OAKLAND — An Alameda County grand jury has requested travel documentation for all city employees, as city-funded travel faces heightened scrutiny as officials stare at a massive budget deficit.

The grand jury isn't the only body scrutinizing city travel: the City Council's finance and management committee will review a report today that says city-funded travel and travel-related expenditures topped $1.2 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year.

Council President Ignacio De La Fuente (Glenview-Fruitvale), who said there are far too few controls on travel for nonelected officials, welcomed the grand jury's interest.

"I absolutely believe it's not acceptable," he said, adding, "At this moment, I can tell you this is one of the first things we're going to be looking to cut."

De La Fuente and other council members acknowledge, however, that reducing travel will only put a small dent in what could be a $50 million budget deficit. The council's first meeting on the pending budget cuts is scheduled for Sept. 30.

The Alameda County Civil Grand Jury's request, which was dated Sept. 4 and obtained by the Tribune, asks for "complete documentation for travel for every city employee" for the 2007-08 fiscal year, including receipts for hotel stays, meals, plane tickets and rental cars.

The grand jury requested the documents be produced no later than Monday and Paul Rose, a spokesman for Mayor Ron Dellums, said the documents were given to the grand jury on time.

Jeff Stark, a senior deputy district attorney assigned to the grand jury, could not be reached for comment Monday evening. The civil grand jury is designed to be a local government watchdog by investigating county and local governments and making recommendations on how to make them more efficient and responsive to residents.

A separate grand jury report, released in July, ripped the city of Oakland for what it described as a lax credit-card system and made a series of recommendations on how to tighten up expenditures. Dellums responded by ordering a complete review of the city's credit-card program.

Travel, meanwhile, has been in the council's sights since last summer when it adopted new rules on reporting travel, including publishing an annual report detailing expenditures for trips including airplane travel or lodging paid for by the city.

The report, completed by the city's budget director, Sarah Schlenk, and released earlier this month, does not suggest any wrongdoing. But it did find that more than $1.2 million was spent on travel last year, with more than $750,000 coming from the city's general fund of about $475 million.

The report shows:

  • The police department spent far more than any other city agency or department on travel, racking up $426,832 in expenses mostly to attend training conferences and seminars.
  • Dellums' office spent $44,026 on travel for the mayor and his staff to attend conferences across the country. That included a weeklong trip to a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in January that cost $9,317.
  • City Attorney John Russo's offices spent $13,528 on travel.
  • Four council members' travel expenses totaled nearly $12,000 to attend conferences or meetings. The most expensive of those, according to the report, was a $3,702 trip Councilmember Desley Brooks (Eastmont-Seminary) took to attend a U.S. Africa Sister Cities conference in South Africa in August 2007.

    Brooks said the trip was authorized by her fellow council members and said she went on it because of a long-standing sister-city relationship with Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana, which was also represented at the conference.

    Brooks' said her past work with Sekondi-Takoradi has included visiting as part of a trade delegation, hosting a delegation from the city in Oakland and sending supplies, including an ambulance, to the city.

    There seems to be broad agreement among council members that city trips should be curbed.

    Councilmember Nancy Nadel (Downtown-West Oakland) said expenses such as travel should be on the "chopping block for first cut" with the city facing a budget situation that will force it to make painful decisions.

    Such reductions, she said, "are usually small potatoes in the whole picture, but we may as well make cuts in these areas before we start laying people off."

    Dellums' office had a different take.

    "During these tight economic times, travel is even more a necessity as we are actively reaching out to our partners across the country to bolster our resources and improve our city," Rose said. "Having said that, we're working to tighten our belts by identifying travel expenditures that don't necessarily meet that criteria."

    The City Council's finance and management committee will discuss travel expenses when it meets at 2 p.m. today at City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, in Hearing Room 1.

  • http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_10534240