Some Taxpayer Dollars Being Spent On Nice Restaurants, Hotels

Some Columbus suburbs are using their city-issued credit cards on nice restaurants and out-of-town hotels at taxpayer expense.

In Westerville, City Manager Dave Collinsworth has a credit card that allows him to ring up the tab while someone else pays the bill.  No alcohol was found on his receipts, but plenty of dining was found.

Since 2009, 10 Investigates found Collinsworth spent money at The Old Bag of Nails Pub and Cardone’s restaurant in Westerville, along with Columbus restaurants Deepwood and Marcella’s.  His most frequent dining spot was at Bel Lago, a café that overlooks Hoover Reservoir.

10 Investigates found restaurant receipts for as much as $363.  Other purchases were for $260, $213, $88 and $77.   Among the menu items were Pacific rim calamari, crab cakes and macaroni and cheese made with lobster.

“I think wining and dining on the taxpayer dollar is excessive,” said Ron Lykins, a certified public accountant and Westerville taxpayer.  “I don’t think taxpayers should pay for meals because we all have to eat.”

Collinsworth told Aker that his meals were strictly for business.

“From my standpoint, I don’t see anything that seems abnormal or excessive,” Collinsworth said.  “We may be hiring a management-level position or department head position.  We want to have the opportunity for some of our key decision-makers, some of our elected officials, maybe other community members.”

In Dublin, city council members also billed taxpayers for meals.  Most of the meals fell in the $20-30 range.  Several other cities said that they don’t buy meals at all.

Westerville leaders also like to travel frequently, Aker reported.  While city leaders in some other towns also travel, nobody comes close to traveling like some Westerville city officials.

10 Investigates found Collinsworth and some city council members traveling all over the U.S., ringing up pricey tabs for stops in Maryland, Indianapolis, Detroit, Salt Lake City, Washington D.C., Phoenix and in Nashville.

Westerville Councilwoman Diane Fosselman said that her $1,300 trip to the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center and $1,600 trip to Phoenix were strictly for business.

Fosselman volunteers a few hours of her time every other Wednesday with Westerville firefighters to teach parents the proper way to strap their children in safety seats.  She said that she took the trip so she could keep her certification for the program; she has to receive six hours of continuing education training every two years.

“We can accomplish all six hours (of training) versus having an in-house training or going to a local one where we can get two or three (hours) where we have to do several,” Fosselman said.

10 Investigates checked and found an annual Ohio statewide conference.  According to organizers, all six hours of training can be conducted there without hotel or airfare prices.

“I would hope that your investigation would bring this sort of thing to a stop,” Lykins said.

A Westerville city spokeswoman stressed that all the travel mentioned in the report was for individual city leaders and was justified because it was for professional training.  She added that none of the council members who took trips took more than one a year.

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