“Anderson County Administrator JoeyPreston took business associates out for 142 meals in the first 10months of 2007, according to documents obtained by the AndersonJournal through the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act.
Statements and backup documentation forPreston’s county credit card account showed from January throughOctober, the top appointed official for Anderson’s County’sgovernment spent more than $21,000 on travel, lodging and meals,almost $15,000 of which Preston said was reimbursed to the county bythird parties.
The documents did not say whoreimbursed the county and backup documentation sought by the Journalwas not provided.
Missing from the record were recordsfor the final two months of 2007. The Journal asked to review therecords for the year almost two months ago.
The Journal found that Preston’smeals ranged from $6.75 at Atlanta Bread Company to $834 at Jax NewOrleans Bistro. All but 29 of the meals took place in Anderson.
None of the receipts for the meals wereitemized, and expense reports do not reflect how many people werepresent or who they were. “Business meal” was the reason provided95 times (for a total of $8,475), followed by 22 “Balloon Fest”meals (totaling $1,458).
The remaining 25 meals included”Chamber of Commerce” and various official meetings in Anderson,Philadelphia, Hilton Head and Columbia. Preston spent $14,402 onmeals in the first 10 months of 2007.
Preston has come under fire from fiscalconservatives in the county, largely led by County Councilwoman CindyWilson, who has said too much money is spent on non-essentials.
“The poor man looks like he rarelyeats a meal at home,” Wilson said.
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Preston’s expenses In the first 10 months of 2007, CountyAdministrator Joey Preston charged $21,716 to his county-issue creditcard. MEALS – $14,402 for 142 meals
TRAVEL – $3,117.36
HOTELS – $3,453
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When asked why the records revealed solittle about why or who was eating, Preston said he regularly hasmeetings with economic development prospects whose business with thecounty is confidential.
“I don’t write on that receipt thatI have a meeting with all those people,” Preston said. “I don’twant people to know our business. Just about everything that I touchand (economic development director Heather Jones) touches isconfidential.”
Asked why one meal was actually marked”economic development” on his expense report, Preston said hedoes not always have time to tell his secretary, who prepares hisexpense reports.
“We deal with very sensitive things,and we have meetings with people where I choose not to write down thereasons,” Preston said.
Under the county’s personnel policy,employees who are traveling can spend no more than $28 a day on meals- but the ordinance is silent on in-town expenses, includingbusiness meetings. The policy states only that expense reports haveto be approved by a department or division head.
The administrator answers to the CountyCouncil as a whole, none of whom approved or disapproved of theadministrator’s credit-card expenditures until Wilson asked toreview all the county’s credit card records last September. Shereceived a packet of photocopies in answer to her request on Nov. 20.That packet contained fewer than a third of the statements she’drequested and none of the backup documentation.
She referred to one of the statementsin the initial packet, a card used by the county’s transportationdepartment, as an apparent “cut-and-paste job” because identicalexpenditures, in somewhat shuffled order, appear on two separatestatements.
When Wilson sent a letter to severalmembers of the media complaining about the administrator’sincomplete response, all filed Freedom of Information requests forthe records. The county responded to the Journal in a Jan. 17 lettersaying the newspaper could look at all the records under certainconditions after making an appointment.
“There’s got to be clarity andsunshine and accountability here,” Wilson said. “Here I’m anelected official with a fiduciary responsibility and making therequest for months and I don’t get it until after the media ask forit.”
Preston said he could point to severalexamples of special events and public infrastructure investmentswhere his discrete involvement and negotiations with the businesscommunity made things happen at minimal taxpayer expense, includingthe Great Southeast Balloon Fest, the state agriculture summit, thenational Sons of Confederate Veterans conference, relocation of thecounty Farmers Market and economic development office and thedowntown Kroger redevelopment.
“I like to think I’m anoutside-the-box kind of person,” Preston said. “I try to dothings outside the tradition of county government.”
Getting $14,366 of his business mealspaid for outside of county government, he said, was an example.
“Every dime we can get donated to thecounty for an event is one less dime we would have to raise throughtaxes,” Preston said.
He likened the county to a non-profitorganization, though donations to the county are not tax-deductibleunder IRS rules. He said his business meals were generally tied toevents sponsored by people in the community.
“Yours truly has to go into thecommunity and raise money to offset expenses,” he said.
Preston said spending for travel andmeals is under budget and money spent on meals for economicdevelopment prospects, in the long run, is a sound investment. Hesaid he prefers not to reveal who his business associates are, and hetold the Journal he does not request itemized receipts for his mealsor list who he is eating with because there is no county policy thathe do so.
Preston said the county does a lot ofbusiness with Sullivan’s Metropolitan Grill, where 48 meals (for atotal of $6,453) were purchased with his credit card, because hewants to support local businesses.
“They never give me an itemizedreceipt,” Preston said. “We pay and leave.”
Prominent First Amendment attorney JayBender, whose client for two-and-a-half years – Wilson – has suedPreston for access to certain county financial records, said theadministrator has no right to conceal who he was eating meals withunless those meals involve economic development.
He said the administrator appears to beapplying a state exception to revealing public records – theeconomic development exception – too broadly in this case,especially since Preston specified economic development as thepurpose for one of the meals in the first 10 months of 2007.
“It can’t be just because you likea businessman you take him to lunch,” Bender said.
Bender said Preston’s inconsistencyin documenting economic development one time in his expense reportsand then and never again indicates those other business meals mighthave had nothing to do with economic development.
“I would suggest it’s somethingelse and there’s an effort to disguise the expenditures,” Bendersaid.
State Ethics Commission ExecutiveDirector Herb Hayden said the confidentiality exception for economicdevelopment in disclosures of public spending is not meant to be a”catch all for any and all expenditures that you just don’t wantto make available,” adding that more than 140 meals in 10 months”is a lot over that time frame, to say every bit of it is economicdevelopment.”
When asked whether those who arereimbursing the county for thousands of dollars in meals are exertinginfluence on policy or county contracts, Preston said they were not.
“It’s for particular events,”Preston said. “It’s not lobbying.”
Contact Anna B. Mitchell at 356-8183 oramitchell@andersonjournal.com.
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