Columbia Council had a retreat in town. Why is Richland Council going to Charleston?

When Columbia City Council members gathered last week to discuss their vision and planning for the coming year, they met just north of downtown in a newly built community center owned by the city government.

When Richland County Council meets for the same purpose for two days this week, they’ll do so in a downtown Charleston hotel more than 100 miles from most of their constituents.

Both local government retreats come with a price tag of more than $10,000.

It’s the norm for Richland County leaders to take their annual retreat out of town. In the past five years, the county has met three times in downtown Charleston, once in Myrtle Beach and once at a lakeside conference center in Moncks Corner.

Lexington County Council also held an out-of-town retreat Sunday and Monday, Jan. 20-21, at Clemson University, according to county spokesman Harrison Cahill.

Richland County Council members have said, year after year, that they prefer to take their retreat out of town so they can remove themselves from distractions at home.

“When you’re in town, you’re running backwards and forwards. There’s no time between meetings to chat,” said Councilman Paul Livingston, the council’s new chairman and its longest-serving member. “In my experience, we get twice as much done” out of town, he said.

“Corporations, when they want their boards’ attention, they take them airplane rides away,” Councilman Jim Manning said. “So it’s not like Richland County came up with this idea of a successful way to get people’s attention on a retreat is to get out of town. It’s a business corporation model.”

Only one current council member, Bill Malinowski, voted against holding the retreat in Charleston. The council’s three newest members, Chakisse Newton, Allison Terracio and Joe Walker, were not on council at the time the retreat location was decided.

Holding the retreat outside of Richland County is “unfair to the constituents who want to provide input,” Walker said. “From an optics perspective, what does it say ... that we feel compelled to leave to do our business when we’re asking others to come (to Richland County) to do theirs?”

At the Thursday-Friday meeting in Charleston, council members and county staff will discuss issues including the Richland County transportation penny tax program, the troubled Richland Renaissance development plan, the search for a county administrator, annexation and economic development.

Livingston said the county will videotape the meetings and post the recordings online after the retreat. Manning said he believes the retreat should be broadcast online in real-time, as regular council meetings are. But Livingston said the county wasn’t able to work out livestreaming for an acceptable cost for this retreat.

Richland County taxpayers are footing the bill for the Thursday and Friday meeting at the Embassy Suites hotel and conference center on Meeting Street in downtown Charleston. A complete cost estimate was not available by Tuesday afternoon.

But the costs include about $2,000 for the rented meeting space and food and $3,200 for audio-visual technology, county spokeswoman Beverly Harris said.

The county reserved 26 hotel rooms at a $139 nightly rate, Harris said, but it was not immediately known how many of those rooms were actually booked and for how many nights.

In addition, each attendee may choose whether to collect reimbursement for mileage to drive to the retreat in their personal vehicles — at a rate of 58 cents per mile, or about $133 for the round trip — and a $40 stipend for meals not provided at the retreat.

If the 26 rooms were booked for one night each and each council member received mileage reimbursement, the retreat cost would top $10,000, not including reimbursements for staff members and meal stipends for all.

About 15 Richland County staff members are expected to accompany the 11 council members on the retreat.

Despite Columbia City Council holding their retreat in town, taxpayers still spent about $13,700 for the city leaders’ retreat last Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 16 and 17, at the Busby Street community center off Farrow Road in north Columbia. The city paid $12,000 to a facilitator for four days of work before and during the retreat and $1,700 to cater two lunches and a breakfast for council members and staff.

Unlike City Council, Richland County has not hired a facilitator for its retreat.

The cost of Lexington County’s retreat Sunday and Monday at Clemson was not provided by Tuesday afternoon.

This story was originally published January 22, 2019 at 3:22 PM.