After submitting a series of policy-related requests for addition to the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners’ Oct. 1 meeting agenda, Commissioner Brian Berger during an agenda review session Thursday said he wished to withdraw them.
As amended, the meeting’s agenda will no longer include three Berger requests that generally dealt with accountability and reorganizations within New Hanover County government.
In one item, Berger requested a discussion on travel and credit card expenses.
“Detailed information on staff travel and expenses in recent years, credit card and reimbursement statements, and expense records along with travel records shall be included and it is the duty and a fact that the (staff) explain potential misconduct in fulfilling information requests, and other forms of misconduct best discussed in Closed Session,” Berger’s request stated.
Although he withdrew it on Thursday, the item followed a contentious email Berger sent Sept. 25 to County Manager Chris Coudriet (related story) on the topic of travel-related debts Berger owes the county. According to finance records, Berger owes a balance of $447.16 following conferences he was registered to attend but missed some or all of. (The original balance of $547.09 was reduced after Berger submitted reimbursement requests for county-business-related supplies and cab fare.)
Berger, in his email to Coudriet, wanted the county to provide proof that he indeed owed the money. Contingent upon that proof, Berger said he would bring his checkbook to the Oct. 1 meeting to settle the balance. But he also wanted to the county to produce monthly expense histories for each of his fellow county commissioners as well as county staffers for the “past several years.”
He called it an issue of governmental transparency.
It was unclear on Thursday, since he withdrew the related agenda item, whether he still expected the county to produce those specific materials at the next meeting, but he did say he felt such policy discussions would be better brought before a full board.
Currently, the five-seat county commission has only four members; the board is down one man since Republican Ted Davis resigned this month to fill a vacancy in the N.C. House. (Related story)
The New Hanover County Republican Party is expected to recommend a candidate to restore the county commission to five members in the coming days, meaning a full board could be in effect for Berger’s topics in time for the commission’s Oct. 15 meeting.
