RAPID CITY - When it comes to traveling to conferences and educational seminars, other cities have a less gung ho attitude than Rapid City.

Next week, five city council members and the mayor will attend the National League of Cities convention in New Orleans. Originally, seven council members had planned to go but some dropped out recently.

Some council members were critical of sending seven council members to an out of state convention and suggested developing a policy to prevent a quorum from traveling to the same event.

Other communities contacted don't have policies to limit council travel. However, budget restraints usually prevent them from doing so.

Rapid City budgeted $50,000 this year for city council travel, far exceeding the amount budgeted by other communities.

For Missoula, Mont., with a population of more than 57,000 people, the city council has a travel and training budget of $8,650 for its 12 members.

Bruce Bender, chief administrative officer, said the budget limits travel, but the city sends very few to national conventions anyway.

"We tend to go to our statewide one and budget for that, but we have a very limited budget for national attendees of anything," he said.

Marty Rehbein, city clerk, said Missoula doesn't have a policy limiting the number of council members who go to a particular event, but the city doesn't go to many out of state conferences and hasn't sent anyone to the National League of Cities conference for a long time.

"It's largely determined (by) the budget, and the city council president administers the council budget. We generally try to get as many people as possible to go to our local league conference, but there isn't a city policy that says only one or two," she said.

Rehbein said it is expected that council members who go to a conference will provide a report to the entire group about what was learned.

Loveland, Colo., with an estimated population of about 60,000, has a travel policy similar to Rapid City's that covers all city employees. Its nine-member council budgets about $10,000 per year for travel.

Don Williams, Loveland city manager, said the council doesn't travel very much compared to other councils in the past but that they do attend two main events: the National League of Cities spring conference in Washington D.C., and the annual NLC winter conference which is in New Orleans this year.

Usually, two to four attend the spring conference, and three are attending the New Orleans conference, Williams said.

"Whenever an event comes up I give council notice and ask who wants to go. Usually, that's determined by whether they need a certification," he said. "There's an elected official certification process at NLC, and usually, they travel to take classes to get points for their certification. Other than that, they really do not travel very much."

Loveland does not have a policy that dictates how often individuals can travel. The city does have a budget to stick to but Williams said the council has never come close to spending it all in a given year.

"We had a mayor a few years ago that liked to be on a lot of committees, and she traveled quite a bit. She probably spent $10,000 a year on travel, but nowadays, the average is maybe $2,000 to $3,000. Half of them never take a trip," Williams said.

When told that Rapid City had planned to send seven of 10 council members to New Orleans, Williams said Loveland has never discussed sending that type of representation but as a city manager, he wouldn't say it would be a bad thing as long as the council can keep up with its business.

Attending educational seminars could actually be a benefit to a city if it has many new council members, he said, though he questioned sending seven if council members had been in place for a long time.

However, people don't seem to worry about travel unless it's perceived as a good vacation destination, such as Las Vegas or New Orleans, Williams said, and generally, those are the places conferences can save money and get a good deal.

"New Orleans right now is giving away tremendous deals to get people to come back. I've had a couple of questions from citizens about why a council goes to New Orleans as opposed to Indiana, or something," he said.

Sioux Falls is sending two of its eight members to the New Orleans conference this year, according to city clerk Debra Owen.

Sioux Falls budgeted $12,100 for training and travel this year; it budgeted $16,500 for next year. Owen believes that council members would benefit from the seminars offered at NLC events.

"For instance, there's a class down there about tax increment financing. Two council members really want to take a look at TIFs," she said. "Sioux Falls is very judicious with our use of TIFs. One council person has been very vocal about making sure we're using TIFs in a way that encourages economic development as opposed to just getting a good deal."

Instead of limiting the number who travel, she said, the council has talked about trying to send more people to future out of state events. For a long time, four members went to a conference every year. But now there's one council member goes twice a year, and everybody else may go every other year, she said.

"It depends on how active the council wants to be. Those who want to be engaged in more policy discussions want to attend a place where they can learn about policy from people who are similarly situated," she said.

Contact Scott Aust at 394-8415 or scott.aust@rapidcityjournal.com