(Tip of the hat to Conservative for Change blog for alerting me to this story.)
Last week, our Social Security Administration speant $700,000 of our tax money having a conference in sunny Phoenix, 1st class hotel (Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa), dance, motivational speakers, food, the whole 9 yards. The story can be found at:
http://www.abc15.com/content/news/investigators/story/Social-Security-spends-700-000-on-Phoenix/RrHYWi4IRka1mC7wJTm4uQ.cspx
As a retired DEA agent, I know full well that government agencies have regular conferences for their supervisors and administrators. Some are enforcement-oriented and serve a useful purpose. Some are boondoggles. I always noted it to be curious how conferences were never scheduled for places like say, Newark or Cleveland. No Sir! They were held in places like Florida, Las Vegas or other pleasant locales. Suffice to say that in these times, government has to use discretion in these sorts of things. I'm not saying conferences should not be held, but there should be a clear benefit and an attempt to limit the expense.
Soon, I will be writing about a government conference that I was assigned to organize in DEA's Office of Training that cost the tax-payers about $250,000-and yes, it was a giant waste. (But I was only following orders.)
Why go to the boring cities when you can have your conference in a wonderful place. I personally wouldn't have chosen Phoenix. I would have chosen Vegas, LA, or the best one: Hawaii.
ReplyDeleteIt is a state, has old people, and warm sunny beaches.