• Five Secretary of State employees racked up $10,000 in travel expenses for a conference in a resort casino in Central Oregon. That amounts to costing $2,000 per person to travel in-state to attend classes which were on “self-awareness” and “communication skills”. How about reading a book next time?
• Four Salem School Board members spent $4,500 to attend a conference in Portland (just 46 miles away!!!).
• A state disability official racked up $35,000 in travel expenses for commuting from her home in Eastern Oregon to Salem.
• While some agencies splurged on travel, other responsible agencies cut their travel budgets by 35% to deal with budget cut-backs – just like Oregon families do. (Portland Online 11-7-2011, OPB 11-18-2011, Statesman Journal 12-18-2011, The Oregonian 5-27-2011, 12-17-2011)