Mayor defends Lake Geneva trip

$27,000 for costly seminar

The city of Country Club Hills spent more than $27,000 so Mayor Dwight Welch, some aldermen, department heads and city employees -- along with some spouses -- could attend a weekend training seminar at the tony Abbey Resort near Lake Geneva, Wis.

Most of the money -- $20,566 -- was spent on room and suite rentals at the resort Feb. 7- 10, according to records obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request.

The seminar was conducted by Paul Craig, a senior fellow in the University of Illinois' Institute of Government and Public Affairs in Champaign.

The city paid Craig $1,000 for the seminar, $187.50 in travel expenses, $60 for meals and $200 for lodging.

Welch, the subject of a Cook County grand jury investigation into the use of city firefighters to tear down his pool house in what he calls a training exercise, said the weekend was needed to improve the way city employees work together.

"That was the deal, $27,000. We [rented] a room for [each] person. If they were married, they could bring their husband or wife. That's like it is on any convention. . . . It's not like we were going to some exotic place," Welch said.