Face The State Staff Report
Seven months after a Face The State investigation revealed excessive spending by Colorado's state Board of Education, the board is now itemizing expenses and has generally scaled back on spending as a group, with one exception. Chairwoman Pamela Jo Suckla is still billing the taxpayers for her monthly home Internet.
Face The State first detected the expense in February, after an open records request reaching back to August 2006 revealed Suckla is reimbursed $45 every month for “high-speed, wireless Internet service” from VelocityNet, LLC. Records from the request also revealed reimbursements for a $2,000 steak dinner, a lost plane ticket and a Batman Returns t-shirt.
The Joint Budget Committee responded by cutting the SBOE’s budget from $276,000 last year to $220,000 for the next fiscal year beginning July 1,2008. The JBC also cut the board’s $60,000 travel budget in half.
But the board's most recent expense report shows that Suckla is still being compensated for “communication services from outside sources.” The expenditure shares the same code as Suckla’s previous reimbursements for Internet and phone.
John Holcomb, a professor of business ethics and legal studies at the University of Denver, said Suckla could argue that without Internet she might have to charge more expenses for traveling in order to obtain access, but he also questioned her level of personal use. “She should charge for a reasonable apportionment of the Internet that is related to her work on the board,” Holcomb said. “The ethical issue would ask how much is reasonable?”
Holcomb recommended Suckla take into account her personal use of the Internet and that of family members. Suckla could not be reached for comment before press time.
FTS UPDATE
Suckla could not be reached before press time. She did, however, contact Face The State after the report was posted. Suckla maintains that her spending is frugal and explained she has three homes--two with Internet--but only seeks reimbursement for the Internet in her Cortez home. The Internet at Suckla's ranch home is $65 per month, and she absorbs the cost. Suckla says Internet in her Cortez home, where she spends most of her time, was installed specifically for her work on the board.
"I won't use this when I'm done," said Suckla, adding that she plans to cancel her VelocityNet Internet in January when her time on the board is up.