SDCTA Report on Travel & Expense Reimbursement Policies of San Diego County Public Agencies
Recent media coverage has exposed questionable travel and business expenses of public agencies in San Diego County. In each of these policies, too much opportunity existed for inappropriate uses of taxpayer dollars. In many instances, staff and board members are given the opportunity to be reimbursed for expenses not actually incurred, fly first-class, and get their dry cleaning done all on the taxpayer's dime. The San Diego County Taxpayers Association (SDCTA) has reviewed each of the following public agencies' existing travel and expense reimbursement policies: 1. Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC) 2. SANDAG 3. Southeastern Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) 4. The San Diego County Water Authority (CWA) 5. Unified Port of San Diego (Port) 6. San Diego County Board of Education 7. San Diego Convention Center Corporation (Convention Center) 8. The San Diego Unified School District (San Diego Unified) 9. County of San Diego 10. City of San Diego 11. San Diego County Regional Airport Authority (Airport Authority) We have also reviewed the State of California's Department of General Services (State) policies for travel and business expense reimbursement as well as that of a typical corporation. From this review, we have proposed a list of best practices that we encourage public agencies to adopt to ensure transparency, accountability, and appropriate spending of taxpayer funds.