Accounts committee pores over 536‑page warrants; flags credit‑card use, EZPass charges, Amazon spending and settlements for follow-up

The Brockton City Accounts Committee spent the bulk of its meeting reviewing a 536‑page warrants packet and directed the city auditor to research multiple recurring concerns, including credit‑card use across departments, how EZPass bills are handled, Amazon purchases and one‑time vendor refunds.

City Auditor Irene Ginopoulos advised the committee that several city departments and some school functions use a city credit card program administered through Elan Financial Services; she said police, fire, human resources and finance currently have access and the school department is being considered for enrollment. “We have a policy where … they need to have an invoice available, a receipt, so we can justify the charge before we even use the card,” she told the committee.

Committee members repeatedly asked for clearer, department‑segregated reports instead of a combined paid‑invoices list. The auditor said Munis reporting may require custom extracts and offered to export departmental lines to Excel for committee review.

EZPass charges across multiple purchase orders drew attention when a committee member pointed to transactions that included out‑of‑state tolls and license‑plate photos; the auditor said some PO numbers were misattached in the system and she would pull paperwork to reconcile the entries and report back. Members also asked whether the city uses fleet transponders or pays by plate and asked the auditor to report on the city’s EZPass arrangements at the next meeting.

Amazon purchases and procurement‑card use were singled out. Councilors cited a year‑to‑date Amazon spend figure the auditor gave in the meeting — $352,141.42 — and urged a policy that limits who may order from Amazon, designates a central delivery point and prioritizes local vendors where possible. Auditor Ginopoulos said the auditor’s office rejects payments when goods are delivered to employees’ homes and that delivery addresses are part of her review process.

Committee members asked the auditor to investigate one‑time vendor listings and refunds: the packet included a $123,666 entry described as returned to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and members requested a breakdown of one‑time‑vendor refunds that together total a large year‑to‑date sum. The auditor explained that Munis sometimes uses a “one‑time vendor” placeholder for refunds and agreed to provide a detailed explanation and list of recipients where permissible.

Councilors also pressed for more detail on several other items in the packet: settlement payments involving the school department (including a settlement and related legal fees for Darnell Williams), payments to outside consultants (for example, an interim HR director contracted through Capital Strategic Solutions), Cherry Sheet assessments handled via the state treasurer, and multiple apparent duplicate checks or multi‑month payments to vendors such as Aquaria LLC and Brockton Day Nursery.

The committee identified a set of follow‑up tasks and asked the auditor to return with a more targeted packet for the next meeting that can be filtered by department and subject (public safety invoices, school bills, and large vendors). No formal votes were taken on the warrants at this session; councillors emphasized oversight and requested periodic, itemized reporting to help the public and the committee track recurring spending.