Accountability in Colorado after wasteful spending
From Sunshine Review
October 7, 2009 Colorado Commissioner of Education Dwight Jones reimbursed the state for personal expenses that were exposed.[1]
[edit] Wasteful spending
Jones paid $940 to the state for 2.5 years of personal calls he made on his state cellphone. The media looked into and asked about his expenses and exposed the extraneous spending.
The payback was almost half of the total $2,227 billed to Jones' cellphone since he started the job. Later, reports about expensive meals and new office furniture were billed to Jones' expense account at a time of severe state budget cuts.
The Department of Education requires its employees to reimburse the state monthly for anything more than the occasional, short personal call.
"He knew about the policy, and he just hadn't done it," said department spokesman Mark Stevens. "It was an oversight."
[edit] Bills
In a dozen cases, as much as half of Jones' monthly bills were made up of personal phone calls. The most he spent on personal calls came to $59 in July 2008, records show.
Jones called friends from New York to Texas and spent half-hours at a time on the phone with family in Kansas, billing records show.
Rep. Frank McNulty, a Republican from Highlands Ranch, said carrying two cellphones is a hassle, but state employees should pay all personal calling costs.
"How could he not do that? In those cases where you're using a state resource for government and personal uses, you need to be even more conscientious," McNulty said. "That should be standard operating procedure."
Records also show Jones bought two BlackBerry cellphones more than $500 each with state money in a 13-month period. Staff said the first phone stopped working in early 2009.
[edit] Other expenses
In mid-September, local television stations reported Jones had charged expensive meals and thousands of dollars in office furniture and televisions to the state, raising many questions.
Jones said he bought the furniture for safety reasons. He said the televisions allowed for more teleconferencing and less costly travel.
Jones paid for his most expensive meal, a $244 dinner at the Ritz Carlton on June 21, after eating with a Greeley superintendent and two other officials, records show.
The accounting department asked him to reimburse the state $102 for meals with his wife and another official's spouse at Strings.
Jones makes $223,000 a year and vowed to pay closer attention to spending in his department.
Sen. Nancy Spence, a Republican from Centennial, works with Jones on education issues. Spence said the spending raised concern, but she can't fault his performance as the state's education leader.
"He has a very high work ethic, and I appreciate that," she said. "He has to be mindful of the fact that our fiscal situation doesn't permit charging the state for personal expenses."
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