Though it represents less than 0.02 percent of Rapid City's overall $130 million budget, the Rapid City Council continues to debate its spending on travel to out-of-state municipal conferences.

On Monday night, the council approved two travel requests totaling about $17,000 to send members to National League of Cities conferences in March and April. For some, that raised concerns about spending well over half of the $25,000 budgeted for travel so early in the year.

"We're five days into the New Year, and we're spending approximately two-thirds of the allocation," Alderman Sam Kooiker said. "I am hoping there won't be a supplemental appropriation coming through" at the end of the year.

Kooiker was the lone vote against a $9,410 travel request to send council members Malcom Chapman, Bill Okrepkie and Deb Hadcock to the March 12-19 annual the league's Congressional City conference in Washington, D.C.

The council also authorized - unanimously as part of routine approval of other items - a $7,576 travel request to send Karen Gundersen Olson, Patti Martinson, Aaron Costello and public works director Robert Ellis to a National League of Cities Green Cities conference in Portland, Ore., April 16-24.

Expenses for Ellis' travel will come out of the public works department budget. Council travel-related expenses for the two trips could be about $14,000 or $15,000, more than half of the $25,000 budgeted for travel in 2009.

Kooiker, who normally doesn't attend out-of-state conferences, though he has attended one in the past, said the combination of the two trips is a substantial amount of the total travel budget for the year. He also said the council should limit the Washington trip to two people and send new council members or members who haven't gone instead of those who have gone to NLC conferences several times.

Travel to conferences has been an ongoing issue for the council since the fall of 2007. Controversy arose when seven council members, representing a quorum of the governing body, and the mayor planned to attend the NLC conference in New Orleans. Eventually, two council members and the mayor decided not to go.

For 2009, the council reduced the travel budget from $60,000 to $25,000.

Alderman Ron Kroeger voted Monday to approve the two travel requests, but he said the people who are going should be aware that they are using more than half of the budget allotted for the year, which means less money for future conferences.

Alderman Okrepkie briefly talked about dropping out of the Washington conference but indicated he had not decided. Alderman Ron Weifenbach talked about postponing the issue so a travel plan for the year could be developed, but only Kooiker supported his idea.

Alderwoman Hadcock said she doesn't think anyone needed to bow out, but she said she may not stay for the entire conference, which could save money or allow others to attend. She defended the educational benefits and networking opportunities of council members traveling to Washington.

"I believe in education. I think travel is not a frivolous thing to do. I think education is a big reason why we're going," she said.

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