Amid Budget Deficit, City Administrator More Than Doubled Spending on Luxury Hotels and Travel for City Staff

by P.D. Lesko

The State of Michigan does not have any laws requiring employers to cover employees’ travel expenses. Some states (such as California) have laws requiring employers to cover travel expenses for employees via reimbursement or a per diem, Michigan does not. Because Michigan does not have any laws requiring employers to cover employees’ travel expenses, it is between the employer and employee to contract for these terms. Ann Arbor reimburses its employees for travel, conferences and training. Public records show that since 2015, taxpayers have spent over $3.5 million on travel and conferences for around 200 city staffers ($977,209.11 charged to P-cards by the staffers and $2,572,018.73 in reimbursements paid directly to city staffers).

Milton Dohoney, Jr. (left) was hired in August 2021. Between August 2021 and August 2022, city staffers used their P-Cards and charged $175,752.67 on meals out, rental cars, Ubers, Lyfts, airplane travel, luxury hotels and stays at large resorts, including casinos. City staffers were also reimbursed for another $439,629.48 for conferences, training and travel for a total of $615,382.15. This amount represents a more than 230 percent single-year increase over 2020-2021 spending. Former City Administrator Tom Crawford was hired in Sept. of 2020 and resigned at the beginning of August 2021. Public records show that during that time, city staffers used their P-Cards to spend $64,634.73 on conferences, training and travel. City records reveal that with Crawford at the helm, staffers were also reimbursed for another $198,958.28 for conferences, training a travel, a total of $263,593.01.

The City of Ann Arbor currently employs approximately 840 full-time regular employees and 1,400 part-time and temporary employees. In 2020, taxpayers forked over $64 million in salaries to the city’s 2,240 employees, according to public records. That amount included $3 million in overtime pay. Of that $3 million, however, almost 60 percent of the overtime money, $1.76 million, went to just 120 of the city’s employees. Likewise, the bulk of the $616,542.16 in money for conferences, training and travel under City Administrator Dohoney was spent on fewer than 10 percent of the City’s employees, with upper-level managers taking advantage of multiple opportunities.

For example, between Nov. 2021 and June 2022, new City Administrator Milton Dohoney, Jr. was reimbursed a total of $6,689.95 for six trips/events (11/21, 1/22, 3/1/22, 3/30/22, 4/22 and 6/22).

This spending on conferences, training and travel since Dohoney was hired has outpaced annual spending on conferences and travel going back to 2010 with the exception of one year. Under former City Administrator Howard Lazarus in 2018-2019, city staff spent $207,696.92 on conferences and travel via P-Cards and were reimbursed for another $431,568.34. Should Dohoney’s spending on conferences and travel for staff continue to rise at its current pace, fiscal year 2023 spending on travel, lodging, meals, conferences and training for a handful of the city’s 2,240 full-time and part-time city staff could cost taxpayers over $1 million.

To put the spending into perspective, the City of Charlotte, NC has an annual budget of $1.3 billion and 7,500 employees. In 2021, Charlotte reimbursed its employees $933,255 for travel-related expenses as compared to the $616,542.16 spent by Dohoney’s 200 or so staffers between August 2021 an August 2022.

In April 2022, then Interim City Administrator Milton Dohoney, Jr. and his staff presented City Council with budget projections in which Dohoney forecast a $2.8 million General Fund deficit for 2022-23 on top of the deficit for 2021-22. Council voted to dip into the City’s approximately $110 million in unassigned fund balances (savings) in order to adhere to the Charter requirement of a balanced budget. Despite eliminating five police officer positions, and one fire inspector position, cuts to capital improvements, and increased fees for residents to use city facilities, no cuts were made to funding for staff travel.

Conversely, the City of Berkeley, CA employs 1,638.8 FT staffers. In 2021, the City of Berkeley, CA (like Ann Arbor) faced a deficit in its $532 million annual budget. That year, the Berkeley City Manager cut $500,000 from the travel and conference budget allotted city staff. In that city’s budget book, the exact amounts allocated for travel, training and conferences for upper-level managers are included as line items. No individual employee is allotted more than 3 percent of the employee’s gross salary for conferences, training and travel. In Berkeley’s 2022 budget, the City Manager left unfunded the budget for “conferences, and training and education for staff.” Berkeley’s 2022 budget document explains that, “technology is fast changing.”

Under Dohoney, city staff have spent taxpayer funds on stays at the Hilton, Amway Grand Plaza, Crowne Plaza, the Grand Hotel, Grand Traverse Resort, the Hyatt (Boulder, Chicago, Grand Rapids and Columbus OH), Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, Crystal Mountain Resort, and Doubletree hotels, among other four- and five-star hotels and resorts.

The City’s Office of Sustainability and Innovation (OSI) was created in July 2018 with one employee and a $75,000 budget. In 2022, under Dohoney, that office’s budget is $3.48 million with 11.5 FTEs, including “Sustainability Analysts.” That department analyzes sustainability and pitches “plant-based eating” to city residents in order to further carbon neutrality and sustainability goals. Yet, during 2021-2022 public records show OSI staffers indulged in both car and plane travel, leaving a large carbon footprint in their wake.

In November 2019 Ann Arbor City Council voted to pass a Climate Emergency resolution. When the resolution passed, Mayor Chris Taylor told the public, “This is an opportunity for the city to begin to address a topic of planetary concern in our own small way.”

Three months before sponsoring his Climate Emergency resolution in November 2019, Taylor, his wife and a several other people from Ann Arbor jetted off to Japan on a trip to Ann Arbor’s sister city Hikone. Taylor’s trip to Japan generated 5.2 tons of carbon dioxide per roundtrip traveller, or a little over 30 tons total.

In 2020, the Mayor, Council members and half a dozen city staff planned a junket to Germany to learn about sustainability. The trip included Council member Elizabeth Nelson (D-Ward 4), and former Council members Chip Smith, and Zachary Ackerman. City staff included Sustainability Office head Dr. Missy Stults and Planning Department head Brett Lenart, among others, including the option to bring “plus ones.” The trip to Germany, subsequently canceled, would have generated 2 tons of carbon dioxide per roundtrip traveller.

The Mayor has said he wants to put a “sustainability millage” on the ballot in 2023. At the same time, city records show that taxpayers continue to foot the bill for dozens of plane trips, car trips, Uber and Lyft rides, not to mention airport parking for city staffers to travel near (Chicago) and far (Tucson).