Who went where and why – and who stayed home.

In 2003, the University of Maine System chancellor spanned the globe, from Washington D.C. to Seattle, from D.C. again to New Hampshire. He talked to international exchange students in Chile, then, five days later, joined the governor’s trade mission in Ireland. Closing out the year? Four days in New Orleans.

The Maine Community College System president stayed home.

In 2004, the university chancellor visited Boston, D.C. three times, Paris, then back to Ireland and onto England.

The Community College president stayed home.

In 2005, it was Arizona, Omaha, D.C. four times, Boston and Colorado Springs for the chancellor. The president: home.

The three men who held the chancellor’s post between 2003 and 2007 spent 166 days traveling out-of-state, according to a Sun Journal analysis of records supplied by various state departments and the governor’s office. Total cost to the state: $58,855.

The Maine Community College System president stayed put, on principle, pointing to a Gov. John Baldacci executive order that reduced travel to the “absolute minimum necessary” to hold down spending.

He was the exception.

During that period of time, top officials from throughout state government went to Norway to promote aquaculture, to Alaska to talk law, Pittsburgh to talk bridges, to an untold number of professional board meetings in places like Fort Lauderdale, Nashville and Santa Fe, and to Washington D.C. dozens of times, at taxpayer expense.

The Sun Journal reviewed the out-of-state itemized travel expenses for 37 state government positions, mostly department heads and deputies at the largest and most well-known agencies. Among the findings:

• The head of the Maine Turnpike Authority had more out-of-state travel expenses in one year than Maine’s governor had in five.

• Executives in four positions spent more than 100 days on the road, while four others didn’t travel at all.

• The average number of out-of-state travel days over five years for each of the 37 positions: 43; average cost: $10,135, with the cost of dozens of other trips picked up by the conference host, a fee that’s sometimes more subtle.

“Full disclosure: Yes, (Council of State Governments) paid for my trip to Arizona to speak for one day on Real ID, but Maine pays dues to CSG,” said Secretary of State Matt Dunlap.

He and the former secretary of state spent 109 days away, Dunlap largely for Real ID. Maine balked at the initiative that would standardize driver’s licenses and create a national database.

“I’ve been very, very frustrated in working with the Department of Homeland Security in how little they’ve taken states’ concerns into consideration when they drafted their rules,” said Dunlap. “I have said publicly that I have been embarrassed at how much money I have spent of Maine’s public treasure to go to Washington and express our point of view only to be utterly ignored.”

‘Travel must be justified’

The University of Maine chancellor was the biggest traveler among those reviewed. University of Maine System spokesman John Diamond said trustees hired Joseph Westphal, chancellor from 2002 to 2006, in part for his connections. A former acting secretary of the Army, trustees wanted Westphal to expand research and development at the flagship campus.

“It’s the fundamental of fund raising and interpersonal communication: Being able to get in a room full of people, to demonstrate what it is that you’re trying to impress them with, is much more effective when it’s done face to face,” Diamond said.

Trustees hired new Chancellor Richard Pattenaude with the intent of strengthening relations in-state, he added. Records show Pattenaude took six trips to Seattle, Chicago, Massachusetts and San Francisco in the last six months of 2007.

Education Commissioner Sue Gendron said travel done by her and her deputy – a combined 204 days – was a mix of federal requirements, ongoing grant work and staying up on new approaches.

Martha Freeman didn’t go anywhere. Director of the State Planning Office, she said she reads and does “tons of e-mailing” to keep up with colleagues.

“I take, I think everybody does, very seriously the governor’s executive order that says there is to be no out-of-state travel without permission from the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, and we don’t ask them for permission very often,” Freeman said.

In 2003, Baldacci ordered a freeze on new hires, unscheduled overtime and travel, with limited exceptions. He’s updated it every July since.

For the last three fiscal years – all while under the travel order – departments and state-funded agencies spent $4 million, $7.6 million and $8.7 million, respectively, on out-of-state travel, which included money from federal and grant sources, according to state data. See related story.)

Despite that creep, his order is being heeded, according to the governor.

“Travel requests are being scrutinized more thoroughly than they were before my administration,” Baldacci said. “We’ve cut down on the number of miles traveled in-state and we’re making sure there’s legitimate reasons for out-of-state trips, so there’s a new awareness that travel must be justified. And at the same time, we can’t cut ourselves off from the rest of the world.”

Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, head of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, said travel budgets are being trimmed as belts tighten in Augusta.

“It is monitored very, very carefully,” Rotundo said. “More money is being taken from travel. Some of the tiny agencies that didn’t have much to begin with won’t have much left.”

Right conversations, right time

Citing difficulty in retrieving old records, the Maine Turnpike Authority produced only three years’ worth of expenses at the Sun Journal’s request. Executive Director Paul Violette traveled out of state 91 days at a cost of $43,137 – nearly as many days and at a higher cost than the chancellor when extrapolated out to five years.

Violette said his agency differs from any other by having to borrow money, and that leads to more trips.

“We are in a sense like a private business,” he said. “I don’t get to decide that I’m not going to go meet with the ratings agencies. Because if you were to talk to Fitch and S&P and Moody’s they would tell you that it’s a requirement of theirs that I participate.”

Other travel took him to Austria, Cleveland, Puerto Rico and France with the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association. That’s been a forum for ideas, Violette said.

He pointed to a highway speed toll collection system that debuts in New Gloucester next year. He heard about the process from Australian toll operators at a conference, and wasn’t swayed until a field trip to New Jersey to see it in action.

“The sexy part of this is not what’s on the highway, it’s what’s in the back room and what it takes to operate this,” Violette said.

Far on the other side of the travel ledger, John Fitzsimmons, president of the Maine Community College System, which has seen a boom in enrollment, said he hasn’t traveled in order to be a model to staff – and because he hasn’t needed to.

Searching online, “(you) have the right conversations with colleges you want to have. I find that far more productive than a chance discussion at an association meeting with some other community college,” Fitzsimmons said.

He doesn’t belong to any professional boards, calling leadership slots on those a compliment but often resume fodder for the next job: “I think it’s just a tremendous amount of time away from what my primary mission is, the state of Maine.”

Fitzsimmons will pack his bags this spring when he visits New Brunswick to follow up on a year-old pact that allows Maine students to go to college there at in-state price and vice versa.

“In essence, we created 75 new programs without having to spend a penny in state tax dollars,” he said, referring to the New Brunswick college programs now accessible to Maine students.

New Brunswick officials came down here to ink the deal last year.

Reps from UMaine and York County Community College joined Baldacci on a trade mission to Japan and Korea in November, visits that have resulted in millions of orders to Maine companies in the past. The UMaine Business School, Baldacci said, was laying groundwork to bring students on the next trip.

“They’ve signed agreements doing education sharing, research sharing, and I do think it’s important. I think it is, frankly, a business. We can be bringing in more international students as our population declines through demographic change and gets older,” he said. “I can understand and see the interest and think it’s smart.”

Asked his thoughts on Fitzsimmons sticking to his edict, Baldacci responded, “I would like to stay home, too. The business of Maine requires us to do business around the world and there are businesses that are doing this, that want to go on these (trade missions), that need to have the governor help open a door. Maybe there aren’t as many opportunities (for that sort of outreach) in community colleges, but there clearly is with universities.”