The Commissioners discussed possible changes to the county’s Travel Policy Tuesday afternoon. County Auditor Pennee Schmitt reviewed several proposed changes to the current Travel Policy including the maximum amount allowed for overnight accommodations without Commissioners approval.
The first item mentioned was the cap on the cost of accommodations for overnight travel. The current limit is $150 and recently the Commissioners have granted several exceptions to the policy. Schmitt indicated some counties have no cap, but felt it would be wise to keep some cap just to help the county employees be more frugal while still allowing them to stay at hotels that are hosting mandatory conferences or training. She recommended $175 be the new cap for overnight accommodations and would not include the added cost of taxes for the room. “If it goes over that they need to come before Commissioners Court to get it approved,” Schmitt said.
Travel by airplane for trips between 300 to 800 miles which would include just about any trip within the state of Texas could be done without prior approval from the Commissioners Court. Schmitt indicated the use of personal vehicles for county business trips of more than 50 miles would only be allowed if no county vehicles were available. The Commissioners took no action on the Travel Policy Tuesday, but Schmitt will revise the guidelines that were discussed and present it to the Commissioners Court for approval probably at next week’s meeting.
The Commissioners received the yearly Racial Profiling Reports from Sheriff Keith Merritt and Precinct Three Constable Mark Philpott during their meeting. The agenda was otherwise paying bills and making line item transfers.
Representatives from Enterprise Fleet Management, a subsidiary of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, spoke to the Commissioners Tuesday in a workshop prior to the regular Commissioners Court session. The two spokespersons for Enterprise gave a presentation of the advantages for public entities to lease vehicles instead of purchasing new vehicles.
Commissioner Johnny Trahan asked several questions of the Enterprise representatives, and believes leasing the vehicles for the county’s Transportation Department and possibly the Sheriff’s Office is worth investigating. “The key is you have to be able to figure out what their costs are, and then we’ve got to go back and try to gather all our costs so we can do a comparison to see if this is going to be a good thing for the county.” Trahan advised. He admitted the Court has only heard one side of the equation from Enterprise. Because the presentation from Enterprise took place during a workshop no action was taken Tuesday by the Commissioners Court.
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