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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Policy on Meal Purchases and Credit Card Use Commission Memorandum REPORT TO: Honorable Mayor and Commission Members FROM: Anna Rosenberry, Finance Director Chris Kukulski, City Manager SUBJECT: Provide Staff Direction on City Policy on Meal Purchases and Credit Card Use. MEETING DATE: June 22, 2009 BACKGROUND: We would like to take time to clarify for the Commission and the public the city’s policy and practices for purchases of meals and use of credit cards for city business. General questions about these issues have been brought forward by Montana Policy Institute, a local organization. Our existing policies and practices are, admittedly, not as strict as some other local governments, and we are looking for Commission direction on whether you would like changes to be made. Credit Card Use: The City utilizes credit card accounts for our convenience and advantage. Charging goods and services to credit card accounts cuts the number of vendor payments that must be processed (one payment to the credit card servicer vs. 20 payments to various stores), enables travel to occur without unnecessary work for city staff, and allows purchases to occur wherever prices are lowest without having to establish lines of credit or negotiate payment terms with individual vendors. The Accounting department works diligently to gather approved receipts for all transactions and pay balances in full each billing cycle; we make use of credit card accounts with nearly zero finance charges and pay no account fees. However, we don’t have a separate written policy for credit cards. We treat credit cards as any other payment method or charge account; proper approval signatures and originating receipts are always required before payments are made. Meal Purchases: One of the uses of credit cards has been the purchase of meals, for travel, training, and for official city meetings. The attached Travel & Training Policy provides the guidelines for meal purchases while traveling on city business. The City's per diem rates for meals while traveling are found in section VI on page 3 and have not changed since 2007, and prior to that had not changed since 1997. Department Heads are given the authority to approve deviations from these per diem rates, which happens infrequently. In practice, deviations almost entirely stem from meals that are served as part of the training event (working lunches during presentations, award banquets, etc.) costing more than the per diem amount under our policy. 329 Whenever a meal is provided in registration fees as part of a travel or training event, the employee DOES NOT receive the per diem amount. When training is attended locally, the per diem amount is not provided. However, meals served as a part of the local training event (working lunches during presentations, award banquets, etc.) are paid. We have no specific written policy for meals or food purchased in town, other than the Travel & Training policy and our existing general purchasing policies. Working lunches or other meals that are not part of a training event are occasionally approved by Department Heads or the City Manager. Hundreds of hours of “working meals” occur each year, mostly among exempt (salaried) staff, and are never charged to the City. Since December 2008 (the 5-month time period for the Montana Policy Institute request), 68 local working meals or food items were charged on city credit cards, totaling $2,783.01. Working Meals and Food for Commissioners, Boards & Staff: 50 charges totaling $1,759.44. A number of credit card charges are related to staff training events and small refreshments for volunteer board meetings. For example, for the ethics training held twice over the past month, the Clerk's office provided coffee, cookies, and veggie trays for all volunteer board members since the training began at 6:00 pm. In an effort to facilitate communication between elected officials and City staff, the City Manager often meets with individual Commissioners at times and locations convenient to the Commissioners. Because the Commissioners are part time and hold full-time jobs, some of these meetings occur at our local coffee shops and restaurants during breakfast or lunch hours. Monthly Commission policy meetings (Noon – 1:30pm), extended Commission Meetings (running from 4pm – 10pm+), and some City Manager meetings have been charged to the city, and approved by the City Manager. For these events, some Commissioners and staff bring their own lunch and some eat food provided by the City. Staff that are not required to attend for the duration of the meeting are not provided food. Blast Event Meals: 11 charges totaling $727.94. During the initial days of the City’s round-the-clock response to the Blast event, meals were charged on city credit cards. The Emergency Declaration suspended existing purchasing policies; however, we maintained our standard payment approval processes, with the addition of the City Manager and Finance Director ultimately reviewing every Blast expense. While individual emergency responders and staff members were working 15+ hour days to manage the event, some important meetings were held during lunch and dinner meals. Amazingly, local restaurateurs frequently offered to “pick up the tab.” However, our ethics ordinance prevents City employees from receiving gratuities, and free meals were refused. Other Emergency Meals: 7 charges totaling $295.63. Like with the Blast, food is purchased for crews responding to other public safety and public works emergencies. In the past 6 months, the Water/Sewer department has had 2 main break emergencies that took 330 crews over 20 hours each to repair. Feeding employees at the site of an extended emergency ensures their safety (not becoming dehydrated and under-nourished) and serves the public when the water main break or other problem is fixed as quickly as possible. Keeping and feeding crews on site, rather than releasing them for personal meal breaks, limits property damage for both the city and the public. FISCAL EFFECTS: Changes to this policy could have a number of fiscal effects, depending on the direction given. Report compiled on: June 16, 2009 Attachments: Travel & Training Policy 331 332 333 334 335 336