Denver Public Schools board member Andrea Merida already has spent more than half of her allocated expense budget for the fiscal year, and with expenses that may not be authorized.
According to credit-card statements obtained by The Denver Post through an open records request, from the beginning of July through the end of November — the most recent statements available — Merida has spent $3,424.56. She is budgeted to spend up to $5,000 through the end of June 2012.
She had no charges in November, but in the other four months, her expenses include multiple restaurant charges; a trip to Washington, D.C.; two Netflix charges of $10.76 each; a Netflix charge for $7.71 in October; and four charges for Xbox Live totaling $125, also in October.
The Post requested the records in order to clarify board-member expense information posted on DPS’s website according to new guidelines on board spending enacted in October.
The board posted a spreadsheet of districtwide expenses that included what had been spent by board members. But the posting but did not break down the numbers by board member or by reason for the expense.
“The idea was to post information quarterly, at least, so that board members and the public could exactly know where their spending is,” said current board president, Mary Seawell.
Board member Arturo Jimenez initially proposed the idea of posting the information for transparency. He was unavailable for comment on Friday.
In the final accounting for the previous fiscal year — bogged down by a previous lack of policy or process for reporting expenses — Merida and Jimenez were found to have exceeded their $5,000 budgets. Merida had spent $12,427.87, and Jimenez spent $6,153.29.
The new policy for board- member spending was made a priority after those numbers were revealed by then-board- president Nate Easley during a meeting in late August.
Jimenez and Merida pledged to pay back all overages once a policy was passed or accounting was reviewed, but as of Friday evening, neither has reimbursed the district.
Previous policy on board spending was vague and only a few lines long, allowing reimbursement for a phone line, mileage and conference-related travel. Only a few items, including charging things for guests, were specifically banned.
The new policy clearly prohibits expenses not related to district work.
Political activities or charges for politically sponsored conferences are now banned.
The policy was not enacted retroactively, but starting in October charges not authorized by the policy will have to be reimbursed.
Merida is disputing some of the new charges, but refused to comment Friday.
Credit-card statements for other board members show that most board members have cut down their spending.
Board member Easley had the next-highest spending, with $2,348.34 in charges through November. More than half of those were made in September during a trip to Washington, D.C., for a conference with the Council for Opportunity in Education.
Jimenez earlier vowed not to use his district-paid credit card until he resolves the overage issue using the new policy to again review previous expenses.
His credit-card statements confirm he has not charged the district since July except once in September for a charge at Tamale Kitchen.
Merida had previously said that she would also post statements on her personal website. Her site was recently updated but does not yet include board finance information.
Online. View Denver School Board members’ expense reports.
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372 or yrobles@denverpost.com
