An inside metropolis overview of Newport News City Council members’ bills led to an overhaul in coverage after 4 elected officers have been discovered to have used city-issued bank cards for inappropriate expenses.

Members have been required to pay again expenses that violated state code and town’s journey coverage, together with airline journey to a basketball sport and meals. The metropolis revoked the bank cards for all council members aside from the mayor, and switched to buy playing cards, or P-cards, in July. Afterward, some Newport News council members claimed they weren’t given particular sufficient directions on what bills are allowed.

Newport News isn’t the one Hampton Roads metropolis that issued bank cards to council members. The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press reviewed the journey, meal and bank card insurance policies of 5 different Hampton Roads cities to discover out what checks they’ve in place to stop misuse of taxpayer cash.

Hampton and Portsmouth present bank cards for council members. Chesapeake does for 2 members. Norfolk and Virginia Beach don’t present bank cards. Most metropolis insurance policies embrace pointers stating bills are allowed just for metropolis enterprise and that private bills, visitors or parking violations, presents, alcohol or different non-city issues usually are not allowed.

Regulating how council members or employees spend taxpayer {dollars} is a battle for many native governments, in accordance to Frank Shafroth, who has labored for the National League of Cities, National Governors’ Association and most just lately as director of the Center for State and Local Leadership at George Mason University. He mentioned it’s typically tough for localities to “draw really fine lines” when figuring out whether or not utilizing metropolis funds is acceptable.

Expenses for enterprise journeys and meals are two of the areas most ripe for abuse, Shafroth mentioned. But he mentioned he was “pretty impressed ” with the cities’ journey insurance policies.

Travel bills

Portsmouth City Council members are issued bank cards for journey bills (together with “limited miscellaneous” bills for the mayor). Cards are saved within the finance division and checked out beforehand.

Council members usually are not allowed to expense journey in Hampton Roads. But allowable bills embrace annual attendance at Virginia Municipal League and National League of Cities conferences, in addition to conferences, academic and coaching programs, and different city-related enterprise. The Portsmouth metropolis supervisor submits quarterly reviews in regards to the council’s journey expenditures to the whole City Council for overview.

City Clerk Debra White mentioned when council members journey, they need to submit a voucher detailing all points of the journey. All receipts have to be turned in and validated by her and the finance division.

“If a receipt is lost or misplaced, the council member must sign a statement,” she mentioned in an e mail. “This very rarely has to happen.”

In Hampton, council members have city-issued bank cards, and every new member has an orientation with the finance division to overview insurance policies. Credit card use is restricted to buying items and companies and offering cost for travel-related bills to conduct metropolis enterprise. City coverage states “excessive costs, circuitous routing, delays, or luxury accommodations unnecessary or unjustified in the performance of assigned travel are not considered examples of prudent behavior.”

“Council members’ expenses are collected, along with documentation, by the City Council staff,” mentioned metropolis spokesperson Robin McCormick. “They are the primary overview and are well-trained on the insurance policies. They catch any errors and reject any bills that aren’t allowed.

“The finance staff also reviews all credit card statements from staff and from City Council. They will question any submission that has missing documentation or does not appear meet the policy.”

In Chesapeake, solely Mayor Rick West and council member Robert Ike have playing cards issued of their names. Those are saved locked in a file till journey, the place they will use them for meals, parking charges or a room safety deposit that have to be paid upfront, although members usually pay upfront and get reimbursed, in accordance to City Clerk Sandy Madison. A journey request have to be submitted two weeks earlier than departure. Reimbursement requests have to be submitted inside 10 days of returning.

According to Chesapeake spokesperson Heath Covey, using city-issued bank cards by members of the City Council is reviewed every month throughout the Office of the City Clerk.

Neither Norfolk nor Virginia Beach concern bank cards to council members. Instead, the cities have journey insurance policies that cowl members and metropolis employees.

In Norfolk, vacationers usually are not allowed to make their very own journey plans or approve their very own vouchers, in accordance to the 14-page journey coverage. Chris Jones, a spokesperson for Norfolk, mentioned in an e mail that the division of finance and town auditor’s workplace periodically overview travel-related reimbursements and expenses for compliance. Any non-compliance recognized is subsequently addressed.

Additionally, Jones famous town clerk’s workplace is chargeable for working with City Council members to e-book city-related journey on their behalf. All cost paperwork require a number of approvals within the metropolis’s monetary system. Furthermore, Jones mentioned council members are made conscious of the coverage earlier than they journey. The metropolis clerk additionally verifies that each one needed receipts and documentation are despatched to the finance division for approval and/or reimbursement.

“The city manager considers this to be a sufficient internal control, and the city clerk concurs,” he mentioned.

The Virginia Beach City Council journey coverage outlines eligible journey bills as: reimbursement for all common and particular council conferences, hearings and workshops, and for attendance at conferences or occasions “necessary to the conduct of the office of the council member within a defined local travel area.” If council members need to be reimbursed for an expense, they notify town clerk, who reaches out to the finance division to comply with the steps required for reimbursement.

Shafroth mentioned he’s heard of instances by which officers would prepare holidays round what have been supposed to be enterprise journeys to skirt across the concern of utilizing taxpayer {dollars} for private use, which he described as “the biggest area of potential abuse.”

Some conditions, nevertheless, are extra sophisticated.  For instance, he mentioned there may very well be a scenario when an official travels to a metropolis for enterprise functions earlier than studying the one lodge rooms accessible exceed the rules throughout the journey coverage.

“So you’re in this moral dilemma. Do you need to go someplace else that’s within the guidelines?” Shafroth mentioned. “It’s 3 o’clock in the morning, are you going to be able to find a place?  Are you going to be accused of violating the guidelines? So what happens is it really depends heavily on each individual, demonstrating that she or he is judicious and careful not to abuse guidelines.”

Meals

Shafroth mentioned meals are an space by which there could be “significant abuse.” He mentioned “the average person should know” what’s a suitable quantity to cost to town. If somebody orders three alcoholic drinks, a steak and desserts, it’s “clearly outside the bounds.” However, he famous employees members who advise authorities management could also be reluctant to name out misuse of taxpayer {dollars} for worry of retaliation.

“I had a couple of bosses who really came down hard on you,” Shafroth mentioned. “And even though you were doing the right thing, and they were proposing to do the wrong thing, you could get fired.”

Hampton Roads cities range when it comes to what a council member can expense for a meal. The most quantity Portsmouth reimburses for meals is $20 per meal until receipts are supplied and overlaying meals for native journey is discouraged. All meals have to be for official enterprise. Chesapeake makes use of the usual IRS per diem fee for meal protection in accordance to the Virginia Per Diem Calculator. That fee ranges from $59 to $64 a day in Hampton Roads.

Norfolk doesn’t allow meal reimbursement on journeys of lower than 12 hours or don’t require an in a single day keep. During out-of-town journey, Norfolk employees could also be reimbursed for 2 meals a day throughout journey days, whereas three meals on days on the vacation spot could also be reimbursed.

Shafroth mentioned receipts ought to be supplied for using taxpayer {dollars}.

“I think as long as you’re showing the receipt, because then if it gets back, and it was dinner for two, it was $200,” Shafroth mentioned. “That’s going to raise questions in anybody’s mind. That’s not reasonable, right? So you bring the receipt and then someone in the city or the county, or the state can say, ‘$200, for dinner for two, and the taxpayers are going to cover that? And do we have a really good explanation for why that’s justifiable?’”

Hampton might revoke bank cards if they’re used for private or unauthorized causes, alcoholic drinks, utilized by one other particular person, or if the consumer fails to present required receipts. Card revocation may additionally topic the cardholder to disciplinary motion.

Those who violate Norfolk’s coverage could also be barred from touring for town or disciplined. Failure to meet Chesapeake’s coverage is taken into account “unsatisfactory work performance” and might lead to disciplinary motion.

Newport News modifications

Following the bank card overview in Newport News, town is taking motion to guarantee extra accountability.

The mayor is the one council member to retain a bank card, as the opposite six council members have been required to change to P-cards.

The main distinction between a P-card and a bank card is that expenses to a P-card have to be paid in full every month whereas bank cards allow cardholders to make partial funds and carry a revolving stability, in accordance to metropolis spokesperson Sarah Bowman.

“As it is not the City’s practice to carry a revolving balance, but rather pay credit card charges in full each month, transitioning all City cardholders to P-cards promotes uniformity, enhances reporting capabilities, and reduces the administrative burden of maintaining separate charge card programs with no negative financial impacts,” she wrote in an e mail.

Since the change, two council members mentioned they didn’t want a P-card. Four council members, Tina Vick, Pat Woodbury, Cleon Long and Curtis Bethany, have P-cards. According to Bowman, each P-cards and bank cards can be utilized for small purchases.

The council can be contemplating creating an official coverage handbook to information council habits — together with allowable bank card utilization — and to codify roles and duties.

Staff writers Stacy Parker, Natalie Anderson, and Ian Munro contributed to this report. 

Josh Janney, josh.janney@virginiamedia.com

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