The Government Employees Retirement System Board of Trustees voted to adopt changes to the travel policy that set a new attendance threshold and adjust the travel allowance.
Trustee Clark moved to adopt the policy committee’s recommended revisions to the travel policy, including a requirement that trustees must participate in at least 75% of board meetings (including a specified Puerto Rico meeting in the prior year) to be eligible to attend general educational sessions off-island the following year. The motion passed; the recorded yes votes included Trustee Clark, Trustee Dorsey, Trustee Smith and Trustee Caldwell; Trustees Leger and Russell were absent.
Trustee Clark told the board the change would be forward looking: “I don't believe in making things punitive and retroactive, so it would be on a forward looking basis. So we will start the evaluation process of that behavior now.”
The policy committee also recommended revising the travel stipend terminology to “allowance” and changing the daily allowance to $25 for travel within the U.S. Virgin Islands and $50 for travel outside the U.S. Virgin Islands. Trustee Clark explained the committee’s reasoning: “What we found is that the travel stipend, in general, doesn't cover all the costs, and so trustees are coming out of pocket.”
On the record, Attorney Williams clarified that the committee and staff had discussed distinctions between per diem and travel allowance and noted there was some ambiguity in the draft language about which amount applied in which circumstances.
The adopted changes combine the new attendance eligibility threshold, the adjusted allowance amounts, and minor wordsmithing and cleanup to the travel policy document. The board did not cite a statutory source for the eligibility requirement during the discussion; the policy was adopted by board action at the meeting.