“If you don’t go, you don’t grow.”
Speaking to The Dispatch on Friday that’s how Ward 2 Councilman and Vice Mayor Joseph Mickens summed up the need for he and other city leaders to attend conferences and other networking events.
Ward 5 Councilman Stephen Jones agreed.
“If you’re not going anywhere, you don’t know what’s out there,” Jones said. “You’re going to stay Mayberry. When we travel we meet the people who make the decisions, and the more they know you the more they know your city.”
Between Oct. 1, 2022, and Aug. 10 of this year, Mickens ($4,288) and Jones ($3,775) accounted for the second and third largest travel spending bills, respectively, among city employees, according to information the city provided in response to a public records request from The Dispatch.
Ward 4 City Councilman Pierre Beard was the top travel spender, with a total of about $5,373, while Mayor Keith Gaskin ($3,637) and Interim City Planner George Irby ($3,028) rounded out the top five for that period.
Those costs include things like registration, hotel, gas and meals.
The bulk of that was made up of two Mississippi Municipal League conferences — one in Jackson at a cost of about $7,831 and one in Biloxi at $10,504. Mickens, Beard and Jones also went to the National League of Cities conferences in Kansas City at a cost of around $4,899, and Mickens and Beard went to Nashville to tour a tiny houses village site at a cost of around $854.
The city later donated about 2 acres on Airline Road for the Golden Triangle Homeless Coalition to build its own tiny houses village.
Beard and Irby also went to the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Conference in Point Clear, Alabama, at a total cost of about $1,772.
By the numbers
The city has spent $152,577 on travel across all departments so far in Fiscal Year 2023, which ends Sept. 30, according to Chief Financial Officer James Brigham. He said the majority of those expenses came from training costs for police officers and firefighters.
On a department by department basis, Columbus Police Department led the pack, with about $58,797 in travel expenses, followed by Columbus Fire and Rescue with about $37,944 and Administration — which includes the mayor, the city council and employees at City Hall — spending about $36,478.
However, only CPD was over its travel budget, according to Chief Financial Officer James Brigham.
“They had to send a lot of people to (the police academy), so they went over,” Brigham said. “But they were under budget in other areas, so they were OK overall.”
Administration spending was dominated by the mayor and council. In addition to Gaskin, Mickens, Beard and Jones, Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Stewart spent about $748; Ward 3 Councilman Rusty Greene spent about $1,424; and Ward 6 Councilwoman Jacqueline DiCicco spent about $1,419.
Networking is ‘good investment’ for city
Mickens told The Dispatch he thinks a lot of what the city accomplishes with travel is off the public’s radar.
“Some folks look at (travel) as negative, but I don’t see it that way,” Mickens said. “… Elected officials bring information back, and it just gets shared with other officials. (They don’t) let the community know why you went on that trip.”
All of the officials reached by The Dispatch said travel was immensely valuable because of the networking opportunities.
“If one word sums it up, it’s networking,” Mickens said. “You get to meet your congressman and senators. You get to meet the people who can help with projects that are going on in the city.”
Face-to-face meetings are increasingly important, Gaskin said.
“It kind of makes a face for the city,” he said. “In today’s political world, when you’re trying to do things for the city, the better relationships you have with people in leadership positions, the better you are able to position your city to get assistance.”
“It just makes sense,” Irby told The Dispatch. “People will help you more if you’re more than just a phone number. I won’t say it won’t happen, but it makes your chances a whole lot better if you get to know people.”
Beard said, in addition to training about how city government works, he plans to pursue recreation grants he learned about by attending conferences.
“I’ve learned about (Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks) grants that give something like $150,000 for building healthy walking trails in the parks,” Beard said. “I’ve talked to (City Engineer Kevin Stafford) about that, so we can apply and cut some costs at Propst Park.”
The city approved a roughly $4.4 million park improvement plan earlier this year, with the bulk of that money going toward Propst Park, which is in Ward 4.
Jones said he had specifically picked up some ideas at the National League of Cities he wanted to bring back home.
“I want to see us work on getting parking meters (downtown),” Jones said. “I’d also like to see us get (electronic) kiosks where people can pay their tickets and fines.”
Travel expenses bring good returns for the city, Mickens said.
“If it costs $1,500 or $2,000 to send someone to an event, and they can come back with a potential $1 million, I think that’s a good investment,” Mickens said. “I don’t see nothing bad from it. I really don’t.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 30 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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