MWD Board Approves Tighter Rules for Reporting Expenses : Government: Some directors call timely filing an unnecessary burden. Many have neglected the task for years.

The Metropolitan Water District board of directors Tuesday agreed to tighten its travel and expense account rules, despite objections from some directors who said that filing timely expense reports is an unnecessary burden.

The 51 directors, who spent more than $255,000 on MWD-paid trips last year, agreed to the revised expense account regulations at the urging of the public agency’s auditor who is concerned about sloppy reporting.

MWD records show that director Mike Nolan of Burbank failed to file any expense reports covering $75,000 over a three-year period, and that director Doyle F. Boen, who represents the Eastern Municipal Water District, has yet to account for $10,567 in travel expenses from last year.

Nolan, whose delinquent filings led to the reform movement, endorsed the new rules. “This system would save me from the situation I now find myself in,” said Nolan. “I’ll fill out the paperwork, I’ll fill out the forms.”

As directors debated the proposed rule changes, it became clear that there are others who have neglected for years to regularly report on their expenses. Director Dale Mason, who represents the San Diego Water Authority, said he has not filed an expense account covering his trips to Los Angeles to attend MWD meetings for the past four years.

MWD officials had no answer to why reports such as Mason’s had not been filed and why their absence apparently went undetected. MWD General Manager Carl Boronkay has acknowledged that concerns over expense documentation were raised in a recent management audit performed by the consulting firm of Price Waterhouse.

Though the revised expense rules were approved with just one no vote, many directors clearly were concerned about the new requirements that they submit complete accountings of their expenses within 90 days.

“It seems to me that in some cases you are putting a burden on directors to do a lot of little detail stuff,” said Mason. “I’m not sure you are not going a little overboard here.”

Mason pointed out that many expenses are billed directly to the MWD by hotels, airlines and rental car agencies, making an expense report redundant.

Another San Diego director, John P. Starkey, who cast the lone negative vote, said: “I think we’re going in the proper direction here, but . . . this puts a burden on the director.”

Others said the changes were long overdue. They said detailed expense reports are necessary to assure that directors are properly spending public funds.

“The code (for justifying expenses) is explicit and we’ve all ignored it,” said director John Killefer, of Coastal Municipal Water District in Orange County. He spearheaded the move to tighten the rules.

Director Kenneth Witt, who represents the Orange County Water Authority, also urged directors to support the reforms. “We should have been doing this for 20 years.”

The new regulations require directors to justify their expenses as being “incurred for an activity that has a significant and meaningful link to the purposes, policies and interests of the district.”

Directors are now required to provide an “adequate description of the purpose of the meal and names of guests and their affiliations . . . whenever claiming reimbursement for business meals, which include one or more guests.”

The revised rules require directors to “repay the district for disallowed expenses incurred on their behalf.”

If reports are not filed within 90 days, the agency will consider the expense as a payment to the director and alert the Internal Revenue Service that the amount is taxable.

Directors who are now delinquent in reporting have 90 days to bring their accounts up to date.

While virtually all directors had some travel expenses during the past year, records requested by The Times found that just seven directors accounted for more than one-half of the $255,772 that the board spent last year. The board spent $256,377 in 1989 and $205,072 in 1988, according to MWD records.