OCTA Board Adopts Stricter Travel Rules

Orange County transportation officials now will have to think twice before leaving town.

Cracking down on unnecessary travel expenses, Orange County Transportation Authority board members unanimously approved new travel rules that require the agency’s 1,600 employees to seek board approval of all out-of-state trips and division directors’ permission for in-state travel. Also, reservations for hotels, airline flights and car rental must be made by a new, in-house travel coordinator.

In addition, the OCTA board voted to hike Orange County motorists’ annual vehicle registration renewal fees by $1 to pay for the removal of abandoned vehicles.

Currently, Orange County’s vehicle owners already pay a $1 surcharge for freeway emergency call boxes and a $2 surcharge for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, due to increase a dollar in 1992 and another dollar in 1993. The basic registration fee is $23, due to increase to $28 in January, plus a tax based on 2% of the vehicle’s value, which declines on an 11-year depreciation schedule.

During discussion of OCTA’s new $452.2-million budget, which the board also approved Thursday, OCTA Chairman Roger R. Stanton asked why some departments with only a handful of employees are budgeted for seven times the amount of travel per person as other departments with larger staffs.

Jim Kenan, OCTA’s chief financial officer, said he would look into the matter and report back next month.

Last week, Kenan told The Times that he had discovered serious travel abuses during a recent review of policy. Among the abuses Kenan alleged was OCTD’s practice of “disguising” some trips as training costs instead of a travel expense.

Drawing more controversy on Thursday, however, was OCTA’s final approval of a $1 surcharge added to motor vehicle registration renewal fees. The board approved formation of a countywide abandoned vehicle removal authority, to be funded with the new levy.

The move required prior approvals by the Board of Supervisors and city councils representing more than half of the county’s population. Only Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Los Alamitos and Seal Beach withheld support.

Los Alamitos Councilman Robert P. Wahlstrom said his city opposed the new program because it only spends about $2,000 a year on removal of abandoned vehicles but its citizens would pay much more than that in vehicle registration surcharges.

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder also voted against the program.

About 43,000 times a year, Orange County residents ask authorities to remove abandoned vehicles that often lie rusting on front lawns or on the street, not anywhere near their owners’ residences.

Local jurisdictions spend about $1.4 million annually on such removals, with police often unable to recover the cost.