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Alcohol boards review travel
January 22, 2010

All 163 ABC boards across North Carolina must create or update their travel policies by March 1. The new directive from the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission says the travel policies must follow limits set by the state or local government body that appoints members to the local ABC board.

A survey of the state boards found that a third do not currently have any travel policies. The Mecklenburg County ABC board does, and it requires, among other things, that any business trips must be approved by either the board or CEO Calvin McDougal and that air travel should be booked at no more than the coach rate.

It was not immediately clear whether the local board would need to update its policy to make it more in line with that of Mecklenburg County. County commissioners appoint members to the ABC board.

This week, acting Mecklenburg ABC Chair Elton Shoemaker said staff members have been asked to review the local system's expense policy to ensure it is in compliance with the county's. Shoemaker said Thursday that review will include travel.

"With significant local government and state budget shortfalls, it becomes even more important to ensure public dollars in the ABC system are carefully managed to benefit the community as a whole," state commission Chairman Jon Williams said in a news release. Recently, the New Hanover County ABC Board has come under fire for its spending, including $5,600 reimbursed to its outgoing administrator and a top deputy, who is also his son, to attend a liquor conference in Phoenix last May. Williams criticized the trip at a recent meeting of the state ABC commission.

Commission spokesman Agnes Stevens said the New Hanover travel expenses reinforced the need to have the local boards update or set their travel policies, but the matter was already under discussion. Gov. Bev Perdue and the state ABC Commission have announced a number of efforts in recent months to try to boost transparency and accountability within the alcoholic beverage system, including asking the boards to voluntarily adopt stricter ethics standards.

Source :- http://www.charlotteobserver.com