(Photo by Kevin L. Smith/Cortland Voice).
The city of Cortland Common Council officially adopted a city-wide credit card usage policy for all departments at its meeting on Tuesday.
The policy comes after the city was audited by the New York state comptroller’s office back in May for unsupported and questionable/inappropriate credit claims close to $15,000.
The audit highlighted the period between Jan. 1, 2018 and Dec. 31, 2019. Of the $14,236 undocumented claims, $9,905 came from 164 credit charges that were not properly supported, and $4,331 came from 158 claims that were questionable and/or inappropriate purposes.
In June 2021, Tobin said through a letter to the comptroller that he and city officials recognized and agreed that “there is no comprehensive policy to direct department heads and employees as to usage, how to document, and what is needed to approve credit card purchases.”
Mayor Brian Tobin noted on Tuesday that the proposal of the policy has been discussed “multiple times,” adding a firm policy is needed for the city.
“We’ve all read this (policy) and discussed it a lot,” said councilperson Bruce Tytler (D-3rd Ward). “It’s been going on for far too long.”
According to the dialogue of the policy, the objectives of the policy for city-issued credit cards is to fulfill all statutory requirements of the Local Government Act with respect, adopt best practices in developing a clear and comprehensive policy, and reduce the risk of fraud and misuse.
Credit cards can be held by employees within each department in the city, and used under the direction of the Common Council. The credit limit per card cannot exceed $5,000, the policy states.
The policy details a slew of restrictions:
- Credit cards are not to be used for personal expenses or in-city meals under any circumstances. Alcohol purchases are prohibited.
- Meal expenses are only allowed when an official or employee is traveling outside of its work area on authorized official business, or is prevented from taking time off for meals due to needs to complete the business at hand.
- Use of the credit cards for purchases over the internet shall be restricted to secured sites.
- The cardholder is personally liable for any expenditure that cannot be shown to be related to the business of the city. The director of finance (Mack Cook) shall guarantee a credit extension and be indemnified by the city as appropriate by case of default.
- The credit limit of the card cannot be exceeded.
- Employees are no longer entitled to one or more credit cards. It must be returned immediately to the department head for appropriate action.
Each cardholder from all of the departments is required to provide a monthly credit card statement, which will detail all of the transactions made from that month. All invoices and receipts must be attached to the statement, the policy states.
If there is a regular occurrence of a lack of supporting information or detailed explanation of the monthly statements, the policy notes the cardholder could be refused access to a credit card.
Tobin and the Common Council also put forward a Corrective Action Plan for this year’s comptroller audit of the city. Abbreviated as CAP, the document details recommendations from the comptroller, and the city’s response.
The plan notes to the comptroller that a collective effort between Tobin, Common Council and Cook will be made through the policy that “clearly outlines usage, documentation requirements, approval process and employee reimbursements for work-related expenditures.”
“The corrective action plan will address all of their actions in the short term,” Tobin said.
