EFFECTIVE DATE:  October 1, 2005

Revised:  January 01, 2008

POLICY: Members of the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office shall adhere to the procedures necessary to schedule, attend, document and pay for any Sheriff’s Office related training and / or travel. Training classes, travel arrangements and other accommodations will be arranged with the best interest of the Sheriff’s Office budget in mind.

PURPOSE:  The Garfield County Sheriff’s Office offers a variety of training and travel opportunities.  To obtain the most efficient and economical use of our resources, it is necessary to establish a consistent process for all training and travel matters.

METHOD:

Mandatory Training:  Employees of the Sheriff’s Office are often times required to attend MANDATORY training throughout the year.  These trainings may vary from in-house certifications to outside training which has been deemed necessary for a specific position. When mandatory training is scheduled, all employees required to attend that training shall attend.  Only those employees who suffer emergencies, are sick, or have pre-approved leave shall be excused, but may be required to attend a make-up date.

Voluntary Training:  All training not scheduled as mandatory shall be considered VOLUNTARY.  The Fair Labor and Standards Act (FLSA) allow an employer not to pay wages for non-mandatory training attended while an employee is on days off. However, the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office considers ALL approved training valuable since training benefits both the employee and the organization.  Therefore, employees attending approved training will be paid for attending training whether scheduled to work or not.

Any member of the Sheriff’s Office who wishes to attend voluntary training shall complete a Training Request Form and submit it to their supervisor.  The supervisor will approve or disapprove the request dependent upon schedule, need, previous training, or other factors related to the benefit of the organization.  Approved requests will be forwarded to the Training Coordinator for processing and arranging training and travel.  The Training Coordinator will provide the employee a completed packet of registration information, a per diem check if required, and travel plans.  If an employee is unable to attend scheduled training, it is the employee’s responsibility to notify the Training Coordinator IN ADVANCE to cancel the arrangements. Failure to comply may result in denial of future training and / or discipline.

Documentation:  All training attended by employees of the Sheriff’s Office shall be documented.  Upon completion of any training, an employee should obtain a certificate, itinerary or agenda to verify the training.  These documents should include: The type of training, date, location and number of hours of training credit.  The employee shall provide a copy of these documents to the Training Coordinator who will forward them to the Human Resources Manager for permanent inclusion into the employees training file.  The employee shall maintain a training log on the Sheriff’s Office data base and shall add all training courses to that log in a timely manner.

Compensation:  Compensation will be paid to all employees that attend mandatory or pre-approved voluntary training.  There will be NO travel time allowed when traveling to any training in Garfield County.  Travel time will begin either from the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office or the employee’s residence, whichever is closer to the destination.

When attending training, employees will place ACTUAL time in training on their time sheet (not shift time) and make a notation about the training (Firearms training, Interview training, etc).  Do not include free time such as lunch unless being trained while eating (working lunch).  Include any travel time as stated above on the timesheet (11 hours, travel to Denver and training).  Do not include meal breaks during travel.

If, at the end of the pay period, an employee is “short” hours because of training, an "Administrative Adjustment" may be made to the time sheet so that the employee will not suffer a financial shortage or have to use PDO.  Since most training is scheduled in advance, efforts should be made to avoid a shortage including: Shift adjustments, overtime shifts, etc.  An adjustment will only be made for shortages due to training (not vacation, sick, etc.). Adjustments will not be made for Patrol Trainees while attending CLETA.

Travel Expenses:  Most travel expenses, with the exception of meals, will be paid for in advance or purchased with the Garfield County Purchase card.  These expenses include:  The cost of a training class, rental vehicles, accommodations, etc.

Meals:  The Garfield County Sheriff’s Office will adhere to a Per Diem method for most meal expenses.  Funds   will be advanced or reimbursed on a 24-hour day, $38.00 per diem rate, NO receipts required. If attending a conference, seminar or other event where some or all meals are included, the per diem will be adjusted accordingly. The pro ration of the per diem rates is as follows:

ONE-DAY OR PARTIAL DAY TRAVEL:

BREAKFAST…………….                 $9.00

Per Diem rate may be claimed only if the travel requires an employee to depart before 6:00 am., or return to the County after 6:00 am, to attend GCSO business away from the regular workplace.

LUNCH…………………                   $12.00

Per Diem rate may be claimed only if the travel requires an employee to depart before noon, or return to the County after noon, to attend GCSO business away from the regular workplace.

DINNER………………..                   $17.00

Per Diem rate may be claimed only if the travel requires an employee to depart before 6:00 pm, or return to the County after 6:00 pm, due to GCSO business away from the regular workplace.

IN-COUNTY MEAL REIMBURSEMENT:

The County will NOT reimburse an employee for an in-county meal.  Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the Sheriff or his representative.  When submitting the receipt for reimbursement, include the reason or purpose of the in-county meal and names of the people in attendance at the meeting.

IN STATE TRAVEL:

The County will advance employees for the first day as noted in the One Day Travel above plus $38.00 for each full day away as approved in the Pre-Authorization Request form.

OUT OF STATE TRAVEL:

The County will advance employees for the first day as noted in the One Day Travel above plus $38.00 for each full day away as approved in the Pre-Authorization Request form. 

If traveling out of state to a major city in a high cost area, with PRIOR approval from the Sheriff or his representative, expenditures may exceed the $38.00 limit but may not exceed $60.00 per day.  All receipts will be required.

The County purchase card in lieu of per diem may be used during out of state travel if PRIOR approval is received from the Sheriff or his representative and is so noted on the Pre-Authorization request.  All receipts are required.  Total expenditures will not exceed $60.00 per day and any charges exceeding that limit will be reimbursed to the County by the employee.

PURCHASE CARDS:

County Purchase Cards may NOT be used in conjunction with per diem to purchase meals during travel. Receipts are always required on Purchase Card charges.  The County reimburses up to a 15% tip and is included in the per diem rate.

The allowable expenditure for meals charged to Purchase Cards is $38/day with the same meal breakdown as allowed for per diem, unless prior authorization has been granted in advance by the Sheriff or his representative.

Do NOT charge alcohol on County Purchase Cards.  Alcohol charges are not allowed and are not reimbursable.

Financial Investment in Training: In order to maintain the Sheriff’s Office investment in employee training, all voluntary training exceeding $3000 (per training) will require a contract to be signed based on an employment commitment of one year per thousand dollars of training expense. This amount includes the total cost of the training but not wages paid during that time. If an employee voluntary leaves within the commitment time frame, they will be responsible for reimbursing the Garfield County Sheriff's Office a pro rated amount of the remaining training expense.