Officials with the Rancho Santiago Community College District have been spending tax dollars on high-end travel and accommodations, the Voice of OC reports. Recent spending included:
$2,036 for trustee Jose Solorio’s airfare, convention registration and two-night stay at the Aria Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, while attending the annual meeting of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials.
Spending on more than 200 trips, to 48 different cities in five countries, during the past five years.
$777 on rental cars, gasoline and parking for two cars rented by trustees attending a Dallas conference that was less than two miles from their hotels.
$201 for a Saturday night stay at a hotel in Washington, D.C., by a trustee who was attending a “leadership conference” that didn’t start until Monday. Another trustee charged $259 in a similar arrangement.
$120 for a trustee to take a private limousine ride from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.
A $121 liquor tab (later reimbursed) and $94 food and tip expense for two trustees to dine together while “debriefing” in the nation’s capital after last year’s U.S.-Mexico Binational Forum on Higher Education, Innovation and Research.
The Voice of OC also found that trustees routinely booked luxury seats on flights, rather than flying coach. (Source: Voice of OC, December 1.)