Trustee says he paid district for extended trips

Saturday, Oct. 11, 1997 | 2:02 a.m.

Mason said Friday he reimbursed the school district for those 1-year-old expenses after issues regarding his travels were raised during questioning by an attorney in September.

The school trustee said he could not remember the total of the reimbursements made to the district. And when he made the reimbursements was another mystery. "I don't know when, but I did," Mason said.

In a related matter, records from the public school system and Nevada's university system so far show that Mason did not bill both agencies for hotel and $26-a-day per diem charges for his business trips. That suggestion was made in a motion filed last week in a lawsuit against trustees by the Clark County Association of School Administrators.

Mason is a teacher and former administrator for the Community College of Southern Nevada. He formally worked as admissions director for UNLV.

Mason on Friday denied he ever double-dipped.

In one case, records show Mason was meticulous about separating his charges to the school district and UNLV on a trip in which business was done for both systems.

Questions about Mason's travels and Trustee Lois Tarkanian's ethics have been raised by attorney Martin Kravitz, who is representing the administrators' union. The union is seeking to prove that school trustees routinely overstep their authority and often violate their own ethical and legal codes.

"I'm glad to hear he's made the reimbursements to the school district," Kravitz said about Mason's 1-year-old per diem and hotel charges. "Unfortunately, that does not relieve him of the mistakes he's made."

In February 1996, Mason spent a Saturday and Sunday night at a $120-a-night hotel in Santa Fe, N.M., before embarking on visits to second-language programs at public schools and his college alma mater in Las Vegas, N.M.

For travels in April 1996, Mason turned in bills to the district for hotel and meal expenses the Saturdays immediately preceding and following a school district eight-day recruiting trip that began in El Paso, Texas and ended in Albuquerque, N.M.

Additionally, Mason rented full-sized cars on those trips rather than the economy- or mid-sized cars most school officials rent during their travels.

Mason charged the district for all the extras without questions being raised by Clark County School District financial officers, who answer to school trustees. The school trustee blamed district staff members for sending him early to New Mexico and Texas.

Mason insisted that he did not make the reservations for the trips in which he stayed at expensive hotels on Saturday nights.

"You rely on staff to help out here, to say, 'Mr. Mason, you can't do that,' " he said. "Sometimes that communication falls apart."

He also said he never asked for full-size cars, insisting the vehicles were all the rental companies had available.

Last week, Mason's attorney said the trustee intends to pay back the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day per diem he collected nearly two years ago from the district while visiting family and friends in Texas.