Scott City mayor addresses abuse of credit cards

Scott City Mayor Ron Cummins outlined a plan to fix the city's credit card protocols and curb improper use of city funds during a city council meeting Monday night.

"[Mayor pro-tem] Norman [Brant] and I and the police department has met with the forensic auditors and the other outside auditor. What we know from here is that we've got to change [from] the way it's been done in the past," Cummins said, referring to city credit card protocols. "We need better control of our credit cards, less credit cards and oversight of it."

After the council meeting, he estimated the city had as many as 14 credit cards at once, each with a $50,000 limit, and that most, if not all, city employees had some sort of access to one. Cummins said he had never used one himself for any business since he's an elected official.

He said the easy access and a lax receipt policy likely contributed to many of the discrepancies that have now been uncovered as part of the ongoing audit process.

Cape Girardeau accounting firm Stanley, Dirnberger, Hopper and Associates, as well as forensic auditors from the Arnold, Missouri-based firm Daniel Jones and Associates are both in the process of conducting independent audits of Scott City records.

An investigation conducted by then-City Administrator Ron Eskew earlier this year found inappropriate use of a city credit card by a city employee who was later fired. Eskew declined to name that employee on the record, but in February -- shortly after Eskew said he shared his findings with the mayor and others -- the city council voted in closed session to fire then-City Clerk Cindy Uhrhan.

Ron Eskew is no longer city administrator. He maintains he was coerced into signing a one-sentence resignation letter drafted for him.

Cummins estimated the firms had so far found about 100 total missing receipts for purchases made with city credit cards over the past several years. He declined to comment on how much money the purchases in question represent, citing the ongoing audit.

Addressing the council, Cummins said the city would likely end up with only three or four credit cards after designing and implementing the new protocols.

Of those, only the Police Department and Public Works Department will likely have designated credit cards, Cummins said, citing their 24-hour schedule and unforeseen needs.

"Other than that all other departments will go through the procedures of getting them and run that route," he said.

He also said all purchases would need itemized receipts, rather than a general description of the charge, like "Sam's Club," where police have purchased food items for the jail in the past.

"[From now on] it will be an itemized list that we will go step by step through those and verify they are city purchases and who made them and receipts will be with them," Cummins explained. "From what we have been told is, if there's not a receipt, it will be considered a personal purchase and will be taken out of your paychecks."

In addition, he said the city will form two review committees comprised of four council members each which will convene twice a month on an alternating basis to examine individual statements and itemized lists before council meetings.

"We're going to come up with a method by which credit cards must be signed out and returned with a receipt," Cummins added. "We're still working on that; we should be getting a book pretty soon that kind of tells us what we're going to do... We may have to get back to the point to where... you charge it yourself and you get reimbursed when you get back."

Also during the meeting, Councilwoman Donna McGregor read a letter from Missouri Ethics Commission executive director James Klahr detailing the dismissal of the complaint leveled against her by former Scott City Mayor Tim Porch for having received compensation as a temporary city employee outside her duties as councilwoman.

McGregor was paid $127.50 for staffing the front desk of City Hall one day last October, but the commission found that since there was no discussion of pay beforehand and since McGregor returned the full amount after the complaint was filed, there were "no reasonable grounds... to support a violation," Klahr wrote.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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