Earlier this year, I covered how executives at Denver International Airport (DEN) received criticism for spending $165K on a trip to Madrid to attend a conference intended to attract more airlines to the airport, including one executive spending $19K on his business class ticket.
As you’d expect, this was quite a scandal, and it just seems like no effort was put into controlling costs. Executives at the airport have faced an ethics investigation over this trip, and the results of that are now in.
In this post:
Ethics board clears airport executives, sort of
Denver’s Board of Ethics has cleared Denver International Airport and its CEO, Phil Washington, over the Madrid trip taken earlier this year. The investigation was used to determine if the executives were using public office for private gain, and while that wasn’t determined to be the case, there was a huge amount of criticism for the amount of money spent, and the rationale used for the spending.
The board said it was “appalled by both the amount of funds that were expended for this conference and by Mr. Washington’s seemingly cavalier attitude in responding to this complaint.” Washington told the board that he “had no idea of the cost of those tickets,” and that they were compliant with the travel policy for flights of eight hours or longer.
It was claimed that “upon reflection, had he known the price of the tickets was that high, he would not have allowed the trip.” But the board questioned that assertion, since Washington approved cost estimates for flights before they were purchased.
Washington also claimed that flying first or business class was necessary so that they could “hit the ground running” at the conference, though the board pointed out that most of the people on the trip did not participate in any panel presentations until two to three days after they arrived in Madrid.
The board couldn’t find any link between flying in first or business class and securing new air routes for the airport. The board also questioned “the need to send as many delegates as were sent to Madrid, and because this is an annual conference, disagrees with Mr. Washington that this was a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity.”
The board concluded the following:
“While a violation of the Denver Code of Ethics is not proven by clear and convincing evidence, the conduct here falls short of the Board’s basic expectations and erodes the confidence of the citizens of the City and County of Denver that persons in positions of public power are acting for the benefit of the city’s best interests.”
I think the board reached exactly the right conclusion
I think the Denver Board of Ethics conclusion is spot on. I don’t think the airport executives violated ethics by using public office for private gain. However, I think this situation is the prime example of what happens when you have a simple travel policy that allows X class of service for flights of X length, with no limits on pricing, or anything else.
Obviously Denver Airport is a massive operation, and $165K is a drop in the bucket for the overall airport budget. At the same time, you should lead by example, and how can you tell workers that they shouldn’t be able to get a raise when you’re fine dropping $19K on a single airline ticket?
It just showed a lack of basic decency, which isn’t necessarily unethical, but that doesn’t mean that the public shouldn’t expect more.
Bottom line
Executives at Denver Airport have faced an ethics investigation over their spending on a recent business trip to Madrid, where they spent $165K, including them each dropping anywhere from $9K to $19K on tickets. While I agree that they weren’t using public office for private gain, that doesn’t mean that their behavior wasn’t inappropriate, and showed a disregard for how funds were being spent.
What do you make of the conclusion of the Denver Board of Ethics??
The problem was not with the executives but with the travel policy itself that allowed this wasteful spending. I work in government. Our travel policy sets similar parameters for travel and class of travel but sets a reasonable monetary ceiling for airfares, hotel, car rental. For hotels, anything above $250 a night triggers all kinds of reviews and prior authorizations and justifications. Our travel policy also states that the least costly travel options should be...
The problem was not with the executives but with the travel policy itself that allowed this wasteful spending. I work in government. Our travel policy sets similar parameters for travel and class of travel but sets a reasonable monetary ceiling for airfares, hotel, car rental. For hotels, anything above $250 a night triggers all kinds of reviews and prior authorizations and justifications. Our travel policy also states that the least costly travel options should be pursued. It is crazy DIA travel policy didn’t have any of these safeguards in place.
This falls under the 'just because you can, should you?' though when you work for a bureaucratic/govt agency ... the rules are designed by pencil pushers who get confused by anything not a straight line ... when I was a senior exec and faced with a scenario of a trip costing more than $10k, there are other solutions like flying to NYC first or staying over the weekend in Europe which sounds like a boondoggle...
This falls under the 'just because you can, should you?' though when you work for a bureaucratic/govt agency ... the rules are designed by pencil pushers who get confused by anything not a straight line ... when I was a senior exec and faced with a scenario of a trip costing more than $10k, there are other solutions like flying to NYC first or staying over the weekend in Europe which sounds like a boondoggle to a bureaucrats but might say the company $6k ... but again, a normal corporation would sign off on that but a quasi government agency?
Qualifying for GS ain't easy. Gotta do what you gotta do
The 1st paragraph says one executive spent $19,000 on a business class ticket. That seems impossibly high, even for a last-minute booking. First class, maybe?
Though that is so high noone in his right mind would pay for it, I can find fares from Washington to Madrid around 19k J-Return with British Airways. Assuming they booked multiple seats maybe one after the other and absolutely had to be on the same plane by one airline that is more expensive for that route anyway, the price is certainly possible.
Not sure why I thought it was from Washington. From Denver the most expensive flight I can see at first glance is 11k but I still think 19k is possible, especially when this was the last J seat on the plane.
This said, after he told the panel they needed first or business class in order to immediately work it is quite possible this was F.
It would be helpful to know who booked and confirmed the tickets?
Directly with airlines, or a Travel Management firm?
After almost 6 months, the source of the bookings should be disclosed to understand the logic of such high priced tickets.
That must have been some clever (and inefficient) routing to get the cost of the ticket to $19k. There’s no international F cabins that go to MAD from the US, so it seems they would have had to route through another city in Europe. Like maybe US-FRA in LH F? Or US-CDG in AF F? Maybe even through the Middle East, then back to MAD.
"No private gain"
So they didn't even put their frequent flier numbers on the reservations?!
Most companies’ travel policies explicitly state the employee is allowed to earn miles accrued for their trip. In order to meet the threshold of proof here, it would need to be reasonably proven that they took the flight for the sole purpose of gaining miles. That’s ostensibly false as it is known they visited the conference. It’s still ridiculous, but your particular argument wouldn’t hold up in court.