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Prince George's Taxpayers Pick Up Officials' Personal Tabs
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"Yes, we took it to Monterey, and we caught a ride back with some of the [conference] folks," she said. A rental car, she said, "was just too small."
Over the Labor Day weekend in 2004, Exum flew to Jamaica to attend a friend's wedding. During the trip, she said, she lost her personal credit card and put a $120.99 charge at Sandals Resort on her county-issued card. She said she repaid the county but could not provide proof.
"Maybe in the process of copying, paper got lost," said Exum, who has charged more than $34,400 to her card since December 2002.
Exum said she also repaid the 2004 Richmond hotel charge. But when the council administrator provided details of the charges, it was not listed as one that had been reimbursed.
Exum also has used the county's credit card to buy things for her office, including $630 for two television sets, and a $152 gift certificate to European Beauté Concepts, a Mitchellville day spa, for a secretary who was changing jobs, she said.
Thomas R. Hendershot
When Hendershot goes to Ocean City for conferences, he said he often takes his wife, Florence, his four grown children and his grandchildren. And he sometimes extends his stay beyond the end of a conference, according to records and interviews. At a Maryland Municipal League conference in June, he rented a six-bedroom, five-bathroom house that cost $2,650 plus tax and stayed three days after the conference ended.
He said he bills half of the Ocean City expenses to the county.
"Doing it that way, the county breaks even," said Hendershot, who is leaving the council next month because of term limits. "They're paying pretty much the same amount if I were going to the same meeting and paying $300 or $400 a night at a hotel.
"If I were to do the same with my family, it would be costing me a hell of a lot. Since the county's going to pay for me to be there anyway, it works out."
About $15,000 of Hendershot's charges on his county card over the past four years, roughly one-quarter of his total charges, was for food and lodging in Ocean City, records show.
"So?" he asked. "I think each member of the council has to make their own choices as to what they should be doing in the interest of the county."
When he has taken his wife on county trips, he said, he has billed the county for her meals.
"She has to eat," he said.
