Less than a year after canceling a trip to a National
Association of Counties conference because of questions over its
cost, Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz has questioned the county’s
membership with the same group.
Less than a year after canceling a trip to a National Association of Counties conference because of questions over its cost, Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz has questioned the county’s membership with the same group.
During Tuesday’s board meeting, De La Cruz proclaimed that the board should review its membership and cancel it. Because the issue wasn’t on the board’s agenda, he asked for the item to be put on a future one.
NACo is a Washington D.C.-based national organization that focuses on county governments, according to its website. The organization holds annual conferences that gather the nation’s counties together to discuss legislation and other beneficial policies.
The county pays $950 yearly to participate in the NACo, not including the travel costs associated with each meeting, County Administrative Officer Rich Inman said. The county has already paid its membership fee, so its membership wouldn’t be canceled until next-year’s budgets are reviewed.
“So it’s not something we will discuss for this fiscal year,” Inman said.
It will be discussed during next year’s budget hearings and deliberations, he said.
De La Cruz clarified afterward that he believed it was important to discuss all expenditures because of today’s tightened budget, he said.
“With today’s budget situation we have to look at everything,” he said.
De La Cruz admitted that the county would lose the benefit of going to the conferences and learning new things, but the county’s employee needs far outweigh the benefits, he said. Conferences are good opportunities to learn about neighboring counties, meet other officials and discover ways to help the county, he said.
“It’s not about losing – it’s about cutting from our budget without eliminating employees,” he said. “Things like these are not as important as employees.”
In March of last year, De La Cruz proposed a $1,700 trip to Reno for NACo’s July convention. During the meeting, other supervisors questioned the amount and asked De La Cruz to decrease it.
A week later De La Cruz canceled the trip because he couldn’t reduce the cost.
De La Cruz canceled a similar trip to Nashville in 2009 because of the same reason.
