{"id":11665,"date":"2010-01-20T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2010-01-20T07:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=11665"},"modified":"2010-03-09T08:47:42","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T15:47:42","slug":"cruces-manager-reimburses-city-for-travel-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/01\/cruces-manager-reimburses-city-for-travel-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Cruces manager repays city for travel costs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Reimbursements followed scrutiny of trips, which Terrence Moore says is a coincidence<\/h4>\n

Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore<\/a> reimbursed the city for some costs associated with two business trips he took last year \u2014 after a complaint was filed over one trip and an attorney requested documentation about the other.<\/p>\n

Moore says the timing of the city Hotline Review Committee\u2019s investigation into a November trip to Chicago and a records request from a Las Cruces attorney about a September trip to Santa Fe are coincidental and had nothing to do with the decisions to reimburse the city for some of the costs of both trips.<\/p>\n

Although the Hotline Review Committee\u2019s work relates to personnel matters and is exempt from release under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, Moore gave the city clerk permission to release the committee\u2019s\u00a0report and related records in response to a request from NMPolitics.net.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have nothing to hide,\u201d Moore said about releasing the documents.<\/p>\n

The hotline committee \u2013 which is composed of three top city administrators appointed to the board by Moore \u2013 made clear its opinion that Moore\u2019s trip to Chicago was inconsistent with the city managers\u2019 direction to city staff to be frugal about travel. The committee also found that Moore hadn\u2019t provided some required documentation related to the trip.<\/p>\n

Moore flew to Chicago \u2013 his hometown \u2013 on Nov. 18. The trip was approved by Mayor Ken Miyagishima<\/a>, who has to sign off on all of Moore\u2019s business travel. On the evening of Nov. 19, Moore spoke at the University of Illinois, discussing his 2008 participation in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference \u2013 a program sponsored by the secretary of defense that, according to its Web site<\/a>, is designed for \u201cpublic opinion leaders interested in growing their knowledge of the military and national defense issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the same day, Moore spoke to a university class about his experiences as a city manager. He didn\u2019t notify the city of any scheduled business other than those two events, though he didn\u2019t fly home until three days later \u2013 on Sunday, Nov. 22.<\/p>\n

Anonymous caller sparks review<\/h3>\n

On Dec. 4, an anonymous caller complained<\/a> to the city\u2019s fraud, waste and abuse hotline. That sparked the review in which the hotline committee identified three problems:<\/p>\n

\u2022 The city requires documentation of the purpose of a business trip, which Moore did not provide.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Moore combined a vacation with a business trip \u2013 which city policy allows \u2013 but he did not schedule annual leave for any of the time he was gone and didn\u2019t provide a breakdown of city and personal expenses, which was required.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Moore didn\u2019t provide the required justification for the rental car he used while in Chicago.<\/p>\n

The hotline committee\u2019s report<\/a> includes strong statements about the trip:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe City paid $751.57 for Mr. Moore to present his experience with the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference he attended in September 2008, from 4 to 6pm on November 19 in his hometown,\u201d the report states, adding that, because of budget constraints and Moore\u2019s direction to city staff to eliminate all travel except that necessary for required continuing education of professional, certified staff, \u201cthis is clearly an inconsistency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is vital to the tone of the organization that Mr. Moore strictly adhere to policy and make fiscally responsible decisions consistent with expectations and direction to all City staff,\u201d states the memo from the committee, which is made up of the assistant city manager, city attorney and the city\u2019s internal audit manager.<\/p>\n

The same day the committee issued those findings in its report to Miyagishima, the mayor met with Moore. Following that meeting, Moore reimbursed the city for $483.87 \u2013 all the costs of the trip except the $267.70 for airfare. In addition, two annual leave days were deducted from Moore\u2019s account for Nov. 18 and 20.<\/p>\n

Moore, Miyagishima not sure reimbursement was necessary<\/h3>\n
\"Las<\/a>

Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

But Moore and Miyagishima both say now they\u2019re not sure that was a fair resolution. A section in Moore\u2019s employment contract<\/a>, they say, appears to allow travel for funding for events like those Moore attended in Chicago.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re referring to part of section eight of the contract, which states that the city \u201cshall budget and pay for\u201d official travel, meetings, \u201cand occasions to adequately continue the professional development\u201d of Moore, and for \u201cshort courses, institutes, and seminars that are necessary for the Employee\u2019s professional development and for the good of the Employer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically he\u2019s allowed to just do a lot of things and the city should just reimburse him,\u201d Miyagishima said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was one of those bills in which, based on my contract, I have those abilities,\u201d Moore said in an interview. \u201cThe bottom line, I\u2019ve taken care of all of this\u2026 I think that was an admirable thing to do. Is it necessarily fair? No.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore also said he didn\u2019t request vacation time because he considered the day he was speaking to be a work day, in addition to the two days he traveled \u2013 on a Wednesday and a Sunday. Because one travel day was on the weekend, Moore said, he thought he could take Friday off without using leave time.<\/p>\n

A Dec. 28 memo from Miyagishima to Councilor Dolores Connor tells the final piece of the story: Miyagishima wrote that, in retrospect, \u201cthe City of Las Cruces may have overstepped its boundaries by asking Mr. Moore for reimbursement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn discussing this with Mr. Moore, he prefers to leave things as is and just move forward,\u201d the memo states. \u201cI, too, feel this is the best option.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Santa Fe trip<\/h3>\n

In the case of the trip to Santa Fe, on Aug. 25 Moore\u2019s assistant reserved a room at the Eldorado Hotel for the nights of Sept. 25 and 26 \u2013 at a base cost of $299 per night. Moore signed a travel request form on Aug. 27, and Miyagishima approved it.<\/p>\n

That travel request states that the trip was for \u201cMisc. meetings (Lawrence Horan-CLC Lobbyist) (Joe Thompson-Animal Protection Voters) (NM City Management Assn.).\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore stayed both nights at the Eldorado Hotel. On Sept. 29 his assistant, Barbi Nevarez, sent a required memo<\/a> to the city\u2019s disbursements supervisor with Moore\u2019s hotel receipt for both nights attached.<\/p>\n

Days later, on Oct. 5, Las Cruces attorney Joseph Holmes filed a records request for a number of documents, including \u201ctravel and expense reports for Mr. Moore and his guests\u201d for the trip to Santa Fe. Holmes has not returned a call seeking information about why he filed the request, but city records indicate he was provided with the documents.<\/p>\n

Then, on Oct. 8, Nevarez filed a revised memo<\/a> with the disbursements supervisor that included a new statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cNot knowing what time the meetings would end on September 26, 2009, the hotel had an open reservation. The meetings finished at 4 p.m. He decided to stay overnight instead of driving home at night. He will reimburse the city for the extra night.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Moore said in the interview that he always planned to stay in Santa Fe two nights, but he didn\u2019t know whether he or the city would pay for the second night. The formal meetings involving the New Mexico City Management Association took place Friday, he said, and Saturday was a day of related \u201cinformal\u201d meetings.<\/p>\n

He said the later decision to reimburse the city for the second night \u2013 after initially submitting the receipt for the cost of both nights to the city \u2013 was \u201cjust part of the reimbursement process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we get back we submit everything to finance\u2026 We would then go over\u2026 OK, when was the work finished?\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

Moore said he realized during that review that, because meetings he had scheduled for later on Saturday were cancelled, his work was done in time that the city should not have paid for the hotel on the night of Sept. 26. That, he claimed, led to the revised memo on Oct. 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cEthically, I was not at liberty to charge the city that second night, and that\u2019s why I took care of it,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

Mayor: Moore \u2018never showed any irresponsible spending\u2019<\/h3>\n

Miyagishima, who signs off on all of the city manager\u2019s travel in advance, said he wasn\u2019t too familiar with the details of the Santa Fe trip, but did know that Moore had reimbursed the city for one night.<\/p>\n

Miyagishima said in his experience traveling on city business with Moore, the city manager has \u201cnever showed any irresponsible spending,\u201d so he\u2019s trusted that when Moore presents him with a travel request it\u2019s legit.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I should, but I don\u2019t scrutinize it a lot,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n

Miyagishima said he has become more intentional about asking Moore to not nickel-and-dime the city on travel reimbursements recently.<\/p>\n

As to why the reservation was made at the Eldorado \u2013 one of the most expensive hotels in Santa Fe \u2013 Moore said it was \u201cthe only spot available at the time\u201d because there was a wine festival in Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI picked a bad weekend perhaps in that regard, but nevertheless my efforts were successful,\u201d Moore said, specifically mentioning a newspaper article that ran in November about Moore\u2019s reaching out to Animal Protection Voters during that September trip for help in improving the city\/county animal shelter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Cruces City Manager Terrence Moore reimbursed the city for some costs associated with two business trips he took last year \u2014 after a complaint was filed over one trip and an attorney requested documentation about the other. Moore says the timing is coincidental.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[145],"class_list":["post-11665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-las-cruces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}