Council approves monthly general-fund expense report; FOIA to govern additional records requests

Mount Pleasant Town Council on June 10 approved a finance-committee recommendation directing staff to publish a monthly manual report of all general-fund operating expenses with no minimum dollar threshold, excluding salary and per-diem employee reimbursements. The recommendation instructs staff to develop the report for public distribution; members discussed format and access.

Key points: - The finance committee recommended an open, searchable report of general-fund operating expenditures without a minimum disclosure threshold. The committee’s motion excluded payroll and per-diem reimbursements from the public spreadsheet to protect employee privacy and internal HR information. - Council members pressed staff to remove individual employee names from expenditure entries and to consider providing data in a machine-readable format (Excel) as well as PDF to improve transparency and public usability. Communications and legal staff said any additional document-level detail beyond the posted report (for example, supporting receipts or vendor invoices) would remain available through a Freedom of Information Act request and that FOIA would protect staff and ensure requests are specific.

Outcome: Council approved the finance-committee motion. Staff will prepare the monthly report and coordinate with legal and communications on format; staff also will publish guidance about FOIA for anyone seeking supporting documents.

What happens next: finance and communications staff will implement the monthly reporting format and provide periodic updates to council on format and public response.