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Council studies credit policy
Council will also discuss charging interest on loans.
YOUNGSTOWN — City council today will consider a stricter policy on its members’ use of city credit cards for travel expenses.
Previous councils provided city credit cards to each member.
That policy changed a few years ago with the cards held at the council clerk’s office and given to a member of council when needed for traveling. As part of that changed policy, council members were supposed to receive permission from council’s finance committee for the trips before taking them.
That became an issue last year when then-Councilman Artis Gillam Sr., D-1st, used a city credit card for about $800 worth of expenses for a conference without prior approval from the finance committee. When members of council discovered that, they canceled Gillam’s card while he was on the February 2007 trip and refused to reimburse him.
Before Gillam left council at the end of the year, council agreed to let him transfer money out of his “discretionary fund” and into his “travel fund” to reimburse himself.
With a new council taking over this past January, its members wanted a revised policy, said Councilwoman Carol Rimedio-Righetti, D-4th. She is the head of the finance committee and the only holdover member of council from last year.
Among the changes to the policy, if adopted today, would be:
UForbidding the use of city credit cards for fuel purchases for personal vehicles.
UIf members rent cars, they must be a “subcompact vehicle at the most economic price.”
UMembers cannot charge telephone-use fees to the city credit card.
UEach member must “sign an affidavit attesting to the appropriate use of the card ... prior to returning the card and receipts.”
Also at today’s meeting, council will consider a change to a program that permits the city to allow companies to borrow up $2 million for no more than 18 months.
The program would still require qualifying companies to provide an irrevocable letter of credit from a “financially sound” bank so the city is guaranteed the money is repaid.
The loans are interest-free. The proposed change would require companies obtaining the loans to pay at least 0.25 of a percent in interest.
The change is being proposed based on a recommendation from the Ohio auditor’s office, Mayor Jay Williams said. The auditor’s office told the city the program should include an interest requirement for it to truly be classified as an investment program, Williams said.
skolnick@vindy.com