Do you remember my Feb. 4 column (“A back room lunch with the supervisors”) disclosing our supervisors spent $983.29 of taxpayers’ money in just nine months for their pre-meeting board lunches? Gatherings in the back room where they said county business was not discussed. The lunches were justified in the budget as “travel and education.” Well, the supervisors are still eating their monthly lunches on the taxpayers’ dime. They have no shame about spending your money this way. Clearly, they think they deserve it. But that is not all.

The table below shows our county administrator used the county credit card to pay for meals totaling over $1,000 at local restaurants. All were paid from an account titled “travel and education.”

The supporting documentation for the meals does not include the business purpose, who was fed and, in most cases, only a summary ticket without detail of the items purchased (e.g., Were “adult beverages” included?). The supervisors were made aware of this in the May 10 board meeting but continued to approve the meal payments without question.

I am fine paying for our county administrator and supervisors to be well-trained. I object to paying for them to be well-fed. I believe all receive sufficient salary and benefits to pay for their own meals (plus the meals of the nameless associates also paid with the county credit card). Taxpayers’ dollars should be spent with great care, not abused by careless free spending.

Think about all this as you pay your county taxes due Monday, June 6.

Terry Ramsey is a guest columnist and a 1967 graduate of Randolph-Henry High School and a resident of Charlotte Court House. He can be reached at Terrill.Ramsey@outlook.com.