7. Direct Expenses

The itemized direct expenses submitted by TURN include $4,727.87 for travel, meals, and lodging for Mitchell, and $31.30 for other miscellaneous costs such as phone calls and fax expenses. The cost breakdown included with the request shows the miscellaneous expenses to be commensurate with the work performed.

TURN seeks compensation for more than $4,700 in travel expenses for its consultant, Mitchell, to commute to and from her home in Reno, Nevada. Those expenses include air fare, meals, cab rides and hotels for meetings in San Francisco. It is not reasonable for ratepayers to assume the costs of normal commute to and from an employee's place of business. We are willing to reimburse the expenses of an out-of-town consultant who has special expertise not available locally for work on discrete issues. We have no reason to assume Mitchell has those qualifications or that the work she conducted is so specialized. The costs of commuting are presumed to be covered in the consultant rates we award, just as they would be for any consultant or attorney. We do reimburse travel to and from meetings outside the Bay Area. It is difficult to determine from TURN's filed records which of Mitchell's travel expenses were required for work outside of the Bay Area so we here reimburse TURN only for those expenses that are clearly associated with meetings in San Diego and Los Angeles. We therefore permit reimbursement of $649.53 for travel plus $31.30 for telephone calls. Total reimbursable costs are $680.83.