Tooele City has cut travel expenses drastically through the first nine months of the fiscal year, according to data released by the city Wednesday.

Faced with declining sales tax revenue and building permit fees, Tooele City Mayor Patrick Dunlavy announced to his staff that travel requests would be carefully reviewed when the city’s budget was approved last July.

“We had already cut back on travel expenses,” Dunlavy said. “We do not send people to extraneous conferences and other events. Most of our travel is connected to training for employees that is required for them to stay certified for their positions.”

The travel budget includes all out-of-city travel. It does not include daily travel for work in town, according to Dunlavy.

The biggest reduction in travel thus far has come from the fire department, which spent $10,226 in 2008 but has not yet spent any money on travel in 2009. The fire department is all-volunteer, and traditionally the city has helped pay expense for firefighters to attend the state firefighters convention, according to Dunlavy.

“This year the firefighters approached me and offered to cut their travel from the budget to help the city,” Dunlavy said.

If firefighters attend the state convention this year, they will do it at their own expense, Dunlavy said.

There are about 70 city employees that are required to have some kind of certification. In most cases, according to Dunlavy, this requires the employee to attend continuing education classes or seminars, and in some cases take tests. The city reimburses employees for mileage and registration costs — both from the travel budget.

The police department spends more on travel than any other department. That’s because all police officers are required to have 40 hours of training annually, according to Dunlavy.

“But even with the police department, we have been able to save money by arranging to have some of those courses held here in Tooele,” Dunlavy said.

Technology has also been used to reduce travel costs.

“Certification courses for building inspectors, sewer operators and water operators can now be done on-line over the Internet,” Dunlavy said.

Dunlavy said there has been no out-of-state travel this year paid for from the city’s general fund.

“We did send two police officers to a homicide training that was held Las Vegas,” Dunlavy said. “But that was paid for by a special grant we received specifically to cover the cost of the training.”

This has been the only out-of-state trip by city staff this year, according to Dunlavy.

Some travel expenses are unavoidable as employees’ certifications expire.

“Mel Roberts’ certification as an aquatics instructor expired this year so we paid for his training to have it renewed,” Dunlavy said. “In the public works department, the supervisor is trained as a vehicle safety inspector so he can inspect our vehicles. That had to be renewed this year. Having somebody on our staff do our safety inspections saves us money in the long run.”

With three months left in the 2008-2009 budget year, there are two major travel expenses that have been approved, Dunlavy said.

“We have three councilmen that will be attending the Utah League of Cities and Towns conference in St. George later this month,” he said. “That should bring the city council travel expenses up to about where they were last year.”

The city will also be sending five city councilmen and the mayor to the International Conference of Shopping Centers in Las Vegas in May. This will be the third year the city has attended the conference looking to attract new retailers to Tooele. Last year’s trip to the conference paid big dividends with Big 5 Sporting Goods and Sears locating in Tooele.

“That expense will be paid by the redevelopment agencies, not the city general fund,” Dunlavy said. “That trip pays off well for the city. The first two months of tax revenue from Big 5 covered the expenses of last year’s trip.”

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com