Harbor Board President Thomas Fields has come under scrutiny from City Auditor Laura Doud and her office after a City Council meeting called into question Fields’s travel expenses.
“In light of recent information the City Council and the Budget Oversight Committee has received related to travel expenses at the Long Beach Harbor Department, I have determined it is appropriate and necessary to conduct an independent review of travel expenses,” said City Auditor Laura Doud in a press release.
3rd District Councilmember Gary DeLong, chairman of the Budget Oversight Committee, investigated multiple overseas travel trips over the course of nearly two years. The research proved that trips were questionable enough to prompt DeLong to propose a travel expenses cap of $40,000 per commissioner per year, which was approved with the recent city budget.
According to the Press-Telegram, “as a port representative, Fields spent $77,196.37 on eight overseas trips from October 29, 2011, to June 1, 2013, while Susan E. Anderson Wise, who was board president during much of that two-year period, spent $34,279.91 on travel on four trips… Nick Sramek spent $40,154.36 on four trips, while Doug Drummond spent $33,297.35 on five trips, and Rich Dines spent the lowest with $32,620.23 on five trips.”
After Doud’s announcement, 5th District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske made a request that the audit also include travel expenses of non-commissioners who travel on port dollars. It is unclear whether Doud approved the request.
Read more: