In a letter to Gmoser, the vet board president outlined how that issue came about.
“During the discussion of that proposal, Commissioner Ken Smith stated that if that were to be enacted, he and his wife would not be able to go to the casinos when the commissioners went to Columbus for our mandatory meetings, and that he was against the motion,” Southard wrote.
Gmoser said the commissioners cannot use taxpayer funding as a “personal piggy bank.”
“Not using it (the van) because of inconvenience to a participant for personal entertainment en route, such as going to a casino on the return trip resulting in a mileage charge for that person, at the commission’s expense should not be permitted or tolerated,” the prosecutor wrote.
Southard sought Gmoser’s counsel after a recent service officer training trip to Grand Rapids, Mich, and included the previous issue in a letter he penned to Gmoser. In early June, four service officers attended a week-long, non-mandatory training. The training started on Monday, June 9 but three of the service officers went up on Saturday, charging the commission a total of $393.30 for hotel rooms and $114 per diem for food for that Saturday. Two of the service officers also stayed over Friday night — the actual training ended on Thursday but there were activities on Friday — costing taxpayers another $339.70 for hotel and food.
In his letter to Gmoser, Southard indicated Assistant Director Anna O’Neill authorized the extra night stays because “she felt the staff were entitled to a day of rest after an ‘eight hour’ car trip.” Southard’s letter stated the other commissioners, particularly Smith, said they could understand the staff needing an extra day after such a long car ride. The commissioners approved the expenses by a vote of 3 to 1 last week. Southard cast the dissenting vote. According to Mapquest.com, the trip takes five to five-and-a-half hours.
Gmoser said that issue was also troublesome.
“The extra day expense was unnecessary, excessive for any benefit conferred and was based on inaccurate information,” Gmoser wrote. “This should not happen again.”
County Auditor Roger Reynolds finds the fact that O’Neill approved the added expense equally troubling.
“I don’t think it’s justifiable to have a Saturday night stay when your event starts on Monday, for a five or six hour drive. That’s hard to justify…,” he said. “The challenge here is two-fold, who is responsible for it. Is it the responsibility of the employee to repay it or did the employee get approval. My understanding is they did get management approval, and that’s an even bigger issue. That’s someone in management making poor decisions.”
Neither Smith nor O’Neill could be reached for comment.
The vet board on Friday authorized new Executive Director Caroline Bier to draft a new travel policy. She said she has already begun the process of writing an interim travel policy. She said the bulk of it will mirror the county’s policy, but it will also include “what their travel days should be.”
Southard has also sought Commissioner Don Dixon’s advise on the travel issues. Dixon said often when someone new enters a board or commission new issues can crop up. He said Southard, who pointed out the commission could have saved about $1,200 on mileage had the service officers carpooled to Michigan, is approaching things like the private sector.
He said Southard has raised valid concerns and the embattled vet board “will get there.”
“The travel policy clearly needed to be addressed, it was just too liberal,” he said. “Taxpayers, they wouldn’t spend their money that way, and they wouldn’t want us in the public sector to do any different than they would do with their own money.”
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