The New Orleans conference was the NACO national conference, Grennell said.

“What is in D.C. is basically a legislative conference, but this year I had the opportunity to go to the national convention with it being so close to us in New Orleans.”

Grennell said he found a new way to alert Adams County to the availability of grants, while Butler said he was able to participate in a useful discussion of how counties maintain and sell county-owned hospitals. The county was in the process of selling Natchez Regional Medical Center at the time.

The only conference all five supervisors attended was the Mississippi Association of Supervisors mid-winter conference in Jackson. Board attorney Scott Slover and County Administrator Joe Murray also received reimbursement for attending the conference.

The conference began the afternoon of Jan. 6 and ended after a noon lunch Jan. 8. Breakfast was offered for two days.

The entire conference cost taxpayers $3,536.75. Each attendee claimed $123 in meals and $24.60 in tips on a $41 daily per diem.

All seven attendees also collected $147.35 in mileage for the trip.

Butler, Carter, Lazarus, Murray and Slover each paid $228 for two-night stays in the Jackson Hilton Hotel — where the conference was hosted — while Grennell and Hutchins paid $166 for two nights in the Drury Inn and Suites.

The mid-winter conference is the only travel Lazarus and Slover claimed.

Lazarus said he chooses to attend the mid-winter conference because it gives supervisors a chance to meet with state legislators.

“During that (conference) we go visit the Capitol, and we really go over the agenda of what is going to come up during that legislative session,” he said. “We get to talk to the representatives and tell them if we are for or against a certain piece of legislation.”

The MAS 85th annual convention in Biloxi — attended by Butler, Carter, Grennell, Hutchins and Murray — cost taxpayers $6,633.

During the conference, Grennell and Hutchins stayed four nights at the Imperial Palace Casino and Hotel with total bills of $476, while Butler, Carter and Murray stayed at the Beau Rivage Casino.

Butler and Murray’s hotel bills were $854, while Carter’s was $868.

All of the attendees claimed $205 in meals, $41 in tips and $261.52 in mileage.

Grennell also claimed $22.40 in other fees associated with the hotel.

Carter said attending both of the in-state MAS conferences has been helpful to him because it has helped him network and find solutions to specific issues.

“If I hadn’t contacted some of those guys from (oil-producing) counties, we wouldn’t have known how to go about getting the $200,000 to repair Carmel Church Road after it was damaged by oil work,” he said.

Hutchins and Grennell said that while they sometimes stay in different hotels than those the other supervisors stay in, the lodging they choose is part of the block of rooms associated with the conferences they attend.

“They give you a list, and I look at that list and try to choose the one that is least expensive,” Hutchins said.