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ITEM 8 <br />TO: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL <br />ver FROM: PATRICK KLAERS, CITY ADMINIST� TOR <br />lel DATE: JULY 8, 1993 <br />SUBJECT: FREQUENTLY FLYERS <br />The 1992 Legislature approved a law which required local <br />governing bodies to develop and implement policies covering <br />frequent flyer benefits for municipal employees and officials. <br />This law was part of the State Auditor's bill in 1992. This <br />law is meant mainly for large cities where lots of out-of-state <br />business takes place and airplane travel trips are common. It <br />is now illegal for employees or officials to receive frequent <br />flyer benefits for personal use when the miles used to obtain <br />these benefits were from a City paid trip. <br />Until I talked with Marcy VanValkenburg at Elk River Travel, I <br />thought that this law really did not apply to anybody in Elk <br />River and that the Elk River policy would be very simple ... if <br />an employee or official receives a frequent flyer benefit, it <br />must be turned over to the City. This will still be the <br />recommendation for an Elk River policy, but the policy will be <br />a little more detailed than this one sentence. After <br />discussing frequent flyers with Marcy, I now understand that <br />over time, one or more City employees may be able to get one or <br />more free airplane tickets that could be used for a future <br />conference/training session. <br />Frequent flyer miles cannot be accumulated by a corporation or <br />a city, but can only be accumulated by an individual. Frequent <br />flyer benefit tickets are transferable. Frequent flyer <br />programs are offered one per airline and, general speaking, the <br />benefit that you get is one free trip within the continental 48 <br />United States per 20,000 miles that has been accumulated. <br />Lori Johnson, Fritz Dolejs, and myself do most of the travel as <br />City employees. I have flown to six national conferences and <br />if each trip was 3,350 miles per round trip (very unlikely) I <br />would have been able to have one free flight obtained through a <br />frequent flyer program, provided that all the flights were <br />taken with the same airline. If this were the case, I would <br />have received a free ticket to anywhere in the 48 continental <br />United States and this ticket could be used by any City <br />employee or official, as the benefits are transferable. We can <br />not say if the frequent flyer policies will change by the <br />airlines by the time we have actually accumulated miles for <br />this benefit or even if the airline we are using will still be <br />in business. <br />To the best of my knowledge, no City employee has a frequent <br />flyer card which has obtained mileage toward a free trip by <br />P.O. Box 490 • 13065 Orono Parkway • Elk River, MN 55330 • (612) 441-7420 • Fax: (612) 441-7425 <br />