Indio mayor: Credit cards being pulled today

Indio city officials will pull the majority of the 62 credit cards issued to staff members and tighten its controls over spending, the mayor told The Desert Sun today.

Mayor Gene Gilbert, who met with City Manager Glenn Southard this morning, said a staff meeting will be held later today to discuss the city’s spending policies.

The new protocol will require that all of the cards, except those issued to department heads, be held with the finance department.

Gilbert said he asked for the cards' access to be limited, saying "I still have concerns" but the new protocol should provide better controls.

Today’s staff meeting comes on the heels of Sunday's Desert Sun report showing city officials had charged more than $805,000 from January 2008 through October 2009 on taxpayer-funded credit cards. Records showed they were on pace to charge more this year than last year, with spending that included nationwide travel, dining out frequently and tickets to multiple national sporting events.

A city council meeting is being planned for Wednesday. The meeting will focus on the city’s proposed early retirement deal, though the use of credit cards may be discussed.

Gilbert spoke to The Desert Sun after an hour-long meeting with Southard at city hall. The staff meeting is expected to be called by Southard.

Southard's secretary told The Desert Sun he was not available to meet with a reporter after the meeting.

Gilbert said Southard told him answers would be ready by Friday to questions asked by the mayor, as well as the 11 questions asked last week by The Desert Sun.

Southard, through Assistant to the City Manager Mark Wasserman, last week declined to answer the newspaper’s written questions.

“I've been instructed by the city manager not to answer questions on any of the charges in question at this time, until we have ample opportunity to research all of the charges,” Wasserman told the paper last week.

“The $805,000 is less than 1 percent of our expenditures on an annual basis and they are a record of every expenditure that we make”

For more on this story, see Tuesday's Desert Sun.