ERIE COUNTY Agency aide suspended over mileage payments

The next-nighest reimbursement figure was $4,542.
ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- Erie County has suspended a child-welfare aide who was reimbursed more than $34,000 for mileage last year.
Gary Lucht, executive director of the Office of Children and Youth, said he suspended Cara L. Spadacene without pay on Wednesday pending the outcome of his investigation. Lucht also said he expanded his probe to find out why department supervisors approved such a large reimbursement.
"We are gathering information, and I felt we had to make a move," Lucht said. "There are substantial questions that have to be answered."
Lucht said he first noticed the abnormality in early November, while reviewing financial records days after taking over the agency. He asked Controller Sue Weber to analyze the payments while he investigated the reimbursements.
Spadacene, whose job pays $28,615, did not respond to requests for comment from the Erie Times-News, the newspaper reported Sunday. Her home telephone number is unlisted.
Spadacene's duties included using her personal car to drive children and other clients to court appointments and hospitals, clinics and other places. The county found she would have had to drive at least 71,733 miles to be reimbursed $34,791 in 2005; the next-highest reimbursement for a Children and Youth worker was $4,542 for 9,365 miles.
IRS rate
The agency reimbursed its employees based on the rate set by the Internal Revenue Service. The 2005 rate was 40.5 cents per mile Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, and 48.5 cents per miles from Sept. 1 to year's end.
From 2001 to 2005, the county reimbursed Spadacene $111,471 for 283,871 miles, records show.
Weber's review used an Internet mapping service to calculate the actual distances of several trips Spadacene said she took. The analysis showed at least one trip should have been 179 miles less than the amount Spadacene reported.
Several supervisors approved Spadacene's mileage requests, records show. She was not required to submit odometer readings, although the expense forms had a space for them. She only wrote how many miles she said the trips took.
Lucht changed the mileage policy Nov. 28; it now requires employees to provide odometer readings to be reimbursed.