A “good ole boy”mentality is alive and well in Butler County government, and key elected officials, including Commissioners Jim Eckstein and Bill McCarrier, as well as county Sheriff Mike Slupe and Controller Jack McMillin, are part and parcel of it.

According to right-to-know documentation, the aforementioned commissioners signed off in late April on a total of $1,756 to pay for six days of what I consider to be “junket” travel requested by Slupe. McMillin, the public official who is the watchdog of the county’s finances, failed to “red-flag” the sheriff’s questionable trip.

To attend the National Sheriffs Association’s annual conference, which is slated for June 16-20 in Nashville, Slupe submitted a travel authorization with the following cost estimates: $1,241 for a five-night stay at the luxurious Gaylord Opryland Resort, a four-star hotel with atrium-and-garden ambiance, at $248 a night; $305 for round-trip airfare; and a $210 meal allowance, already paid months in advance.

According to the conference’s hotel registration, however, the most brow-raising disbelief of this proposed “business trip,” or shall I say “pleasure excursion,” is that the sheriff will have a companion staying with him in his county-paid hotel room, all condoned by county government leadership.

I must commend Commissioner Dale Pinkerton for being responsible in disapproving the sheriff’s travel plan and criticize Commissioner Jim Eckstein, who deserves a hypocrisy award for publicly chastising other county employees about conference hotel charges while bestowing blessings upon the sheriff’s itinerary.

This so-called “Opryland-gate” smacks of an entrenched macho-mentality, allowing fiscal irresponsibility to exist in the county Government Center.

The county’s travel policy, as it applies to county-paid lodging, needs to be revised immediately. Then it should be enforced fairly and equally, neither gender nor selectively biased.