CAPE CORAL, Fla- Cape Coral travel, training and gas reimbursements totaled $1.1 Million for 2008 and 2009.
Two of the city's most expensive trips came out of the Parks and Recreation Department. In 2008, they sent special events coordinator Todd King to get certified on the city's mobile stage, which is used at events like Red, White and Boom and the Coconut Festival.
King traveled to Montreal, Canada at a cost of $3,600. "What the city elected to do was to send me to the company who was producing that product that would train me to be a trainer of this apparatus," said King, who claims the city bought the high-tech stage from Montreal to be able to attract national acts at city events.
The Parks and Recreation Department Director, Steve Pohlman, traveled to Baltimore in 2008 to attend a National Parks and Recreation conference. His trip cost taxpayers $1,900. "By continuing my attendance at those conferences I've found grant opportunities that didn't exist in prior years," said Pohlman.
In total, Parks and Recreation spent $70,000 on travel and training in the past two years. Pohlman says now they are identifying ways to get training without travel.
"We do our best to try to ID what's important - one of the things that the trend is going to is more online conferencing," said Pohlman.
The City Manager's Office expensed a trip in October to send Business Recruitment Specialist Audie Lewis to Panama. His trip cost $1,600.
Lewis did not even attend a conference while traveling to Panama.
"All I was interested in going to Panama was to get to the deal making sessions ... there was a whole bunch of people going with money going to hear what potential investment opportunities were available," said Lewis.
So far, Lewis said he hasn't actually brought any money back to the city from his trip but he's making progress.
"I don't have capital yet, but I've met people while I'm there that I'm continuing to work," said Lewis
The city's Public Works department spent $181,000 in travel and training expenses over the last two years. Director Chuck Pavlos said he's been slashing that budget even though training is critical in his department.
"We have a lot of people that hold certifications that are required to have continuing education so we try to limit it to just that type of training" said Pavlos.
In July, Public Works sent a traffic engineer to the Marco Island Marriot for an environmental permitting seminar which cost taxpayers $1200.
Even though the employee did not have to leave Southwest Florida for the seminar, Pavlos said it was crucial to have her stay the night at the resort to be there on time and stay for networking.
"What if there is an accident on I-75 - she's now late for the session we have to certify that we attended those sessions," said Pavlos.
Some Cape Coral residents were shocked to find out about the spending. "I'm not for them cutting back on Police and Fire and stuff like that - but just like this trip and stuff like that," said resident Ray Lamb.
The police department actually spends the most on travel and training because they have to go out of town to investigate crimes as well as keeping officers trained and certified. Out of the 1.1 million dollars spent in the last two years on travel and training, the police department only accounted for one fifth of the spending.
City leaders said they can only cut so deep before Cape Coral pays the consequences.
"You've got to be careful in business that you don't cut costs so much that you quit doing business," said Audie Lewis.

2008 Travel/Training Expenses by Department
2009 Travel/Training Expenses by Department