From travel just up the road to all the way across the pond, the bill for Baltimore city officials’ out-of-town trips is quickly adding up.
Last week, high-priced travel expenses came under fire when a trip to England was approved for one of City Council President Nick Mosby’s top aides. However, that's far from the only far-away conference costing taxpayers.
Among the most expensive trips, nearly $62,000 was spent on a police training course in Boston and $33,000 on a Parks and Recreation convention in Arizona.
Taxpayer Protection Alliance President David Williams is questioning if either was fiscally responsible.
"The problem is that this is a waste of money, but it's also a sign of bad decision making," he said, "You don't need to spend, you know, tens of thousands of dollars for training. You don't need to send, you know, 10 or 15 people to a conference when 1 or 2 people will suffice or you can do it via zoom or Skype."
Another major cost to taxpayers, city council members attending an annual conference in Las Vegas for $18,000 and one in Ocean City for $21,000. Nick Mosby’s Ocean City trip alone, totaled $3,000, more than double what everyone else paid.
"That really shows just the kind of person that he is. He's the kind of person that, you know, wants to spend money and ask questions later," said Williams.
And that’s not all, Mosby’s Chief of Staff, Lawrence Anderson also took a $10,000 trip to England for an executive certification program.
FOX45 News pressed Mosby last week, asking if traveling overseas was really an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars, "He was one out of 40 government officials throughout the world selected for an extremely competitive program. When I took over as president of the council, I really pushed to professionalize the council in a way that we haven’t done in the past," he responded.
"It just seems like he's taken advantage of Baltimore city taxpayers to either send himself or his staff on trips that people would love to get hold on," argues Williams.
Questions also remain over why the England expense wasn’t brought to the Board of Estimates before the trip was taken, which is a requirement of the city’s travel policy.
"I’m not sure the administrative issues as to why it was delayed just a week," Mosby said previously.
In a statement sent to FOX45 NEWS, Mayor Brandon Scott said: "There may have been some delays in Workday pre-authorization due to the City of Baltimore’s transition to a new payment system.”
Regardless, Williams stresses with $144,000 already spent on travel this year alone, "At some point, they have to say no. The Board of Estimates has to say no and not just one time, but multiple times because the city can't keep on spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on travel that just isn't needed," he said.
The board also approved about $2,000 for a retired city employee to take a trip this year. Those funds were eventually withdrawn. However, it’s still unclear why the trip was approved in the first place.