A revised travel policy will loosen restrictions on work-related travel expense reimbursements for Lompoc Unified School District (LUSD) educators, after a report from the Santa Barbara County grand jury said the district had a “lack of oversight” in the payment of travel expenses.
Previously, the district’s policy on travel expenses mandated that if a district employee was traveling on work-related business and split a hotel room with a non-employee, the employee could only claim his or her half of the hotel room expenses.
“For example, if an employee stays with a spouse the reimbursement is linked to one-half the double room rate,” the policy said. “If a room is occupied by two or more employees, each employee may claim only his/her prorated portion of the expense.”
The revised regulation strikes that mandate, omitting the specification on what portion of the hotel room bill the district can reimburse if an employee splits the room with a non-employee.
The grand jury report from July 2016 cited an instance in which a Lompoc district employee traveled to a conference in New Orleans with her spouse, a board of education member, for a board-approved conference. The district pre-paid their full double room rate for that trip.
“The LUSD should have paid for only half of the hotel bill,” the grand jury report stated. “No internal controls exist by which the LUSD can collect these pre-paid expenses from their employees. Travel funding comes from the general fund and must be approved by the board.”
In its response, the district agreed with the grand jury’s findings and stated it would take action to enforce the travel policy.
The revised “hotel” section of the district’s travel policy, which was presented at the board of education’s Jan. 10 meeting, states that hotels may grant a special government rate to district employees traveling on school district business. It also requires that the superintendent pre-approve any exceptions to the lowest available hotel rate or government rate, and that whenever possible, two employees of the same gender should share a hotel room.
The revised policy no longer specifies what an employee should do if he or she is splitting a hotel room with a spouse, though it says, “an employee can be reimbursed only for his/her own expenses.”
This article appears in Jan 12-19, 2017.