Feds teach Bill Minor colors during MDOTourism travel

So what have we learned about MDOTourism this year? Read this story from the Sun Herald and you'll see that Bill Minor learns his colors at conference, Butch Brown thinks open government is bullshit, and Wayne Brown is planning a tax payer funded trip to Cuba.

Even as many other government agencies and businesses are cutting back on travel in the weak economy, records show Mississippi’s top four transportation officials are spending more to go to conferences and other shindigs.

Mississippi Department of Transportation Director Larry L. “Butch” Brown, Southern District Transportation Commissioner Wayne Brown (no relation), Central Commissioner Dick Hall and Northern Commissioner Bill Minor spent a combined $56,045 on travel in 2009.

The Sun Herald recently searched travel records for Sept. 30, 2008, through March 12, 2010. The documents show trips to places including Boston; Vail, Colo.; New Orleans; Destin, Fla.; Hot Springs, Ark.; Pigeon Forge, Tenn.; and many Washington, D.C., trips. The records also show receipts from expensive hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton, Hyatt Regency and the Washington Court Hotel. They stayed a combined 52 nights in hotel rooms costing more than $200 a night in the last 18 months.

Wayne Brown, who laments the lack of cheap rooms in the Beltway, booked the most expensive stay, according to the 2009 records. He paid $385 for one night at the Ritz-Carlton in Arlington, Va., for a conference. He said some events have to be held at hotels that can accommodate large conventions.

If only there was hotel near the Ritz-Carlton that was cheaper. Maybe like the Doubletree, the Crowne Plaza, the Holiday Inn, the Best Western, or the Days Inn. All of which are less than two miles away from the Ritz-Carlton (some just a few blocks) and all of which can be booked for under a hundred dollars a night (according to hotels.com).

“The taxpayers are spending almost $1 billion a year on roads in Mississippi and they need people leading that charge that are knowledgeable and involved,” Wayne Brown said.

By that logic, there is no need to elect an incumbent. The whole reason to reelect someone is because they have experience. But what Wayne Brown is saying is whether you've been there for years or just got there, you still have to go to these conferences. Apparently, incumbents like Brown don't retain much information as they have to go every year.

According to Bill Minor, these conferences teach the commissioners their colors, which might qualify any kindergartner to be a commissioner.

“We know reds mean stop, green means go,” Minor said. “We are talking about … ‘Go Orange’ to make people slow down. Orange means slow down in these places where we are working on the roads because there could be a big bulldozer pull out in front of you, or somebody could walk out in front of you and be killed. These are things we’ve learned when we go because the feds are there teaching us.”

And if it is anything the feds are good at, its teaching.

According to the state Department of Finance and Administration, of the combined $56,045 the four spent on travel in 2009, MDOT Director Butch Brown spent $20,921. Wayne Brown spent $19,225. Minor spent $12,552 and Hall, who lives closest to Jackson, where Transportation Commission meetings are held twice a month, spent considerably less than the others, at $3,347.

MDOT’s annual budget includes $3 million for travel.

Butch Brown said he believes, given MDOT’s size and responsibilities, the expenses are reasonable. He’s been critical of the Sun Herald for reporting his agency’s travel spending.

“We still have to wade through the murky bullshit of the Biloxi Sun Herald doing articles just like this, while we’re out there busting our ass to make something good happen for you,” Brown said.

“I am never told who went,” Hall said. “I never see those expenses. That is all made by the executive director. Yes, I think too many people go to some meetings, but that’s about all I can say about it. I don’t control it.”

So I guess when Wayne Brown wants to take his next foreign trip, all he has to do is get it cleared with Butch Brown.

“I think we need to do considerably more overseas travel,” Wayne Brown said. He said he’d like to visit Cuba because that country would be advantageous as a hub for massive container ships, which could be downloaded and their cargo placed on smaller ships bound for Mobile, New Orleans, Gulfport and other Gulf Coast cities. He said work could be finished faster in Cuba because of less-stringent environmental regulations. “I think Cuba holds a great key to our ports,” Wayne Brown said. “With this Panama Canal widening and those ships coming in there, you have to download those somewhere. The most favorable place to download them is Cuba, for Mississippi, because if they go on out further, then they will transship them to Savannah and places like that.”