Trustees Threaten Ely With Lawsuit : Community colleges: He says he won’t submit receipts for his trips until the district reimburses him $1,500 for business expenses he has incurred.

Ventura County Community College District trustees said they will sue fellow Trustee Tom Ely if he does not submit expense reports for business trips he took this year or repay the district $1,575 in travel advances.

The board voted 4 to 0 Tuesday night to give Ely until July 15 to respond to its demand, or it will file suit in Small Claims Court against him. Ely did not vote on the matter.

The board’s demands center on three trips Ely took between February and April to community college conventions in Sacramento, Burlingame and Washington. The board also ordered Ely to repay any expenses his wife, Ingrid, may have charged on a district credit card when she accompanied him to Sacramento and Washington.

“He said he doesn’t want to cooperate, and he’s refusing to pay,” Trustee Timothy Hirschberg said of Ely. Hirschberg said the district decided to take Ely to court if he does not comply with the board’s order.

But Ely said Wednesday that he will not submit receipts for his trips until the district reimburses him for $1,500 in business expenses he has incurred over the past three years. Since April, the 54-year-old Simi Valley resident said, he has submitted receipts for mileage and for calls made on his home and car telephones but has yet to receive reimbursement from the district.

“If that’s the way they treat my submissions, why the hell should I go to the trouble of submitting anymore,” Ely said.

According to Ely, Vice Chancellor Tom Kimberling told the board that the district attorney’s office has advised the college district not to pay Ely until he complies with its demands. Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol J. Nelson has said she is investigating Ely for possible misappropriation of several thousand dollars in district funds related to his travel expenses.

“Kimberling has lied,” Ely said. “The district attorney never said that.” Neither Kimberling nor Nelson could be reached for comment.

“I’ve got all of the data,” Ely said of his travel expenses. “It’s no problem to submit it. But they owe me a duty.”

As for his wife’s expenses, Ely said he already has reimbursed the district.

Ely’s troubles began in March when the Board of Trustees commissioned an audit of his travel expenses after learning that he had run up large gambling debts and that he had used his office telephone to call casinos in Nevada.

The district attorney’s office began its inquiry shortly afterward.

Ely has said that the audit is flawed and that he has not violated district travel policy.

Ely, who has said his gambling debts amounted to less than $20,000, said Wednesday he recently was awarded a judgment against his insurance company, which had previously refused to reimburse him for an automobile accident last year involving him and his wife. Ely refused to say how much money he had been awarded but said he would be able to pay all of his debts.

In addition to his gambling debts, Ely was ordered by a Municipal Court judge in May to pay Simi Valley Bank $17,500 in outstanding credit card bills.