Opinion ID: 1567336
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Whether McNeel should be reimbursed for travel expenses and credited compensatory time off to her personal leave balance for being placed in Kemper County and later transferred to Neshoba County.

Text: ¶ 9. In November 1999, McNeel was terminated from her employment as a DHS-Social Worker with the Winston County Department of Human Services. The order of the hearing officer, subsequently affirmed by this Court, provided that McNeel was to be reinstated to her position, with back pay and benefits. ... (Emphasis added). Nonetheless, in April 2004, the MDHS reinstated McNeel to the position of DHS-Social Worker, albeit in Kemper County, rather than Winston County. [7] On June 16, 2004, McNeel was then laterally transferred to Neshoba County. Although the same position in Winston County became vacant on December 31, 2004, at the time of the April 28, 2005, hearing, McNeel remained employed in Neshoba County. At the hearing, McNeel asserted that she want[ed] to be reimbursed for working away from Winston County. I should be reimbursed $1,555 for travel expenses to Kemper and Neshoba Counties. I should have 95 comp hours for travel time added to my time records. [8] ¶ 10. According to the circuit court: [t]he order of the hearing officer rendered on August 16, 2005, ordered that McNeel be placed in Winston County. Travel expenses, telephone expenses, and personal leave were not addressed specifically by the hearing officer, nor were they addressed in the full board's affirmance. This court will treat their silence as a denial. McNeel has offered no authority in support of her request for such reimbursements. Therefore, after reviewing the record, this court finds that there is substantial evidence in the record to affirm the hearing officer's and full board's decisions. (Emphasis added.) ¶ 11. Mississippi Employee Appeals Board Administrative Rule 24(A) provides, in part, that [t]he [EAB] may reinstate a prevailing party into employment with his or her responding agency and restore all his or her employee rights and benefits including back pay, medical leave and personal leave. Miss. Employee Appeals Board Administrative Rule 24(A) (emphasis added). The original order of the hearing officer, affirmed by this Court, did reinstate McNeel to her position, with back pay and benefits. ... However, the travel reimbursement and personal-leave credit which McNeel now seeks arose subsequent to that original order. Moreover, Jackson testified at the April 28, 2005, hearing that the MDHS did check with the State Personnel Board and they said an employee could be located wherever be it 100 miles. Finally, this Court finds that travel reimbursement is not among the benefits available to McNeel. McNeel asserts that because the Mississippi State Employee Handbook lists travel and expenses as an employee benefit, the EAB erred in failing to so grant. See Miss. State Employee Handbook § 8 at 41. This Court deems McNeel's argument to be inaccurate, as the travel reimbursement referred to in the Mississippi State Employee Handbook pertains to travel in the performance of an official duty, not mere travel to a county assignment. Id. Therefore, this Court finds no error in the circuit court's affirmance of the EAB's decision to order that McNeel be placed in Winston County, without travel reimbursement or personal leave credit. This Court cannot find that the EAB's action was unsupported by substantial evidence, arbitrary or capricious, or in violation of McNeel's statutory or constitutional rights. See Miss.Code Ann. § 25-9-132(2) (Rev.2006). Therefore, this Court concludes that this issue is without merit.