________________________________________ February 10, 1998 ________________________________________ GSBCA 14378-TRAV In the Matter of TIFFANY H. THOMPSON Tiffany H. Thompson, Kent, WA, Claimant. Captain James E. Pledger, Comptroller, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Department of the Navy, Bremerton, WA, appearing for Department of the Navy. BORWICK, Board Judge. Claimant, an employee of the Department of the Navy, seeks alleged excess commuting mileage arising from her change of station from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Washington (Puget Sound), to the Personnel Support Detachment in the submarine base at Bangor, Washington (Bangor). Claimant maintains she was on temporary duty while at Bangor. The agency maintains that Bangor was claimant s permanent duty station (PDS) and that claimant is not entitled to commuting expenses. Claimant is not entitled to reimbursement of the claimed mileage expenses. The record supports the agency s conclusion that Bangor was claimant s PDS; claimant is not entitled to commuting mileage because she was not on a temporary duty assignment while working in Bangor. Claimant was offered a permanent transfer from Puget Sound to Bangor. Before the transfer, the agency advised claimant that the assignment was voluntary, permanent, not in the interest of the Government, and that she would not be entitled to temporary duty compensation for her transportation to her new work site. The agency placed no time limit on the transfer nor did the agency issue claimant temporary duty orders for the move to Bangor. Claimant accepted the transfer. Bangor was claimant s official station, although Puget Sound remained claimant s personnel and paying activity. The submarine base at Bangor is about eighteen miles from the shipyard at Puget Sound. Claimant submitted a travel claim for the mileage she spent commuting in her privately-owned conveyance between her home and her duty station in Bangor. According to her claim, claimant commuted from 100 to 200 miles per week more between her residence and her duty station at Bangor than she commuted between her residence and the duty station at Puget Sound. Claimant s travel claim shows that she commuted to Bangor from August 21, 1995 through May 3, 1996. Claimant worked at Bangor until approximately May 3, when she left to take another job at a component of the Department of Defense. The agency denied the claim on the ground that Bangor was claimant s PDS and that she was not entitled to compensation for travel expenses because she was not on temporary duty. Claimant maintains that she was legally on what appears to be a temporary duty assignment, and argues that the Shipyard [at Puget Sound] continued to perform [her] mid-year and annual performance appraisals, held my Official Personnel Folder and certified [her] timekeeping. Claimant also notes that several hundred workers were temporarily assigned to the Bangor base and have been paid privately-owned conveyance mileage for the dis- tance beyond their normal commuting distance to their permanent duty site. Statute provides that employees are entitled to travel allowances when traveling on official business away from the employee s designated post of duty. 5 U.S.C. 5702(a)(1) (1994). As a general rule, and in the absence of specified exceptional circumstances, an employee is not entitled to commut- ing expenses between an employee s home and his or her PDS. Freddie Fenton, GSBCA 13638-TRAV, 97-1 BCA 28,712; Gunther Moehrke, B-252142 (July 6, 1993). The Joint Travel Regulations (JTR) list ten situations for determining what constitutes temporary duty travel; the relevant situation here is: assignments of a temporary nature in connection with official DOD business away from an employee s PDS (such assignments should not be of such frequency or duration that a place of assignment is, in fact, an employee s PDS even though administrative jurisdiction is in some other location[)]. JTR 4451-1. Whether an assignment is permanent or temporary is a matter of fact, to be determined from the orders under which the assign- ment was made, the character of the assignment, its duration, and the nature of the duties involved. Freddie Fenton; Willis Nordlund, B-257724 (Mar. 24, 1995). Here, the record shows that the agency permanently assigned claimant to Bangor and advised her that she was not entitled to temporary duty travel reimbursement for her move to Bangor. The agency did not issue temporary duty orders in connection with claimant s new assignment. The record also shows that claimant regularly, continually, and indefinitely -for more than nine months until she obtained a position with another DOD agency-- commuted between her residence and Bangor. In light of these facts, the agency properly determined that Bangor was claimant s PDS. Freddie Fenton. In view of this record, the administrative processing of claimant s personnel file and time and attendance records at Puget Sound does not change the character of her duty at Bangor from permanent to temporary. That one hundred workers received temporary assignments to Bangor does not mean that claimant also received a temporary assignment to Bangor. Claimant has not established entitlement to reimbursement of her alleged excess commuting mileage. ________________________ ANTHONY S. BORWICK B o a r d J u d g e