Colorado fire department changes travel and expense policies following CBS News Colorado investigation

The South Adams County Fire Department has revamped its travel and expense policies following a CBS News Colorado investigation, which showed thousands of taxpayer dollars had been used for years for department spouses to travel to professional conferences.

Department chiefs spent lavishly on themselves and their spouses during conferences and would often arrive days before events started and leave days after they ended, prompting one firefighter to say the trips looked more like a vacation than work.

Maria Carabajal, the department’s public information officer, said the new directives are “part of our commitment to transparency and efficient operations” and have now been distributed to all department personnel.

In May, CBS News Colorado reported that, for years, South Adams County Fire Protection District Board members and department chiefs took their spouses to in-state and out-of-state conferences, spending thousands of dollars feeding spouses at top-dollar restaurants, arriving days before official conference functions began and leaving days after conferences ended, driving up hotel and transportation costs.

Anya Otterson, a former South Adams County firefighter, went to one of those conferences in 2022 in Orlando, Florida and said, “there were wives and partners there, which I was not expecting. It felt a little bit more like a vacation than a working trip.”

She said she remembered going to a group dinner at a steakhouse with a tab of around $700 and employees drinking alcohol.

“It just left me with a weird taste in my mouth about the priorities of leadership,” said Otterson, who now works at a different fire department.

South Adams County Fire initially defended its spending, offering a variety of explanations for its actions but has now made significant changes to its travel and expense policies:

• Taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for spouses. “Expenses for spouses, personal guests, or family members are not reimbursable,” according to the new policy;
• No more tacking on extra days to the start and end of conferences. “Staying beyond the time required to attend the function shall be paid for by the individual employee unless the stay-over offsets the district’s savings in airfare and the stay-over is pre-approved by the fire chief,” reads the new policy;
• No more use of department credit cards or P-cards for travel. Employees will be provided “per diem” reimbursement;
• Alcohol purchases are prohibited. “Any costs for alcohol will not be reimbursed,” according to the new policy.

South Adams County Fire Chief Ken Koger approved the new travel and expense policies on July 3.  

“Our duty as public servants is to be held accountable by each other and the community,” Otterson said. “So I think just because it’s been going on for a while, doesn’t make it ok. It needs to change.”