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Pan Am Games mascot Pachi the porcupine is shown in Toronto on July 17, 2013.MICHELLE SIU/The Canadian Press

The man responsible for managing venues scattered across the Greater Toronto Area for the 2015 Pan Am Games maintains a home base in California and takes monthly trips there to "work from home" at the average monthly cost of $1,000 to taxpayers.

Jan Damnavits, vice-president of venue management, took nine trips home over the course of eight months in 2013 and 2014, according to documents requested by The Globe and Mail and released last Friday by the TO2015 organizing committee. He was "working from home" during this time, according to logs of corporate credit card charges. The total cost of these publicly funded trips was $8,319.85. The organizing committee could not provide a full tally of Mr. Damnavits's trips to and from California since he was hired in October, 2012, by late Monday.

Mr. Damnavits leads the organizing committee's venue management team. Since he was hired, he has overseen the development and plans for the existing venues TO2015 is renting for the games. When the games start next July, he will also be responsible for operating plans of the 10 new facilities that are being constructed for the games.

Rather than relocate Mr. Damnavits's family from California to Toronto when he was hired, TO2015 agreed to pay for regular flights home, Teddy Katz, a spokesman for the Pan Am Games, explained in an e-mail. Flights from Toronto to Monterey or San Francisco ranged from $416.55 to $1,208.96 each, according to documents, and each came with a booking fee of $39.55.

The agreement was part of Mr. Damnavits's contract, which was negotiated in October, 2012. But Mr. Katz added that as of Jan. 1, the organizing committee will no longer reimburse Mr. Damnavits for flights home. "This unique arrangement was always slated to end at the end of December 2014," Mr. Katz said in an e-mail.

Mr. Katz described Mr. Damnavits as "one of the most experienced Games experts we have on staff." Before he was hired by Pan Am, he was director of venue management for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. He also has experience at seven other Olympic Games, Mr. Katz said. Mr. Damnavits could not be reached for comment.

The documents about Mr. Damnavits's arrangement were released to media after The Globe filed a freedom of information request in July seeking records of all corporate credit-card purchases made by TO2015. The organization asked The Globe for $1,500 to prepare the documents and cashed the cheque in late November but did not release the documents until Friday morning, after MPPs had left for a two-month break. They have since refunded the money.

The venue management team at TO2015 has faced criticism in the past two years for delays on many of the new venues being constructed for the games, though Mr. Katz said Mr. Damnavits has not been responsible for their development or management during the construction period.  As a result of the delays, crucial test events were postponed this year.

One of the facilities, the Pan Am Soccer Stadium, is also the new home of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats football team and was slated to open in July for the home opener. But that game and three others were relocated to McMaster University because the venue was not ready. When the stadium opened in early September, a large portion was closed off, only a few washrooms were open and napkin dispensers were not installed. Venues in Milton, Markham, Ajax and Toronto were also delayed.

With a report from Adrian Morrow.

Editor's note: A previous version of this article said incorrectly that Jan Damnavits, vice-president of venue management is responsible for the development of new games venues until the time of the games. In fact, until that period, he is only responsible for the development and plans for rental venues (such as Ryerson Athletic Centre, which already exists).

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