The Herald, Sharon, PA Published Saturday, Aug. 4, 2001

MERCER COUNTY

Songer tight-lipped on credit card flap

By Tom Fontaine
Herald Staff Writer

The county is going to reevaluate its travel policy, which outlines how county credit cards should be used, Mercer County Controller Dennis Songer said Friday.

But Songer, who was vacationing out of state for the first four days of this work week, would not say if past credit-card misusage was being investigated.

An internal memo sent last week by Mercer County commissioners to all of the county's elected officials and department heads said county credit cards have been misused.

Songer said he was advised by county District Attorney James P. Epstein to "neither confirm nor deny" a probe, as Epstein did Wednesday.

Earlier that day, a livid county Commissioner Olivia Lazor turned in her county credit card with a series of policy recommendations to the county fiscal office. Although she did not elaborate, she said at least one incidence of abuse was serious enough that Chairman Commissioner Cloyd E. "Gene" Brenneman reported it to her in an out-of-the-ordinary Sunday afternoon phone call.

The existing travel policy took effect Jan. 1.

The four-page policy says county credit cards must be signed out of the fiscal office prior to leaving for a county-business trip and returned immediately after. Credit cards maintained by the three commissioners and two county departments, however, are not kept at the fiscal office and, as such, do not need to be signed out from or returned to the office; statements from those accounts are mailed directly to the cardholders, not the fiscal office.

The policy includes a list of 13 "unallowable expenses," such as late checkout charges and pay-per-view movies at hotels, local lunches, newspapers, snacks, parking and traffic fines, and alcoholic beverages. The policy said it was "not a complete list, just ... a guideline (to use) when traveling."

The policy allows cardholding county employees to hand out standard tips -- 15 percent for meals, $5 a trip in tips for baggage valets and the same amount for parking valets, and $1 a day for hotel maids -- and spend up to $10 on business breakfasts, $15 on lunches and $25 on dinner. Employees are encouraged to book hotel rooms via letter, but when that is not possible lodging costs can be charged to the card. Double-occupancy hotel rates can only be charged if two county employees share a room.

County employees can phone home on the county's tab once each night they spend at a hotel. The call can't be longer than 10 minutes. Employees traveling within the state are required to use county-owned cell phones.

Any personal expenses that wind up on the cards must be repaid quickly, according to the policy. "Costs incurred on the county credit card in excess of eligible expenses will be considered personal expenses and must be reimbursed to the county within five days of returning," the policy says.

Records of all credit-card repayments, made with county money, are kept in the controller's office. Paperwork detailing repayments to the county's National City and Mellon Bank credit cards during the last two years takes up several bulging folders.



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