A hot tub, the Ritz and more: What Charlotte-area sheriffs spent on travel

One sheriff spent over $33,000 in public money in a year-and-a-half, flying around the country and attending conferences. Another held his annual command staff retreat at a mountain home with a hot tub. A third is keeping his travel habits a secret from the public.

The Charlotte Observer filed public records requests for the sheriffs of Mecklenburg County and six surrounding counties.

All but one — Gaston County Sheriff Chad Hawkins — responded.

The expenses covered January 2023 to July 2024.

Mecklenburg sheriff biggest spender

Mecklenburg Sheriff Garry McFadden spent $33,030 to travel to mainly law-enforcement events across the country, by far the most of the sheriffs the Observer queried.

In comparison, Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe spent $10,342 in the same time frame.

“While we cannot speak to the spending of other sheriffs, it is clear Sheriff McFadden is dedicated to seeing MCSO recognized nationally for its efforts in addressing incarceration while other agencies may not be as interested in becoming accredited or bettering themselves,” McFadden’s spokesperson, Bradley Smith, said in a statement.

Travel didn’t stop McFadden from fulfilling his duties, Smith said.

McFadden went everywhere from Michigan to Florida to California.

He often speaks at and attends events. He’s been recognized by President Joe Biden for his work, receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award this year. He attended Biden’s State of the Union in March; that trip cost $890.

Asked specifically about a two-night, $1,100 stay at a Ritz-Carlton in Santa Barbara, California, Smith defended the cost.

“That was the venue chosen by the [Major County Sheriffs of America] for their conference as Sheriff McFadden has no control over the location,” he said.

The sheriff took four trips in June 2023 alone, records showed.

He spent $203 to talk policy at a state commission meeting in Raleigh, then $1,017 to go to the nation’s capital for a meeting of the Faith Based Security Advisory Council, then the sheriff conference in Santa Barbara that cost taxpayers $2,686, and finally to Michigan for another sheriff conference that cost $2,338.

A mountain home with a hot tub

For his command staff’s annual retreat in May 2023, Catawba County Sheriff Don Brown opted for a change of scenery.

Instead of working in Newton, he rented a Yancey County mountain home with a hot tub. That getaway for him and seven members of his command staff cost taxpayers $2,602. In a phone interview with the Observer, Brown noted that the cost for just himself at the retreat was one-eighth of the total.

Brown rented the house through Vrbo, an email receipt shows. The records listed “additional charges” of $125 for a hot tub and just shy of $400 for a cleaning fee within the total bill.

Maj. Aaron Turk, Brown’s spokesperson, who went on the Yancey County trip, said it was a way to avoid renting multiple hotel rooms and meeting space. They have taken other trips “off site” in years past, he said, but don’t have one planned for 2024.

He said they strategized during the day. The evenings gave time for “fellowship.”

“I think there probably was a hot tub there, but it was in March or April… In the mountains, it’s very cold, so I don’t know if I got in the hot tub,” Turk said. He added that he didn’t remember anyone else getting in.

Brown said he also didn’t remember the hot tub.

Brown’s travel expenditures for himself in 2023 and up to this July totaled close to $1,700.

Other sheriffs

Behind McFadden, Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell spent the most, according to public records he provided. But those forms show that he often traveled with staffers, making it difficult to compare his publicly-funded travel expenses to other sheriffs’.

He spent $17,676. His biggest bill: $3,646 covered lodging for him and some staffers when they went to Myrtle Beach for an annual conference of North Carolina sheriffs. Adam Dillard, the sheriff’s office attorney, said Campbell’s expenses were $9,750 of that total.

Union County Sheriff Eddie Cathey spent $842, the least amount of the sheriffs the Observer surveyed. Attending a conference, he stayed in a deluxe room at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort.

Lincoln County’s sheriff, Bill Beam, had just three expenses: hotels in Raleigh, Myrtle Beach and Wilmington. They were all for sheriff events, and they cost $1,904.

“I receive no meal reimbursements or food for these trips,” he said, adding that he gets free meals when he registers for training sessions.

In Cabarrus County, Sheriff Van W. Shaw spent $8,545. Every trip he expensed was in the Carolinas.

Only Gaston County Sheriff Chad Hawkins did not provide records — receipts, expense reports or anything else — to the Observer. He did not respond to a public records request in July or an email in August. His spokesperson also didn’t return a phone call earlier this month.

North Carolina’s public records law says records need to be provided “as promptly as possible.”