Thomas’ Spending Was His Undoing : Preps: Extravagant trip to Hawaii among items on former Southern Section commissioner’s expense reports.

An extravagant trip to Hawaii last October was one of many costly items Stan Thomas put on his expense account as the CIF’s Southern Section commissioner in the last year. It was also one of the things that led to his forced resignation Wednesday night.

A recent six-week audit into Thomas’ expense-account reporting revealed uncharacteristic spending that contributed to the Southern Section’s operating deficit of $112,000, the largest in its history. Officials described Thomas’ spending as much more exorbitant in the 1992-93 school year than in his previous six years as commissioner.

His expense reports included a six-day trip to Hawaii last October for Thomas and his son, Chris, the section’s marketing director, to attend a National Federation regional meeting.

Shirley Frazier, the section’s budget and finance director for the last 20 years, said that although the trip had been approved by the Executive Committee, Thomas’ reported expenditures put the trip beyond the budgeted amount.

“You can’t just go along and keep spending and not pay attention to what is happening,” said Frazier, who has worked for four commissioners. “You have to try and work to balance things as much as possible. We’ve had a large deficit now for the past two years.”

The Southern Section’s Executive Committee launched the investigation in late August after a year-end audit turned up evidence of increased spending for meals, entertainment and travel. The committee then hired attorney Spencer Covert to review the audit.

Thomas and the Southern Section’s three other administrators--Dean Crowley, Karen Hellyer and Bill Clark--were all investigated for possible misuse of their expense accounts, but only Thomas was investigated further. On Oct. 6, he answered more than 100 detailed questions about his spending during the last two years. He was then immediately put on paid administrative leave while the Executive Committee reviewed the findings.

The committee reconvened Wednesday, and an 11-hour meeting resulted in Thomas’ resignation and an order to pay $5,000 restitution to the Southern Section by June 30, 1994. Officials said the $5,000 did not necessarily represent the amount Thomas overspent on his expenses, but was a figure reached by attorneys for both sides.

Thomas, 62, replaced Ray Plutko in 1986 and enjoyed a popular run as commissioner. He was viewed favorably by the Executive Committee until the recent audit.

“For many years, the Southern Section has operated on a high level of trust,” said Ken Gunn, principal of Walnut High and president-elect of the Executive Committee. “We now have to try and keep the section running with the same good reputation it has always enjoyed.”

Thomas did not attend Wednesday’s hearing and offered his resignation only when it became apparent he was going to be fired.

“Right now, I’m really just hurting,” Thomas said Thursday. “This isn’t easy. The Executive Committee did what they had to do and that is that. I will probably just retire at this point.”