Employees from Washington County’s embattled sewer agency won’t travel to Hawaii this month for an annual insurance conference, ending a practice that indirectly cost ratepayers at least $165,000 over seven years.

The change comes after an Oregonian/OregonLive investigation published in March found that executives serving on the board of the agency’s insurance subsidiary had stayed at a rotating cast of five-star resorts for annual board meetings and insurance conferences in Hawaii. The cost of the annual junkets ballooned over the years, reaching $42,000 in 2023 and at least $41,000 in 2024, records show.

But no executives will be attending this year’s conference at The Westin Maui Resort & Spa from Oct. 20 to 23, said Ellen Gordon, a spokesperson for Clean Water Services. Cost is a

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