Who manages the travel and training process?

This is a supplemental document to further interpret County Administrative Procedure FIN-2(link is external) on travel and training expenses. The following guidelines apply to official Library business travels.

As a first step, the employee must have approvals indicated on the travel and training form before any funds are committed. Training and travel requests should be made well in advance to eliminate any confusion between the supervisor and the employee as to what will be considered paid work and travel time and as to which expenses will be considered reimbursable. Travel and training requests should be submitted at least 1 month prior to the event. 

MCL has a Library Travel Coordinator who is responsible for booking all of the travel and registering people for the conferences. All reservations and changes need to be made through the travel coordinator, even if you have access to make changes on your end. For any questions, contact: library-travel-coordinators@multco.us.

Ground Transportation

Local travel and training

When attending a local training or conference that does not require overnight stay, employees should use the most efficient, cost effective means possible. Employees should look at the least expensive options first. The following options are recommended. If you aren't sure which one is your best option, reach out to your travel coordinator. All ground transportation is arranged by the traveler, not the travel coordinator.

• Public transportation: Use your county benefit and take tri-met for free.
• Carpool: If multiple people are traveling together, consider carpooling to save money.
• County fleet: If you need a vehicle, take a county car. There are a few options for booking a county vehicle(link is external).

• Personal vehicle: If you do not have easy access to a county car, or the time involved in taking public transportation does not work for your situation, or you do not have anyone to carpool with, you can take your personal vehicle. Please also check into the costs for parking your vehicle at the training location. 

  Staff who choose to use a personal vehicle when a county vehicle is available will be reimbursed at a lower mileage rate, which is the GSA rate. As of April 2025, this is $0.21/mile - $0.39 lower than the standard mileage reimbursement rate in 2025.

NOTE: Car rental is not an approved expense, unless none of the above situations can be met. You must have approval from the cost center manager and provide rationale for why a rental car is required.

Overnight travel and training

Ground transportation includes taxicabs, airport shuttles, rideshare services or other transportation to and from terminals to training/meeting destinations. Whenever possible, the most efficient and cost-effective method of transportation should be utilized. Shared rides (like airport shuttles) or public transportation should always be considered first before taxi cabs. 

Transportation costs between traveler's residence and the transportation terminal, the total cost of mileage plus airport parking, should be compared with the cost of a taxi, shuttle or light rail and the most efficient and cost-effective method of transportation should be utilized.

The county will reimburse traveler for airport parking, at the economy rate, during local or overnight travel and training. If employees choose to park in a different area, they will be required to reimburse the difference between what was paid and the economy rate.

Taxi and rideshare gratuity should not exceed 20% of the total charge. 

Rideshare services

Paying for rideshare services (like Uber or Lyft) is different than all other travel expenses:

• Use the rideshare app on your personal phone, never on a county device.
• Pay for the ride with your personal credit card and submit the receipt for reimbursement when you return from your trip. Do not use your county purchasing card (Pcard) to pay for rideshare services.

Air fares

When we can get air tickets at much lower prices than government rates, we should purchase the one with the lower price. The Library will pay for the lowest price available. Travelers are asked to pay the difference should they chose the higher cost tickets for personal purposes. Prices are determined on the day of the ticket purchase.

Scenario
You are attending a conference in City X. Flight A departs at 7:00 a.m. from Portland to City X and costs $400. Flight B departs at 9:00 a.m. from Portland to City X and costs $700. Both flights have comparable itineraries and would arrive in time to attend the conference. The Library will purchase the ticket for Flight A. If you prefer Flight B for personal purposes, you are responsible to pay the difference of $300.

Flight changes or cancellations

If a flight itinerary is changed or canceled by you for purposes other than business related, you are expected to pay for the service fee and additional costs, if any.

Scenario
The Library has purchased a non-refundable air ticket for $700. Later on, you decide to change your itinerary for personal purposes other than sickness or emergency. The ticket now costs $750. You are responsible to pay the added cost of $50 and the amount of the service fee (currently $100) charged by the ticketing agent for making the change.

Combining personal with business travel

When travelers combine business with personal travel, no personal expenses may be charged to Multnomah County.

TRAVEL BY AIR: When a business trip is combined with personal travel, the Library will only pay for the business portion of the travel. Travelers will pay the difference between the lowest cost available for travel to and from the business destination and the actual cost of the ticket that includes personal travel.

Scenario
You are attending a conference in City A but would like to go to City B for vacation before returning to Portland. The cost to fly from Portland to City A and back to Portland is $400. The cost to fly from Portland to City A, then to City B and back to Portland is $600. The Library will pay $400; the traveler will pay $200 to make up the additional costs.

TRAVEL BY GROUND: When a business trip is combined with personal travel, the Library will reimburse for the use of a privately owned vehicle at the lowest rate of commercial transportation or standard mileage. A county motor pool vehicle should not be used.

Scenario
You are attending a conference with your own vehicle and would like to stay for additional day(s) for personal purposes. It costs $180 by air and the standard mileage reimbursement is $60. The Library will pay $60 for transportation.

PER DIEM: When a business trip is combined with personal travel, per diem will be paid on the business trip portion including the travel days.

Scenario
You are attending a conference from Nov. 6 to Nov. 8 (Tues. - Thurs.) and would like to stay for two additional days (Fri. and Sat.) for personal purposes then return to Portland on Nov. 11 (Sun.). The Library will pay per diem from Nov. 5 to Nov. 8 (or Nov. 9 if traveling on that day.)

Pay for time spent training

If authorized, attendance at such functions is paid work time but only for those hours the individual actually spends in the approved training. This applies whether or not the activity occurs during normal work hours, after hours, or on weekends. Consequently, activities outside the normal schedule could result in the payment of overtime to hourly (FLSA non-exempt) employees, if the total work hours for that week exceed forty, or the total hours for any particular day exceed 10 hours (8 hours for represented employees). Any paid training time is added to the employee's overall work time for purposes of calculating overtime for the week or day. Paid time in training is coded in Workday as "Education and Training." 

Lunch periods during outside training events are treated in the same manner as lunch periods during the normal work day: Namely, they are unpaid lunch periods, provided the employee is free to do as they wish.  Please note: It does not make it a paid lunch period simply because a meal is provided. The employee is free to take advantage of the meal or not.  On the other hand, if the employee is required to attend the luncheon, such as a working lunch, the meal period is compensable.

If a meal is included in the cost of the event, the employee cannot then claim reimbursement or receive per diem for an outside meal (both the time spent on the lunch break and the cost of the meal are not compensable).

Employees are expected to return (if practical) to their normal work stations should the event not extend over their entire work shift. Otherwise, they should take vacation or other non-working time if they are not flexing their hours.

FLSA exempt employees are not eligible for training related overtime pay, as they are not paid on an hourly basis.

Pay for time spent traveling

The time an employee spends traveling to offsite activities is paid time under these following circumstances:

Special One-Day Assignments:

Travel to local one-day assignments does not require the payment of any travel time.  Local travel is defined as travel that does not require the individual to drive more than 30 miles one-way from the usual work site.  When an employee is authorized to attend an activity that is over 30 miles away from the usual work site, however, the time spent in traveling to the activity is paid travel time.  For example, the time spent traveling by a Portland based employee to and from Salem would be paid time, while the time spent traveling to and from Beaverton would not.  This rule covers all travel that does not involve an overnight stay.

Overnight Travel:

The rules for paid travel change when the travel involves an overnight stay.  In these cases, time spent traveling during normal work hours are paid, while time spent traveling outside of normal work hours are not.  The only exception permitting an employee to be compensated for overnight travel outside of normal work hours is when the employee is the actual driver of the vehicle or is actively engaged in doing work tasks. Passengers, regardless of the mode of travel, are compensated only for travel time during normal work hours. Please note: This particular rule applies seven (7) days a week. So if the employee is normally scheduled 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday, and they travel between the hours of 12:00 pm and 4:00 pm on a Saturday, then they would be paid for four (4) hours of travel pay, even though they traveled on a Saturday:  Look at the hours of travel, not the day of travel. If you are traveling between time zones, paid travel rules apply to only the actual number of hours traveled, irrespective of the clock time.

Time spent commuting to airports, train and bus stations, etc. or spent in early arrival/check-in is not compensable.

Any paid travel time is added to the employee's overall work time for purposes of calculating overtime for the week or day.

Again, FLSA exempt employees are not eligible for travel related overtime pay, as they are not paid on an hourly basis.

Paid time spent traveling to offsite training activities (including conferences) is coded in Workday as "worked time." 

Other considerations

Ethics Law: 

Employees are public officials when traveling for Multnomah County. Therefore the receipt of prizes/gifts resulting from attendance at conference/training/etc. should be accounted for under the Oregon government ethics law as described in Oregon Revised Statute guidelines. (See ORS 244.040) Essentially, if the prize/gift is valued at more than $50, you cannot accept it or it must be gifted back to the organization.

Work Schedule Changes:

Changing or "flexing" an employee's work schedule in order to avoid overtime is more restrictive for employees who are covered by a labor agreement than for those who are not.  The department must be prepared to pay overtime if authorized training occurs outside of the employee's normal work schedule.  Mandatory flexing of a represented employees schedule is not permitted.  However, the supervisor certainly may withhold authorization of voluntary training (outside of the normal work schedule) and condition it upon the employee's consent to flex his/her schedule, provided it is a consistent and equitable practice of the department.

The supervisor has greater authority to require an unrepresented employee to alter his/her schedule whether or not the training is mandatory or voluntary and falls outside of the regular work schedule.  Still, any changes to an employee's schedule should be kept to a minimum.

Meet and Greet Functions:

There may be times when County employees are attending seminars, conferences, or workshops that feature "meet and greet" functions.  Attendance at such functions is not normally considered compensable time.  However, the supervisor may authorize the time to be compensable if there is a legitimate reason to do so.  Be aware that if you do require attendance at a "meet and greet" you may have to pay a minimum of four (4) hours call-in pay to represented employees (see your HR representative or Labor Relations for details).  It is often wiser to simply state that attendance at these events is strictly voluntary and not compensable. 

Alcohol:

Any activity in which an employee consumes alcoholic beverages is never considered paid work time.  It is imperative that we make this clear to our employees.

Under no circumstances will the County reimburse employees for the purchase of alcoholic beverages.  See Administrative Procedure FIN-4.  In fact, employees are required by the County to sign a statement that they did not consume any alcoholic beverages when they seek reimbursement for events where food and alcohol are served together. 

Frequent Flyer Miles:

Employees shall not have credited to their personal accounts any frequent flyer miles (FFM) or points earned from County related travel per Administrative Procedure FIN-2.  It is a violation of public-entity ethics codes for any employee, represented or not, to claim such credit.  Management and executive employees may claim FFM credit as provided in Personnel Rule 4-20-110 and only with a Director's prior approval. 

Workers Compensation:

Time spent attending outside training events and spent traveling (whether paid or not) for County purposes is covered by the County's workers compensation program, provided the employee is engaged in an activity related to the purpose of the travel.  Activities for the sole benefit of the employee are not covered. 

The workers compensation laws, regulations, and rules at the time of injury will determine a claim's merit and ultimate compensability.