KSL 5 News investigates spending by the Kearns Improvement District

Lori Prichard reporting
Produced by Kelly JustKEARNS -- The Kearns Improvement District serves more than 13,000 customers -- providing clean water and maintaining sewer systems.

In the last three years, the agency spent $154,318 for employee training on many courses that require travel. From 2007 through 2009, the Kearns Improvement District paid for its board members and top three managers to stay at places like the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, Canada, and the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans. Sometimes, those board members and managers brought their spouses along on those trips.

The agency's own travel policy allows for that as long as the spouse pays his or her own way. The rules state that "The District shall not be liable for the airfare of any family member or friend who may accompany the traveler on the trip. Upon approval of the General Manager, however, the District may pay such expenses provided that the employee or Trustee agrees to reimburse the District for the same."

However, when KSL spent hours searching through expense reports and travel ledgers provided to us by the Kearns Improvement District, in three cases, we found no proof the district had been reimbursed for plane tickets paid for with government-issued credit cards.

KSL 5 News Reporter Lori Prichard asked, "Are these plane tickets actually being reimbursed and where is the proof?"

"They are reimbursed," said Kearns Improvement District Manager Carl Eriksson. "I will have to do to find the proof," he said.

While Eriksson requested time to review the district's financial records, KSL kept digging and found hundreds of dollars spent on greens fees for board members and employees to play at golf tournaments. We also found examples of overnight hotel stays at conferences held in Provo and Layton. In addition to that, KSL discovered hundreds of dollars spent on registration fees for spouses to take classes during conventions. One of those classes we found on the form was titled the "Lifestyle Program."

Prichard asked, "What is a lifestyle program? What is that?"

Eriksson explained, "They talked to them about controlling weight or making crafts or things like that."

"Is that the best use of taxpayer money for a spouse to go along when, in fact, Kearns is paying $165 per person?" said Prichard.

"I think that's a fair question to ask," responded Eriksson.

There were more questions for the district. KSL showed Eriksson that time and again credit card statements revealed purchases that had no receipts attached.

"No receipt attached," said Prichard.

"Here's another one," Prichard pointed out again. "You wrote alongside the ledger that said Best Buy $224, DVR/VCR and, again, no receipt."

"No receipt?" asked Eriksson.

"No receipt attached," said Prichard. "Do you think that's an appropriate way to…?"

"No, no. I should have included those receipts, put ‘em right with the bills so there would be a document," responded Eriksson.

KSL took what it had found to the Utah State Auditor, Auston Johnson, to get his opinion.

"I don't know how you have an excuse for that poor of money management," said Johnson.

KSL also showed Johnson the undocumented credit card purchases, plus the hundreds of dollars in credit card late fees and finance charges racked up by the district over the course of three years.

KSL also pointed out the expense authorization requests, first filled out by Eriksson and then approved by Eriksson.

"There's no reason why someone would approve their own travel expenditures," said the state auditor. "That's just not good. That's just not a good thing," said Johnson.

A week after KSL's interview with Eriksson, the manager informed the station of changes implemented at the district. First, Eriksson stated he would no longer be approving his own travel expenditure -- a colleague will take over that responsibility. Eriksson also promised better documentation for expenditures along with the addition of actual receipts to credit card purchases. And he provided KSL with computer printouts that he said shows the plane tickets for spouses had been reimbursed. He told us the plane ticket for his wife to San Diego had been paid back but had been documented under Miscellaneous rather than Training and Travel reimbursement. Eriksson added his controller had also paid back the money spent for his wife's two plane tickets; however, that money had been taken out of his paycheck at $50/month increments and was not documented on the Training and Travel ledger provided to KSL.

And earlier this week, Eriksson brought up the district's policy of paying for spousal registrations at its monthly board meeting. After some discussion, the district's three member board approved a resolution to stop paying for those registrations at conferences.

Kearns Improvement District Trustee Kelly Record said, "I think that if we want to take our spouses, we ought to be able to pony up for that extra no matter what it is."

"Your work has been really good for us to recognize that there are things that can definitely be improved," said Eriksson.

KSL also reviewed the overall travel and training budgets from more than a dozen other water and improvement districts around the state.

The Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District spent the most on travel and training with a total of $675,893 during 2007, 2008 and 2009. The district is considered to be one of the largest in the state, providing 90 percent of its municipal water to cities and other large water districts.

Of the smaller districts KSL contacted, the Granger-Hunter Improvement District -- which provides water and sewer service to 25,000 customers -- spent the most with $292,526 in travel and training expenses over the past three years. The Kearns Improvement District -- with 13,000 customers -- came in second at $154,318. And the Cottonwood Improvement District -- with 25,000 customers --rounded out the top three with $132,620 spent on travel and training.

To contact KSL with a "Following Your Money" tip, CLICK HERE.

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