Morristown Select Board authorizes business officers to manage town account changes, moves toward individualized staff credit cards

The Town of Morristown Select Board on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution authorizing designated business officers to make changes to the town’s accounts at Union Bank and sign a required form to set up individual credit-card numbers.

Board members said the change aims to improve accountability and make it easier to trace fraudulent or disputed charges after several small unauthorized charges prompted staff review. Town staff told the board Union Bank can issue unique card numbers to each authorized user at no additional charge; doing so requires the board to sign a specific resolution form.

Town treasurer Sarah Haskins said the current practice has multiple employees using cards that share the same number, which complicates tracking: "we get a charge, and then Union Bank goes around to everybody asking, you know, did you make this charge?" She said individual numbers would make reconciliation and fraud detection simpler. The town manager and other staff recommended further updates to the written purchasing policy to add limits, secure storage and reconciliation steps.

Several board members supported the principle but asked staff to return with more detailed policy language — for example, maximum single-charge thresholds and procedures for storing and deactivating cards — before broadening cardholder privileges. "I don't oppose this idea, but I think we should look at that policy and talk about max charges," one member said during discussion.

The motion, introduced by Select Board member Leah and seconded by Rose, authorized Sarah Haskins, Mitsy Fleming and Brent Raymond to make account changes at Union Bank and empowered the vice chair to sign the resolution form on the board's behalf. The vote was unanimous.

The board did not adopt a comprehensive new credit-card policy at the meeting; members asked staff to draft policy language and return for future consideration.