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Homewood council presses staff on vouchers, vendor patterns and city credit-card oversight
Summary
Councilors reviewed vouchers and vendor activity at a Dec. 8 pre-meeting, raising concerns about approving voucher batches without detailed credit-card charge visibility; staff said credit-card statements are reconciled with receipts and backup is available, and council discussed reducing the number of cardholders or centralizing purchasing.
During the Dec. 8 pre-council meeting, Homewood councilors spent substantial time reviewing voucher and purchasing practices, including the city's use of purchase orders, vendor invoices and departmental credit cards.
Councilors noted many uniform and annual purchases occur at the start of the fiscal year (NAFCO, Galls, NAVECO) and asked how credit-card expenditures appear in the vouchers. Staff explained that credit-card statements (First Horizon) are paid and reconciled against receipts provided by department heads; backup documentation is available in the packet for review. One councilor said approving vouchers without seeing credit-card-level detail is problematic for oversight: "So we're approving something we don't see," and urged consideration of reducing the number of credit-card holders or centralizing purchasing, noting other cities have fewer active departmental cards.
Council staff said vouchers are prepared twice monthly and that credit-card statements are reconciled separately; they also said they would continue to provide backup documentation and make follow-up available to councilors with questions. Councilors agreed the purchasing process would be a subject for the new administration to review and that the incoming staff member (Sam Gaston) might be asked to address consolidation or oversight of credit-card use.
