1. Except as provided in section 9 below, all travel by commissioners and by commission staff must be approved in advance of departure.
2. Except as provided in section 9 below, each commissioner or commission employee expecting to travel on official wine commission business shall prepare a detailed, written description of the purpose of the proposed trip together with an estimate of expenses to be incurred for transportation, lodging, meals, promotional hosting, and all other costs which he/she expects to incur in connection with such travel.
3. Reimbursement for transportation expenses shall be at actual cost subject to the following limitations. Air travel must be on US carriers if available. No business or first class air travel will be approved or reimbursed. If a commissioner or commission employee uses his/her automobile for transportation, mileage shall be reimbursed at the current rate established by the Internal Revenue Service for business travel.
4. Reimbursement for lodging expenses shall be at actual cost up to a maximum of two hundred percent of the per diem lodging rates for US federal agency employees established by the US General Services Administration.
5. Reimbursement for meals shall be at actual cost, provided that such costs are reasonable for the particular market in which the expense is incurred.
6. Travel by commissioners and by the executive director of the Washington wine commission must be approved in advance by the chairperson of the commission. Travel by other commission staff must be approved in advance by the executive director of the commission.
7. Each person traveling on official commission business shall submit a written request for reimbursement within forty-five days after returning to the office from such trip. Written receipts for each expense in excess of twenty-five dollars for which reimbursement is requested must accompany the reimbursement request. Expenses will not be reimbursed unless such a request, accompanied by receipts where required, is timely submitted.
8. Expenses which have not been approved in advance will not be reimbursed unless the employee establishes, to the satisfaction of the person who reviewed and approved the estimated expenses, that the expense was both unanticipated and reasonably incurred.
9. No advance approval of estimated travel expenses is required for attendance at a regular or special meetings of the commission or a committee thereof within the state of Washington. If attendance at such a meeting requires the commissioner/employee to travel at least one hundred miles from his/her usual place of business, he/she is entitled to be reimbursed for the actual cost of one night's lodging, subject to the limits set forth in section 4 above. He/she is also entitled to reimbursement for costs of transportation and meals as provided in sections 3 and 5.
[Statutory Authority: Chapter
15.88 RCW. WSR 03-01-048, § 16-575-030, filed 12/10/02, effective 1/10/03.]