Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Governance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Castle Hills CCPD amends check-signature policy after earlier vote and disclosure of $25,000 overage
Summary
The CCPD board amended disbursement procedures to require two signatures—chief of police and city manager as primary, mayor as alternate—and discussed a previously disclosed $25,000 expenditure that staff said was later rectified in the accounting records.
At its July 2 meeting the Castle Hills Crime Control Prevention District board moved to amend Article 5, Section 4 of its policies so that all disbursements require two signatures. The motion named the chief of police and the city manager as the primary signers and the mayor as the alternate.
A board member summarized the change the board had previously voted on in October: "The board voted unanimously, to have the signatories on the account for the CCPD ... the chief of police and the city manager are to be the primary signatories and the mayor as the secondary signatory," the member said. A proposed amendment drafted for the meeting would make the written policy consistent with that prior unanimous action.
Board discussion returned to a separate November accounting issue in which roughly $25,000 had been spent and later came to light at a subsequent meeting. One board member said, "Which is that $25,000 was spent out of our money, and we said we we didn't approve that." City staff responded that the matter had been handled in the accounting: "It's been rectified through a journal entry," staff said, and the transaction was disclosed in the meeting invoices.
Members debated whether changing signatories would materially alter oversight or whether the board’s procedural controls and disclosure practices were the primary safeguard. The board moved to amend the policies to require two signatures, with the primary signers set as the chief of police and the city manager and the alternate as the mayor; the chair called for a second and the motion advanced (no roll-call vote was recorded in the transcript). The board also asked staff to publish the amended policy and to update bank signatory records as needed.
The board closed unfinished business and adjourned the meeting.
