DALTON, Ga. — The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners slashed the cost of the commissioners’ annual trip to the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) meeting in Savannah by more than half this year compared to 2017.

Board Chairman Lynn Laughter still has to turn in her expenses, but the cost to taxpayers for this year’s trip so far is $8,195, according to data provided by the county. That includes $3,785 for the conference itself. The rest was for hotel rooms, parking and other expenses for the five commissioners as well as County Attorney Robert Smalley, who was a presenter at one of the training sessions.

“But they won’t be too much,” Laughter said of her expenses.

The total cost to taxpayers when the commissioners, their spouses and seven other county officials traveled to Savannah last year for the conference was $18,594, according to receipts and other documents provided by the county.

“We (the commissioners) all took classes,” said Commissioner Barry Robbins of this year’s trip. “Those classes are beneficial. That’s the reason I went down.” Robbins took a class on county government law.

Commissioner Roger Crossen, who took classes on civic engagement and strategic planning, said he also found it beneficial to talk to other county commissioners from around the state.

“It’s good to find out what problems they are dealing with and what they are doing to fix them. It might help us,” he said. “But you also learn that we are in pretty good shape compared to a lot of other counties.”

One big difference was that this year only the commissioners and Smalley traveled to the conference. Last year, commissioners and their spouses, Smalley, County Administrator Mark Gibson, Human Resources Director Jackie Carlo, Recreation Director Brian Chastain, Public Works Director Dewayne Hunt, Fire Chief Edward O’Brien and Finance Director Alicia Vaughn traveled to Savannah for the conference. The county spent $7,200 last year just for hotel rooms for staff.

Also last year, commissioners paid $377 for snacks — which included a dozen and a half brownies, a dozen and a half pastries and a pound of nuts — for a strategy meeting and work session they held during the conference. They paid $210 for three gallons of coffee and $451.36 for use of the conference room for two days but ended up canceling one scheduled work session because of concerns over whether it had been properly advertised. They paid $115 for use of a projector and screen.

This year, they held their strategy session on a Saturday after returning from the conference at the community center at Edwards Park, a county facility they used at no charge. They spent $103.51 for chicken biscuits, sausage biscuits, sweet tea and lemonade from Chick-fil-A, and another $151.95 for drinks and snacks for themselves and department heads.

“We held our strategy session in Savannah because we always had some downtime and wanted to be productive,” said Commissioner Greg Jones. “But it’s a lot less expensive to have it here.”

“We made a deliberate decision to hold our work session here in Whitfield County and to focus just on our classes at the ACCG meeting to save taxpayers money,” said Robbins.

Commissioners said they also held the work session in Whitfield County to allow members of the public to attend.

“We took a lot of grief last year for holding the work session out of the county,” said Laughter. “And I was disappointed at the turnout we had this year. Former chairman Mike Babb came. Jevin Jensen was there. (A Daily Citizen-News reporter) and a photographer were there and that was it.”

Commissioners said they believe they will continue to hold their annual strategy sessions in Whitfield County, which means they won’t need to take staff with them to the meeting in Savannah.