DELTONA BONA FIDE

COMMENTARY

That’s your credit card they’re using!

February 11, 2007

They’re out there, with your credit card, rooming at hotels, wining and dining, entertaining, and buying gifts for themselves and others. They’re the ones being served hot wings by scantily-clad waitresses at Hooter’s, but the tab – and tip – is on you.

It’s no use calling the Feds – these Hooters aficionados are authorized to use your credit card. Don’t try to refuse payment – do so and the margarita monsters can take your property away from you!

I’m not talking about identity thieves - I’m talking about, of course, the city officials of Deltona.

Last year over 50 city officials collectively spent about 1 million of your tax dollars on office supplies, meals, lodging, and gifts for themselves and others. That’s an average of about $87,000 a month, or $2,800 per day.

$35 per employee at Hooter’s? Was that for food, ale, or tips? The tipping comes easy when it's not your money. That's something I taught dad when I was younger and he let me use his credit card for a dinner date! Soon afterwards, Dad taught me to have more respect for his money!

While most or all of the city officials’ expenditures may be legitimate uses of tax dollars, credit card usage and policies should be investigated and calibrated as necessary to bring spending to an acceptable level of accountability and responsibility.

Of concern is not so much that over $1 million was spent, but rather that 52 individuals have the authority to blow through that much of your dough without an effective approval process or auditing trail.

Who are the 52 individuals who have this unbridled buying power with your credit cards? 7 of them are members of the City Commission. The other 45, who knows? I'm aware of only 14 various departments that make up Deltona's city Government.

Deltona city code says “The Commission may provide for reimbursement of actual expenses incurred by its members while performing their official duties.” But the city appears to be unsure whether or not some charges – like a margarita machine – were incurred while performing official duties. In addition, receipts have reportedly gone missing on numerous other credit card transactions.

Commissioners McFall-Conte, Deyette and Carmolingo are reportedly of the position that if officials weren’t talking about city business during their meals, they should not have used the city’s credit card. Deltona Bona Fide asked Commissioner Michael Carmolingo and Mayor Mulder if city business was discussed during their private March 2006 taxpayer-funded dinner at a Japanese steakhouse. Neither have responded.

Last year city officials used their city-assigned credit cards to spend an average of about $20,000 each. That’s nearly triple the annual salary of a Commissioner, but it's important to factor in that Deltona pays their Commissioners somewhat modestly.

Although Deltona is Volusia’s largest city by population and its second largest city by surface area, the Commissioner’s salaries were determined by the average salary of those paid in all other Volusia cities. As such, a Deltona commissioner earns a lesser salary than the commissioners of numerous smaller Volusia cities.

A proper assessment and tuning of the Commission’s salaries should be given as much consideration as an investigation of their spending habits. To continue paying them peanuts while providing them with diminished support or tighter controls would leave this boss feeling a bit like a scrooge. One might refer to such a scenario as a sweatshop.

Not all city officials need restrictive spending controls to make them good stewards of our tax dollars. Excellent examples of responsible credit card spending were demonstrated last year by Commissioner McFall-Conte, who opted to not use a city credit card, and Commissioner Santiago, who spent only a few hundred bucks on meals. Unfortunately, however, others do require tighter spending controls and that means implementing tighter policies for all officials.

Commissioner McFall-Conte has requested that City Manager Steve Thompson initiate an independent investigation of the city’s credit card policies with regard to Commissioners and staff. McFall-Conte feels that “until that time, credit card use by the commissioners, and select staff should stop.”

To what may prove to be a serious problem of wasteful credit card spending by city officials, I don’t think decreasing spending limits is the answer. The answer, rather, is to implement a policy that more sensibly dictates what is or isn’t an approved credit card expense and to enforce the policy.

For example, making the taxpayers foot the bill for your room and board in a nice Lake Mary hotel should not be an approved purchase – most of us taxpayers are average Joe’s who work that far away from home or further and commute daily. Deal with it.

And there’s no reason that non-emergency gifts that cost hundreds of dollars or more can’t be an agenda item. It’s only fair that average Joe taxpayer is privy to which city official wants to buy whom a gift before the purchase is made.

Another practice that should be stopped with the new policy is spending tax dollars at Blockbuster – pay for your own entertainment, just like average Joe does.

To pay the hired help with peanuts is one thing. To dampen their dedication and enthusiasm further by spending only peanuts on their work supplies is another. Let’s conduct an independent investigation of each to make sure that we’re not doing both.

The citizens deserve accountable, responsible stewardship of their tax dollars, but they must be careful to not tie the hands of those who are working for peanuts.

Discuss it at Deltona's online discussion forum DeltonaChat.com