Last month, Controller Steve Barron told Northampton County Council that stronger internal controls are needed over the amount of money spent on travel and related expenses. What bothered him were trips to New Orleans and Las Vegas by human resources staffers, as well as a staggering jump in training for human resources (HR).

Spending there increased from $5,749.35 in 2015 to $56,758.15 in 2016. HR Director Amy Trapp has also spent $800 on a popcorn machine and thousands of dollars for Target gift cards, which are then handed out to some employees.

Mat Benol dismissed Barron’s report as “one of those knee-jerk things that our controller has done to try to make the executive look bad. I’m just getting tired of it.” Amy Trapp explained the spending to council at its May 4 meeting. Though Barron never criticized the money spent on training by Corrections Director Dan Keen, Executive John Brown called him forth to say that training at the jail saves lives. Benol renewed his attacks on Barron, and now wants to defund an independent branch of government established by the Home Rule Charter. Instead of responding to the message, he attacked the messenger. He wants to defund the controller.

Benol has decided against seeking re-election to council and said that he was expendable.

Trapp justified the conferences in Las Vegas, which concerned a software system, because it was the only place where the training was done.

Her justification for the New Orleans trip for workers compensation was that it had been recommended by the third party administrator and saved the county money. She said the county spent $1.4 million on workers compensation claims in 2015, but only $595,000 in 2016. She implied that the county saved all this money on workers compensation because of that New Orleans trip.

But the New Orleans trip was at the end of 2016, between Nov. 29 and Dec. 2. That trip could have only affected workers compensation matters after Dec. 2.

Trapp also claimed the money spent on training reduced turnover by about 5 per cent. Turnover may have been reduced in 2016 over 2015, but no evidence linked reduced turnover with the increased training. Moreover, she herself indicated that the county’s turnover rate last year was 15 percent and that the average in the public sector is 10-12 percent.

It’s unclear whether anyone aside from Benol or Seth Vaughn was persuaded by her explanations.

Matt Dietz asked her whether she shopped around for the best hotel rates. Trapp attempted to justify paying more at the Mirage Hotel. Dietz said his job requires him to travel and his company shops for the best rates. He noted that there are workers comp classes in Pennsylvania.

Bob Werner pointed out that Trapp is in charge of the policies for travel and meals. She admitted she scheduled the trip. He pointed that the policy requires government employees who travel to get discounted and low rates. Then Trapp said someone else scheduled the trip.

“This was absolutely in your area of expertise,” Werner told her. “I don’t think this was done as well as it could have been done.”

He also noted that Trapp is using savings in 2016 to justify a trip at the end of 2016.

“There are questions here that should have been reviewed before the trip,” he said.

Seth Vaughn then said he was encouraged by Trapp for “seizing these opportunities” and said Las Vegas is actually a cheaper venue than most other convention sites. .

“This is nothing more than a political hit piece,” Benol said, “and I’m going to address the gorilla in the room.” He called Barron’s report “false news.”

After Trapp was done, Brown then decided to call Corrections Director Dan Keen to justify his training expenditures, even though Barron had no complaints about the amount of money that department spent on training. Keen, who was away from his job at least 39 times over the past two years, spoke about the importance of training, though what he did has nothing to do with New Orleans or Las Vegas.

“God forbid, look what happened in Delaware,” he said, without explaining what he meant.

Then he started talking about active shooters in prison lobbies. He failed to state whether that justified trips to Las Vegas and New Orleans.

After they were done, Benol said he wants to do something to Barron because he has a history of violating the Home Rule Charter and Administrative Code. Then he slammed Barron for getting $22,100 from DA John Morganelli when Morganelli ran for Attorney General. He noted that Barron failed to report this on his ethics report.

“He’s nothing more than a corrupt officer,” Benol said. “The optics of this stinks.”

He went on to say that Barron’s salary should be defunded.

Benol seemed to think that money was going into Barron’s pocket. Barron explained after the meeting that he purchased time on an autodialer he owns when John Morganelli was running for office. Barron himself made no money.

The whole point of bringing this situation to council now, instead of September, was to keep it from becoming political. But it will be political now. I think voters may have a different view of Barron’s memo than the one offered by Benol.