LAKEPORT — The Lakeport City Council Tuesday approved two administrative proposals that the interim finance manager said would be cost-saving measures for the city.
The first proposed change adjusted several conditions of the city”s Administrative Policy on the Expense and Use of Public Resources. Dan Buffalo, interim finance manager, told the council that the changes focused on employee reimbursement issues.
One policy revision now allows the city to pre-pay for meals of employees who are traveling for city-related matters. The council previously adopted a pre-set amount for qualifying travel meals and the action taken Tuesday allows the city to pay for the meals in advance as opposed to post-travel reimbursement, City Manager Margaret Silveira said.
Another significant revision allows the city to use Enterprise Rent-A-Car for a special state government rate.
City employees travel long distances for out-of-county conferences and meetings, Silveira said, and the rental car option would be cheaper in many cases than reimbursing city employees for mileage for driving their personal vehicles.
A rental car would be used in cases of longer distance travel when city-owned vehicles are unavailable, Silveira said.
The council unanimously approved the policy document changes and adopted the amended document.
The second administrative proposal introduced by Buffalo addressed enrolling the city in a different purchase card program.
The city has used a general business account through MasterCard for city-employee purchases. Buffalo said that the city has accumulated many late fees and other penalties through the old program because of a 14-day payment period, which often did not provide enough time for city department heads to verify charges.
The new program would be the state-sponsored CAL-Card purchase card program, through an agreement with U.S. Bank, Buffalo said. Specific city executives and department managers would be issued Visa purchase cards, according to Buffalo and city council members are not on the to-be-issued list.
The CAL-Card program would provide the city a number of benefits, including rebate offers, Visa liability protection, free training and support tools, a 45-day payment period and a wider range of payment options, according to Buffalo.
The new program would also help the city avoid many of the types of previously accumulated fees, Buffalo said.
The council unanimously approved canceling the current MasterCard account and beginning the CAL-Card enrollment process.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
