They dined at Emeril’s steakhouse, slept at a resort casino on the Vegas Strip, even teed off at a PGA Championship golf course in Southern California.

Members of the Essex, Mass., Regional Retirement Board took nine out-of-state trips in the last two years for conferences and meetings with money managers, often staying at luxurious resorts and eating at fancy restaurants as taxpayers helped pick up the bill.

Since 2005, board members spent $37,852 on trips to San Diego, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York City. Taxpayers helped cover the costs, from a $339-a-night hotel room on Capitol Hill to a $3 ATM transaction fee in Vegas.

Board members say the conferences help them make crucial decisions on the local pension system, which oversees public-employee pensions for 19 towns and six regional school districts North of Boston.

“We haven’t overdone it,” said Timothy Bassett, the executive director and chairman of the Essex board. “If you want to do your job, invest the money well and hit the returns, you have to go out and learn some things.”

But a report last year by the Pioneer Institute questioned the value of travel by board members, given that they hire professional advisers to manage their pension investments. The Boston think tank said board members across the state exploit weak controls on travel expenses for questionable trips to popular tourist destinations.

“The least that can be said,” the report concluded, “is that many board members have taken advantage of these opportunities with what appears to be excessive zeal.”

Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation concurred.

“I can see people wanting to go some place quiet in the middle of nowhere to discuss the complexities of the pension system,” she said. “But Vegas wouldn’t match that description.”

Three Essex board members flew to Las Vegas in May 2005 to attend the annual meeting of the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems — a trip that cost $7,015.

Board members Glenn Morse and Katherine O’Leary spent six nights at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino while Bassett stayed four. The Vegas Strip hotel features 135,000 square feet of casino space, a wave pool, a $40 million aquarium, a sand-and-surf beach, two spas and a wedding chapel.

During their stay, the travelers often ate out at fine restaurants. One afternoon, board members spent $112 on lunch at Giorgio Italian Restaurant. A few days later, they dined at Emeril Lagasse’s Delmonico Steakhouse, named “Restaurant of the Year” by Esquire Magazine.

One month earlier, Bassett, Morse and board member William Martineau flew to San Diego for a conference sponsored by the Segal Company, the board’s financial advisers. The trip cost $9,889.

They stayed at the $279-a-night La Costa Resort & Spa and played golf with Segal advisers on one of the resort’s pristine PGA courses, though they paid the $75 tournament fee themselves.

In 2006, three board members flew to Chicago for a health care symposium. The trip cost $8,400 in conference fees, airfare, hotel and restaurant tabs, and cab fare.