Interior Department Audit Tells Officials To Use Video To Save On Sacramento Travel

Sacramento is among the popular destinations for Interior Department officials who could save millions by video conferencing instead of frequent-flying, a new report says.

Cutting short-term travel by even 10 percent could save the department – which runs national parks as well as Western water projects – some $4.2 million a year, auditors estimate. The less workers travel, the more they should save.

"The department has the opportunity to achieve significant reductions in travel with the increased use of (video conferencing) technology," the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General noted in the report, issued last week.

Certain cities seem ripe for savings, even as department officials caution that sometimes there's no substitute for a face-to-face meeting.

Officials, for instance, beat a steady path between Sacramento and Denver. Total travel costs reached $287,796 for 329 trips taken between the two cities in fiscal 2009.

Travel between Sacramento and Washington, D.C., and between Sacramento and San Diego  cost $328,956 more for 359 trips.

All told, the department spent $206 million on travel in fiscal 2009. Auditors say the biggest savings can come from replacing trips lasting two nights or less. In 2009, the department spent $42.4 million on such trips. – Michael Doyle

BY THE NUMBERS

California's unemployment rate has edged down, dropping to 11.3 percent in November. But it's a mixed bag. The bad news is that about 2 million Californians in the labor force are still jobless. The good news is that a quarter-million more Californians were working in November than a year earlier, more than enough to offset a 34,000- person increase in the labor force. – Dan Walters