Does anyone know why some of our county officials are in Las Vegas?  Is this on our tax dollars?  How many officials are there and why?
Anonymous 9/23/08

Sure enough, the email box lit up straight away. Everybody wanting to know who was on a tax payer funded trip to Las Vegas. Usually I wouldn't even have posted the blog without knowing the background of the accusation. But anymore I've gotten to the point that I trust the bloggers to know what they are talking about.

But surely to goodness given the recent tax increases and all the discussions about local government being so tight on money, no county officials would spend thousands of dollars on such a trip. Well, apparently I was wrong.

According to county officials, General Sessions Court Clerk, Lisa Niles and her chief deputy are in fact in Las Vegas, scheduled to return Tuesday or Wednesday. Supposedly, there was some kind of seminar for court clerks that they felt it was necessary to attend. You may recall, Ms. Niles sued the county a couple of years ago to force the commission to give her additional funding for her office.

Maybe it was a meeting they wanted or needed to attend but it's hard to imagine given all the local financial circumstances that this was a good time to spend thousand of tax dollars for a junket to Las Vegas.