DURHAM - As questions swirled about the safety of Durham's drinking water and lead contamination over the last year, the city's water management director was often out of town.

The director, Terry Rolan, is also national president of the American Water Works Association, an industry trade and lobbying group. In little more than a year, Rolan, 60, has nearly circled the globe attending banquets, making speeches and handing out awards.

According to a copy of his electronic desk calendar, since Feb. 8, 2006, Rolan has made 24 overnight trips on water association business, with many of those trips lasting longer than a week. The cost of Rolan's airfare, accommodations and meals was paid by the association, which gets money from membership dues paid by water systems such as Durham's. The city pays $7,100 in annual dues to the organization.

All told, Rolan was out of town at least 164 days last year. Ninety-two of those were city workdays for which he was paid. Twenty-six were paid vacation days, some used to lengthen the time Rolan spent in such places as British Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii. The remainder were weekends.

That list does not include several in-state day trips that didn't require an overnight stay or hours Rolan spent in Durham on conference calls for the group.

Some City Council members said this week that Rolan's absences were excessive, but City Manager Patrick Baker said he was always able to reach Rolan by e-mail or cell phone whenever he needed him.

Attempts to reach the water director this week were unsuccessful. A city spokeswoman said Friday she was unsure whether Rolan was out of town again.

Rolan has worked for the city since 1974 and has served as water director for more than two decades. His annual salary is $116,751.

"Durham has clearly not gotten its money's worth," said Hope Taylor-Guevara, the executive director of Clean Water for North Carolina.

The statewide advocacy group, which has offices in Durham, has publicly demanded Rolan's resignation for what it terms as the city's failure to respond proactively to the lead concerns.

"Being president of AWWA does not provide an excuse for failing to protect the health of Durham's citizens. If he's been gone half the time, he's not been focused on serving the city."

Durham's water system has been under intense scrutiny during Rolan's time as the association's national president and president-elect.

Whiskey tasting

While Rolan was in Whistler, Canada, last spring, his schedule included such events as a single-malt whiskey tasting. The trip took place days after county health officials had linked a child's lead poisoning to the ingestion of tainted city tap water.

As the city conducted its residential water testing program in September, Rolan was on a 19-day trip to Beijing, China. His schedule indicates several gala events, as well as a private duck dinner for two. Rolan's wife has accompanied him on association trips, according to past reimbursement reports filed with the city.

Late last month, as Baker acknowledged for the first time that the city's water had failed to meet federal safety standards from the testing last summer after initially claiming it passed, Rolan was in Mumbai, India.

Baker said this week that Rolan was in Durham to help make key decisions and that when the water director was away, he was in communication using his Blackberry, a wireless device that can send and receive e-mail and make phone calls. The city manager said he did ask Rolan to cancel one trip, a scheduled association officer's meeting in Washington, D.C., in early January, so he could attend a City Council meeting to answer questions about the lead problem.

"He's been here, physically here, for all of what I would consider to be the most important decisions that were made," Baker said. "And certainly in today's age of wireless Internet and Blackberrys, I've never had a situation where I needed to get in touch with Terry that I haven't been able to get him on a moment's notice."

Mayor Bill Bell said he knew when Rolan rose to president of the national association in June that his duties would include extensive travel.

"I don't have a problem with that," Bell said. "Whether it impacted his job performance or not, that's a question for Patrick [Baker] to determine."

Others on the City Council, however, question whether the water director should have curtailed his travels in light of the questions about the safety of water back home.

"We were proud when Terry was elected president of the AWWA and, to be fair, we were told some travel would be involved," said council member Eugene Brown after reviewing a copy of the water director's calendar. "But this seems rather excessive, especially when this was an exceedingly difficult year for his department."

Council member Thomas Stith said it would be difficult to believe so many absences didn't have an impact.

"The first priority has to be the safety of the citizens of Durham," Stith said. "It's hard to serve the citizens of Durham when you're in India or China. Clearly, when you're dealing with such a significant issue as lead in the water, you can't have leadership via the internet and cell phone. We don't need virtual leadership. We need someone on the ground, leading the way."

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