Receipt Confirms Board Secretary’s Claims

Documents obtained by The Voice through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request confirm claims by Fairfield County School Board member Danielle Miller that she returned to the District nearly 100 percent of a mileage check provided to her for travel to a conference in Atlanta, Ga., last summer, to which Miller drove a District-owned car. What remains unclear, however, is why at least some of that money wasn’t used to supply fuel for the vehicle at some point during the approximately 500-mile round trip.

Miller, who serves as Board Secretary, attended the conference on school bullying at the Atlanta Hilton Hotel June 28-30 and was issued a check for $528.38 by the District on June 21. That total amount included a $225 per diem (Miller was originally only to attend two days of the event), $63 for parking and $240.38 for mileage. An additional per diem check of $75 was issued to Miller on June 27 after Miller found she could attend the full conference.

Through an email exchange between Miller and The Voice in September, Miller said she had returned the mileage money to the District and told The Voice that she would be happy for the newspaper to view a copy of the receipt. After repeated additional email exchanges, however, Miller failed to provide The Voice with any evidence the mileage money had been returned, prompting an FOIA request.

Received by The Voice last week, a copy of a cash receipt (number 006024) from the District’s Finance Office, signed by Kevin Robinson, Finance Director, indicates that Miller returned $240 to the District on Aug. 21. The inference from the receipt is that Miller used 38 cents to purchase gas for the District car, a virtual impossibility.

As of press time, Miller had not responded to questions as to why she returned so much mileage money to the District had how fuel was provided for the District car.

For past stories on the ill-fated Atlanta trip, see our July 27 and Aug. 24 issues.

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