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Nanticoke Housing Authority Spends Thousands On Trips To Conferences

NANTICOKE — A Newswatch 16 investigation has found an area housing authority has spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on conference trips. All the ...

NANTICOKE -- A Newswatch 16 investigation has found an area housing authority has spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on conference trips.

All the housing authorities in Luzerne County agree attending conferences is important for networking and learning about news in the housing industry, but after we uncovered some Nanticoke Housing Authority officials paying out big bucks on cross-country trips, some taxpayers are questioning the benefit to those trips.

Nanticoke's motto is "forward together," but it's how the Nanticoke Housing Authority is spending public dollars on trips, that some taxpayers believe is a step back.

A Newswatch 16 investigation reviewed the travel records of the NHA for the past five years. We found the authority spending more than $50,000 on trips, all at the taxpayers' expense.

That roughly $50,000 is more taxpayer money than what the four other housing authorities in Luzerne County -- which include Luzerne County, Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre, and Pittston --  spent on trips in the same period.

Thousands of miles away from Pennsylvania, we discovered the NHA spending more than $6,000 on a trip to Tampa, $10,077 to Denver and more than $11,000 to San Francisco, all to attend industry conferences.

At the Luzerne County Housing Authority, executive director David Fagula says they are careful. His board travels mostly to conferences that are held in Pennsylvania, “simply because it's not as expensive as flying,” Fagula says.

Our investigation also reveals that just this year the NHA voted to increase their own daily travel allowance to $125 just to "cover the cost of food."

That's more than Mary Ellen Konetski of Hanover Township spends on food in a week, for both herself and her husband.

“I would love that! I could feed several families in the neighborhood with that,” she said.

Even NHA board chairman Ken James appeared in the dark about the housing authority's high travel costs, until we crunched the numbers.

“It's never been brought up till now,” James said.

Something else that might not have been brought up until now: what officials do with any extra cash they get for travel expenses. We could not find any indication that any unspent money was returned to the authority after officials came back from their trips. Officials suggest there is none.

Days after that interview with James, Newswatch 16 learned the authority reduced its $125 dollar daily meal allowance  back down to $75. But even that is more than what the federal government recommends for meal costs in some places where the board members have visited.

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