BEAVER, Pa. (KDKA) – Residents of the Monacatootha public housing development in Monaca say the facility is in need of a facelift, but it hasn’t been renovated in 20 years and complaints about maintenance go unanswered.

“It’s not bad to live here, but it could use some renovation and they’re not doing that,” said tenant Wendy Bailey.

These residents were concerned about a KDKA-TV report that the CEO and board members of the Beaver County Authority have been traveling across America for the past year and a half, attending one conference after another and spending tens of thousands of dollars on flights, luxury hotels, and meals at fancy steakhouses.

“Do you think they should stop these trips?” KDKA-TV’s Andy Sheehan asked tenant Mary Jury.

“Because they are just spending our money instead of repairing our buildings,” Jury said.

In June, KDKA-TV uncovered the extravagant trips and asked CEO Kathryn Walter and her board members for an explanation. When KDKA-TV received none, the company filed a history request, demanding a detailed accounting of all the money spent.

The request yielded stacks of receipts for airline tickets, hotel stays, dinners and taxi rides totaling tens of thousands of dollars. As it turns out, the excesses are even worse than expected. It starts with the business manager, who has left the city and the state for 16 trips lasting 42 days over the past year and a half.

She attended conferences in Orlando, New Orleans, Palm Springs, San Diego and Chicago – taxpayers paid an average of more than $2,000 per trip. Flights, registration fees, hotels and restaurants, and a $60 daily allowance. The documents submitted show that her trips cost taxpayers almost $30,000.

But Walter is rarely alone on these trips. Records show she is often accompanied by board members such as board chairman Dominic Leone, who has traveled not only to conferences in the state in Lancaster and Seven Springs, but also to New Orleans and Palm Springs, costing the agency more than $6,000 in expenses.

And while other housing authorities in the area have restricted travel to conferences and limited their executive director’s trips to one or two, records show Walter almost always takes staff with him, sometimes nearly a dozen.

For one of these many trips alone, the housing authority spent $8,892 on 12 hotel rooms in Seven Springs to accommodate the director, board members and staff – this amount does not include registration fees, per diems and meals.

And yet that doesn’t mean anyone goes hungry. In Palm Springs, the director, board members and two employees ate at LG’s Prime Steakhouse for $729, spent $301 at Fogo de Chao in Washington, DC, and racked up $1,300 at CS Brazilian Steakhouse on another visit to Wilmington, Delaware. Closer to home, the agency spent $4,200 at Wooden Angel in Beaver.

Since receiving the documents, Walter has again declined an interview request. KDKA-TV went to her office, but she was not there. A receptionist said there was no comment.

In its response to the request for information, the Authority provided a written response stating that Walter had served as an official and board member of two of the organisations hosting the conferences and that she and the board had benefited from that.

“Director Walter and board members attend conferences and trainings deemed appropriate and useful in furthering HACB’s mission of providing affordable housing for families and seniors who meet low- and moderate-income guidelines.”

The authority states that the trips were financed through maintenance fees.

“Tell me what you learned from your visit to Palm Springs. What did you learn about our housing situation in Beaver County?” Bailey said.

The tenants and we would like a full accounting of these tens of thousands of dollars, but as you can see, they will not appear on camera and that may have to wait until their next board meeting.