Oversight committee hears briefing on county purchasing cards, rebates and fleet management

County finance and fleet staff briefed the oversight committee on the county’s purchasing-card program and on vehicle-fleet management during the budget season.

A county finance official described the purchasing-card program as a state-backed program administered through Bank of America that the county adopted to reduce paperwork and speed small-dollar purchases. “It comes actually through the state. It's part of a state program,” the staff member said. Departments have purchasing cards with controls on merchant types and per-transaction limits; each transaction requires receipts and documentation that are reviewed at the department level, by procurement, and by accounts payable.

The staff member said the program returns a rebate to the county and described the program as reducing invoice volume caused by small purchases. “We also get a rebate. And that rebate can be substantial at the end of the year through the state as part of the program,” the staff member said, citing a rebate figure in the transcript for context. The county official also described existing fraud and card-control protections, including alerts from the issuing bank when suspicious activity appears and transaction limits that can be adjusted.

Committee members asked whether purchasing-card transactions appear on the county’s public expenditures website at transaction-level detail; staff said county expenditures are posted online but that the current public view may not list the per-transaction detail the committee sought. Staff said they would investigate how to extract and publish more detailed transaction data without imposing large clerical burdens.

Fleet management. County staff also briefed the committee on the vehicle fleet. Staff said the county maintains an in-house fleet service that performs many repairs and equipment installs and tracks vehicle maintenance. The county’s fleet comprises roughly 800 vehicles, from dump trucks to patrol cars. Staff explained the county uses a master lease for financing (described as a lease-purchase financing instrument) and noted replacement decisions consider usage, mileage, safety and maintenance costs.

Public transparency and next steps. Committee members asked staff to provide documentation on purchasing-card controls, transaction reports and the fleet policy as part of budget review. Staff said they would produce the requested materials and review options for making more granular expenditure data available to the public as practicable.

No formal action was taken; the committee received the briefing and requested follow-up documentation for budget discussions.