Spending breakdown

Board of Supervisors President Darryl Grennell spent more than other board members on travel, ringing up a total of $6,542.32.

Grennell had two county-funded trips that no other supervisors attended, one to the Mississippi Heritage Trust Board in Jackson that cost $158.05 and a meeting with Elevance Renewable Sciences in Washington, D.C., that billed the county $434.80 in cab fees, meals, mileage and tips.

The trip meet with Elevance — a company that has committed to bring 165 jobs to Adams County — was a celebration of the company’s award from the Environmental Protection Agency in June, Grennell said.

“I got a call saying Elevance wanted me to attend this award ceremony, and I called (Natchez Inc. Executive Director) Chandler Russ and asked if this was something we need to do, and he said, ‘Darryl, this is something you need to do,’” Grennell said.

“It is Elevance of Natchez-Adams County, and it was important for us to be there in support of Elevance.”

The plane ticket for that trip was purchased out-of-pocket but will be reimbursed at a later time, Grennell said. It is not included in the totals listed above.

The board president was also advanced $158.05 for delivering documents to Jackson in February, and was reimbursed $81.60 for attending the County Legislation Meeting in Liberty.

The documents that had to be hand-delivered to Jackson were a resolution supporting a request presented to the board by Sen. Melanie Sojourner regarding economic development in Southwest Mississippi.

“They had a deadline in the Senate,” Grennell said. “When it got prepared, somebody had to get it to Jackson, so I hopped in my truck and drove it to her. That has happened in the past; there have been several years where I have had to get in my truck and take documents to legislators who needed it as it related to the local needs of Adams County.”

The next highest total travel bill was accrued by first-term supervisor Angela Hutchins, whose $6,249.19 travel bills included four trips no other supervisors attended.

Hutchins was reimbursed, among other things, for two hotel stays near Jackson for what appear to be one-day events. The events were the Mississippi Association of Governmental Purchasing and Property Agents Lunch and Learn Conference on June 14 and the Supervisors Grassroots Day on April 4.

Hutchins was advanced $77 for a hotel room at the Drury Inn & Suites for each event.

She was also reimbursed for trips to Workforce Investment Board meetings — $121 and $158.05 — for meals, tips and mileage in Wesson and Jackson.

Hutchins is on the workforce board, and she said that accounts for some of the travel she took that other supervisors did not. Such trips serve an economic development purpose, Hutchins said.

“(The workforce investment board) is there to tell us what all monies there are that we can get and receive for economic development, and it also gives us an opportunity to find out what programs are out there where we can put kids to work in the summertime or whatever,” she said.

Hutchins had looked for grant funding to help put local youth to work picking up litter in the county earlier this year, but the effort ultimately fell through.

The Grass Roots Day was a legislative lobbying trip for rural counties, Hutchins said.

“They wanted all of the supervisors to attend, but the other supervisors had other engagements, so I was the only one to attend,” she said.

Supervisor Calvin Butler traveled to the tune of $5,620.66, and Supervisor David Carter’s road-time has resulted in a $4,155.69 bill during the October to June period.

The low spender of the elected officials was Supervisor Mike Lazarus, whose total of $713.33 did not include attending the National Association of Counties conference in Washington, D.C. All other supervisors and board attorney Scott Slover attended the NACO conference, which cost the county a total of $12,282.12.

During the NACO conference, the supervisors take an afternoon to lobby with the area’s congressional delegation for local needs. The Adams County group focused on getting federal funding that had previously been granted for Emergency Watershed Projects released.

Lazarus said he didn’t attend the NACO conference because he didn’t want to go and he felt the board was well represented. He said he is not sure the trip to the NACO conference is one that needs to be taken every year, but he felt like 2012 was a big year and the new supervisors did need to attend.

“I am for going to a lot of these things,” he said. “You just have to be careful how much you spend.”