Did Alfred Dowe, who resigned from the Roanoke City Council amid a scandal over double-billing for travel expenses, also charge the taxpayers for attending a conference that didn't exist?

Although Dowe's attorneys declined to answer that question Friday, they did say Dowe has reimbursed the city more than $3,000 -- in addition to a $2,000 payment he made in March.

In April last year, Dowe used his city-issued credit card to pay for a rental car and a hotel stay in Norfolk, where according to his expense report he attended an executive team conference of the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials, a constituency group of the National League of Cities.

That was news to an official with the National League of Cities.

"There was no executive team conference or meeting in Norfolk last year. Period," said Mary Gordon, director of the National Black Caucus and manager of constituency group programs for the National League of Cities.

And then there's the question of Felicia Anderson.

In paperwork submitted with Dowe's expense forms, which were obtained by The Roanoke Times through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, Anderson is identified as a state representative of the National Black Caucus.

According to Gordon, there is no Felicia Anderson who works for the caucus as a state representative.

Yet Anderson and Dowe had lunch and dinner together in Roanoke -- at taxpayer expense -- the week following the mysterious conference, expense reports show. Anderson's name also appears on an e-mail, included with the reports, reminding Dowe of the conference in Norfolk.

Attorneys for Dowe declined to comment in detail this week on the questions raised by his expense reports, which come as Roanoke's municipal auditor completes his investigation of the former councilman's spending.

"Rather than address particular expenses incurred during his time on city council, Mr. Dowe through several payments has simply reimbursed the City of Roanoke for expenses brought to his attention," John Lichtenstein and John Fishwick said in a written statement released Friday.

"Most recently, Mr. Dowe secured a cashier's check in the amount of $3,324.75 for reimbursement to the city," the statement read.

"Again, without regard to any particular item, these funds simply reimbursed the city without exception, for all expenses regarding which the city made inquiry to Mr. Dowe through its audit procedure. These expenses concern calendar years 2005-2008."

The statement did not explain how Dowe came up with the figure of $3,324.75. The earlier payment of $2,000 was in response to questions about double-billing.

The trip to Norfolk cost taxpayers $403.08, according to expense reports. Using a city-issued credit card that is given to all council members, Dowe stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Norfolk the night of April 5, 2007, at a cost of $186.32. The balance for the trip cost was for a rental car.

On April 9, Dowe used his card to pay for lunch with Anderson at TGI Friday's in Roanoke. That night, Dowe, Anderson and Terry Riley, who was then president of the National Black Caucus, dined at Carlos, a restaurant in Roanoke County. That meal came to $80, according to the expense report.

Riley, a member of the city council of Kansas City, Mo., said last week that although he might have attended a conference in Virginia, he needed to consult his calendar before saying for sure. Follow-up calls to Riley and his aide went unanswered for a week. Reached Friday afternoon, Riley said he could not talk about the matter.

An e-mail sent to the Yahoo account of Anderson, which was included in Dowe's paperwork, was returned as an invalid address.

With the latest questions surrounding his spending, Dowe seems caught in a predicament that has grown steadily worse.

In February, documents showed the $14,604.03 Dowe spent last year on meals, travel and lodging was nearly as much as what the rest of the city council spent combined. Dowe defended the expenses at first, saying they were related to city business and a result of his efforts to become a more engaged community leader.

But Dowe resigned just two days later, after additional expense reports showed he was billing some of his travel expenses to both the city and the state.

According to expense vouchers obtained through open-record laws, Dowe submitted claims to the state for reimbursement for his mileage and motel stays for trips to Richmond to attend meetings of the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, a state agency for which he was a board member.

At the time, Dowe had already charged a rental car and the same hotel bill to his city-issued credit card, the vouchers showed.

As Municipal Auditor Drew Harmon finishes up an investigation he began in February at the request of Mayor Nelson Harris, Dowe could soon learn whether he might face criminal charges.

Harris has said city officials plan to turn the audit results over to the commonwealth's attorney. Harmon said Friday that he expects the audit to be completed next week.

Contacted earlier in the week, Gordon said someone with Harmon's office had already called the National League of Cities to ask about the conference in Norfolk.

While Gordon said she was sure the executive conference of the National Black Caucus did not meet in Norfolk on April 4 and 5, as indicated by Dowe's expense report, she did say it's possible there might have been a regional meeting of some sort that she wasn't aware of.

Dowe was a member of the National Black Caucus, which he cited in an earlier interview as one of the reasons why his expense account was so large in 2007.

Dowe could not be reached for comment Friday.