Brittany Kelley
KYLE — Kyle City Council discussed the controversial council member credit cards at its Jan. 6 meeting.
Two items related to the cards were opened together, with council members Marc McKinney and Melisa Medina sponsoring the first and Mayor Yvonne Flores-Cale sponsoring the second.
According to Medina, she brought forth the item discussing eliminating the cards and convening a Compensation Review Committee because she is aware of the ongoing concerns from residents.
“It almost feels like just extra money being handed out left and right from not just your pockets, but ours. The [council] stipend would be a good thing to have in a council pocket, still, for those council members who do like to do town hall events, who do like to put together meet and greets and get out in their communities and have functions with their residents,” said Medina.
Additionally, she shared that removing the credit cards entirely would save staff time, as they will no longer have to sort through receipts for each time the card was used.
McKinney stated that he felt as though the reimbursement option for council could be removed, too, since the stipend is available.
“I know reimbursements can be complicated, but I think if we’re likely to spend our money, that we’re going to probably do it less,” said Flores-Cale, whose item suggested removing the credit cards.
Regarding the Compensation Review Committee, Medina shared that the city is a year overdue, as they’re required every three years and the last one took place in 2022.
City attorney Aimee Alcorn-Reed clarified that the committee strictly looks at council compensation, such as its monthly stipends, but would not discuss expenses within the budget, like travel. The individuals that make up the committee, said city manager Bryan Langley, can either be appointed from the dais at a later date or council can specify a method of selection that the staff could conduct. He emphasized that council needs to make sure the group has adequate time to make recommendations prior to budget discussion in July.
“Just to be clear, each of these [items] is to direct me to bring back a resolution to do something, whether it’s the compensation committee or to amend the policy for credit cards or what it is. So, those would all come back as action items. This just gives me the direction from you as a board [to do that],” said Langley.
Flores-Cale motioned to bring a resolution to create and convene a Compensation Review Committee, with council member Michael Tobias seconding. The item passed 7-0.
Medina then followed with a motion to bring back an item to amend the city ordinance to eliminate council credit cards, which was seconded by McKinney. The item passed unanimously.
“I think we crossed the goal line. Alright, they’re gone guys,” said Flores-Cale to a round of applause from those in attendance.
Next, council discussed creating a resolution to require the posting of all city credit card expenses, associated receipts and other support information to the city’s website.
“This is a little bit different because we’re talking about city employee credit cards. One of the things that came up constantly when I was campaigning was government transparency and we have a number of employees that have city credit cards for just daily purchases, etc. We do have credit card policies, all of those things, however, with what we saw in Austin recently with one employee who was just caught charging almost $1 million to companies that belong to his family for services not rendered, I felt like it would be a really good thing to have those city credit cards for city employees on the website, similar to how the city council credit cards were posted,” said council member Courtney Goza.
The purpose of these cards, said Langley, is for low cost, high volume purchases because if staff went through a traditional purchase order, the product would often cost more.
The city manager also stated that the cards have a procurement policy, with monthly and transaction limits: “After those charges are made, the supervisors review the charges and either accept or deny the charges. If there’s any issues, the receipts are then documented … they’re reviewed [at the procurement office], so there is a process that’s looked at there.”
Additionally, the cards are part of the annual external financial audit.
Council member Claudia Zapata said that she was concerned because council had just finished a conversation that discussed the $30,000 fiscal impact and time that staff put into managing only council cards. So, applying that same process to every city credit card is “going to skyrocket” these costs, Zapata said.
Another issue she had was potentially creating a “punitive environment” for staff. For example, residents potentially asking why it costs $23 for an officer to fill up on gas and $46 another day.
Furthermore, she stated that, if the conversation is around transparency, posting the payment stubs doesn’t actually solve the root of the problem.
Tobias was in agreement with Goza’s idea, as he also wants to push for more transparency, so he questioned if the city would be able to afford the venture.
Director of Finance Perwez Moheet noted that, with 93 active credit cards, there wouldn’t be a significant cost increase for the information to be posted online, though Alcorn-Reed stated that it may cost time, as when the council credit card receipts were posted, it took staff substantial time to complete redactions.
After asking approximately how much is spent on the credit cards, Flores-Cale also urged for transparency: “If we have $275,000 [we’re spending], give or take, and 12 months, we’re looking at $3.3 million … If we’re spending $3.3 million on credit cards, there’s got to be some kind of accountability and [council] can’t do it. It’s not our job to go through every one of those, but it is somebody’s job and it’s our job as council to ensure that’s getting done.”
“I think there is a lot of taking numbers out of context that is happening right now and I think there’s a lot of fear mongering and mistrust that we are starting to build towards our city staff. I don’t think we, as city council, should be in the business of micromanaging what it is that our staff does,” said Zapata, adding that there is already a policy in place for the cards. “It is not who we are. We are a legislative body. The administration and the executive functions belong under the purview of the city manager and staff.”
Similar policies, stressed Goza, were in place for the council cards, yet there were numerous times that alcohol and medicine was purchased, personal items were bought and more.
Zapata then clarified with the city manager that there are different and added policies with the staff credit cards now, than with the previous council ones.
“I do want to just state: fiscal responsibility is not micromanaging. It’s not fear mongering. It’s not mistrust. It’s not that I don’t trust our staff … Maybe there’s nothing to worry about. All we have to do is just look at the numbers, look at the statements and show us. There’s nothing wrong with that,” said the mayor.
Tobias motioned to direct the city manager to bring back a resolution creating a policy to require the posting of credit card expenses, with Goza seconding. The item passed 4-3, with McKinney, Zapata and council member Lauralee Harris dissenting.
To listen to the discussions, visit bit.ly/49crs7D. Kyle City Council will meet next at 7 p.m. Jan. 20.
