City Councilmember Claudia Bill-de la Peña is at it again.

She's back on her soapbox as the self-appointed sheriff of budget control. Last winter, she criticized her fellow council members for giving themselves a 10 percent pay raise. She didn't stop her criticism until somebody suggested that she could always refuse her part of the pay raise.

That ended her attack.

This time, she's on her high horse about travel expenses.

Okay, let's give Bill-de la Peña some credit. The city should be examining every item in the budget, line by line, to make sure that Thousand Oaks is cutting expenses wherever it can. Any road trips that are strictly junkets should be promptly hacked with an ax.

That being said, cutting all travel expenses isn't a good idea because slashing some costs can be pennywise and pound foolish. Let's look, for example, at the private sector, where there are two kinds of people.

There are those who fly to business meetings in the corporate world to socialize, drink cocktails and play golf.

Then there's the other kind of person, the manager who sits up, listens and takes notes about techniques and strategies that stimulate sales, improve efficiency, increase productivity and enhance profitability.

The same principles apply in government.

City staff and council members who attend seminars and conferences learn things. Sometimes they bring money back home with them- substantial amounts- cash that they might not have captured if they hadn't made the trip.

Ideas matter. Whether it's improved services for taxpayers or better widgets for consumers, meetings can be an asset in both government and private enterprise.

Bill-de la Peña might learn some things if she attended a few of the conferences and seminars that she apparently evaluates as a total waste of time.

But if she took a trip, she couldn't say during her next reelection campaign that she spent zero tax dollars on travel expenses while pointing a finger, of course, at the other four council members who did.