City employees will no longer be advanced per-diem costs when traveling for city business.

Councilmen approved the new policy on a 4-2 vote, with Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens and Ward 4 Councilman Marty Turner opposed, after Mayor Robert Smith said the city’s old per-diem policy wasn’t working due to councilmen not turning in receipts in a timely manner.

Under the old policy, the city advanced money to officials or employees for travel, rooming and per-diem expenses such as meals.

With the new policy, the city will still pay for necessary expenses, such as travel and rooming. However, city officials or employees must pay for their own meals and other similar costs, then provide receipts within 10 days to receive reimbursement.

The policy says receipts must be furnished to prove the costs of “transportation, lodging, meals, fees and other necessary expenses” that result from the trip.

Any unspent advanced money must be returned to the city.

“No per-diem will be reimbursed after travel in the absence of timely produced receipts,” the policy says.

The policy applies to all city “officials, officers and employees.”

Mayor: ‘The council is the problem’

During the meeting, Turner questioned if the new policy would apply to the mayor’s city credit card.

City Attorney Jeff Turnage said he didn’t think the credit card would qualify as an advance per diem under the new policy.

Smith, however, said his credit card isn’t the issue.

“The mayor is not the problem,” Smith said. “The council is the problem. That’s why we’re changing it.”

Smith specifically pointed the finger at two councilmen who he claims fail to turn in receipts in a timely manner after trips. He declined to name the two, when asked, but Mickens and Turner voiced the most opposition to the new policy during the meeting. He said one councilman only recently turned in receipts from an August trip.

“If the councilmen followed the policy, we wouldn’t be here,” Smith said. “We have two councilmen who refuse to follow the policy. That’s why I asked the council to amend our regular policy that we have and go with the new one here, because it’s not working.”

Turner said he owes $55 for room service that was erroneously charged to the mayor’s credit card during a trip. Turner said he’ll pay the charge.

Still, he questioned whether the policy could be enforced against elected officials such as the mayor and councilmen.

“You can’t really have a policy against a councilman, so it doesn’t make sense to me to even draw something up like that,” Turner said.

Turner said he’s also had issues in the past with city policy requiring receipts when he has tried to use his bank statements as evidence of travel payments for reimbursement.

Mickens: ‘Sometimes the mayor is just like Donald Trump’

After the meeting, Mickens told The Dispatch he opposed the measure because he did not have time to review the policy beforehand.

The item was added after the city posted the agenda on its website a few days before Tuesday’s meeting. During the meeting, Turnage said Smith asked him to draft a new policy late Monday afternoon, and he completed it about two hours before the council meeting.

“I’m tired of voting for things that I have no prior knowledge of,” Mickens said. “I told Jeff that I needed to look at it. Once I saw what was in there, there were some things that Mr. Turnage left out. If you’re saying the council can’t get per-diem, can the mayor still use his card? Does that (policy) include the youth council? We give them per-diem before they leave, and they’re not even working for the city.

“Nobody could answer those questions, so I couldn’t vote for it until I looked at it,” he added.

Mickens said he’s not currently behind on travel receipts, and he doesn’t know who Smith was referring to during the meeting.

“Sometimes the mayor is just like Donald Trump,” he said. “He likes to throw things out there, and people go where they want to go with it.”

Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.