that I was going to be sitting on the board of an electrical company,” Abernathy said.

The ElectriCities conference provides training and resources to orient new board members to the running of the town.

“There’s a great deal of value there as far as going,” Furr said.

Instead, Abernathy’s proposed policy would, among other things, stipulate a daily meal allowance, clarify that meeting reimbursement would only be given for days physically spent in meetings and reimbursement for travel and lodging would only be provided over conference days.

According to information Abernathy compiled for his presentation, a simple travel policy could have saved the town:

$1,718.99 in food costs

$2,955.44 in lodging

$500 in meeting pay

$267.91 in travel costs

Mahaley said that he and Linn have been tweaking the policy, and that its final version will be very different from the first draft. He said it was important to have a “simple” policy.

Brown said he is not against a policy.

“I think there needs to be a policy… I don’t have a problem with that,” he said.

“We need some guidance, we need a guideline,” Abernathy said.

The Landis Board of Aldermen will read the revised policy at their next meeting. The Board of Alderman will meet at Landis Town Hall on Feb. 1 at 7 p.m.