As if it wasn’t bad enough to go on a trip to Philadelphia paid for by taxpayers, but not attend the conference and instead make it a vacation…. Milwaukee Public Schools board member Charlene Hardin is now caught wasting more taxpayer money.

Daniel Bice at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that over the last 1.5 years, Hardin has gone on seven out-of-state trips paid for by the taxpayers, and costing them $8,500. What did those charges include?

• $400 to rent a Chrysler 300 Touring for two days… which was driven 85 miles total, for a cost of $4.70 per mile
• A stay at a hotel with a $400+ rate per night
• A $300 charge for smoking in her room in the completely non-smoking Marriot in Washington D.C. (These penalties are common and guests are told about this before they light up.)

The story keeps getting better and better, though. Janie Hatton, a former MPS principal and now contract consultant for the district went with Hardin on several of the trips. The documentation in support of many of Hardin’s expenses is scant.  One example: $125 she says she spent on parking, school visits, and a community lunch… but she had no receipts for any of them and couldn’t even remember the name of the restaurant.

And other board members don’t go on nearly as many out-of-state trips. They each average about one a year.

Reminder: This is the type of person we have deciding how to run the district and how to spend taxpayer money. Pathetic.