Lincoln County Board member, Assembly candidate “double-dipping” mileage

Calvin Callahan

Submitted

Calvin Callahan

Lincoln County Board Member Calvin Callahan

A Lincoln County Board member and 35th District Assembly Candidate has paid back money the candidate double-claimed in mileage reimbursement for meetings held back to back in the same location.

Calvin Callahan, the Republican candidate for the 35th District State Assembly seat up for election in November, paid Lincoln County $241.23 owed for ten months of claiming the same mileage twice, a copy of the check shows.

Copies of Callahan’s mileage reports sent anonymously to City Pages show Callahan claimed mileage for the county’s property and county board meetings separately for ten months, even though the meetings are held one hour apart in the same room.

Initially, those meetings were held in separate locations and times, Callahan explained to City Pages, and he was in the habit of declaring them separately. Callahan says claiming the double mileage was an error.

County Clerk Chris Marlowe says the mistake was discovered after his office implemented a new policy change in February of this year. An auditor suggested Marlowe sign off on department head’s expenses and Marlowe decided to double check county board supervisors’ expenses as well. That’s when he found the error, Marlowe told City Pages.

Marlowe says he should have alerted Callahan to the mistake – instead he just started changing it since March so that Callahan was only being reimbursed for the one trip.

Marlowe says no other similar mistakes by other supervisors have been discovered.