Face the State

Schaffer Advocates Posting Future Spending Reports Online
Face The State Staff Report

DENVER - Amidst ongoing concerns about excessive spending by State Board of Education members, Face The State has conducted its own analysis of recent board financial records, finding that taxpayers funded everything from a lost airline ticket and an unused hotel room to swanky ski resort dinners.

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The analysis of expense reports filed from July 2006 to July 2007, obtained under the Colorado Open Records Act, comes shortly after state Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Ft. Collins, asked the state auditor to conduct a thorough review of spending records over the last five years. As Face The State has previously reported, Johnson became concerned after education officials initially resisted giving him documents he had requested.

Board Vice Chairman Bob Schaffer, an outspoken fiscal conservative who has previously declined to stay at expensive hotels during member retreats, welcomed the current analysis by Face The State and Johnson. "I think this is a very healthy response by the legislature and concerned citizens," he said. "Obviously, there has not been good oversight of actual versus necessary expenditures."

Fox 31 report on State Board of Education expenses [Streaming Video]

Spending highlights include $53.62 on shipping for $5.90 of writing pads needed by board member Peggy Littleton, gift baskets for board members purchased from Harry and David totalling nearly $45 each, a "Batman Returns" logo t-shirt for retiring board member Rico Munn, and an extravagant steak dinner at Allred's Restaurant in Telluride totalling more than $2,000.

The board frequently catered its meetings with food from the Pour la France restaurant, spending anywhere from $200 - $300 per meal.

Blatant wastes included $136.67 for a hotel room Chairwoman Pamela Suckla didn’t even use, and former Education Commissioner Bill Moloney spending $418 on roundtrip airfare to Cortez, Colo. after losing his original ticket.

The standard for reimbursement is that board members, who by state statute are not paid a salary, should be compensated for any expense that is necessary to performing their board duties. Expenditures that the state will not reimburse include alcoholic beverages, entertainment, personal hygiene, travel insurance, traffic fines, parking tickets, political expenses, magazines and newspapers. Everything else is fair game, and board members spared taxpayers no expense when they splurged on hotel stays at the Broadmoor and hundreds of dollars on snacks.

"It is time for the state board to curb their expenses and save the state some money," said Schaffer, who has proposed that the board post all of its expenses on the Internet. He said the board gave a "lackluster" response to his suggestion.