GetawaysRus

That line has got to be the best laugh of the day. Do escort services take credit cards? Is that a new way to meet the spending requirements on a new credit card?

There is a corollary to this story. Would the city have been smart enough to put these large purchases on a rewards credit card (such as a cash-back card)? As a taxpayer, I'd like to see the cities getting some benefit (such as cash back) on their purchases.

angatol

.....

tassojunior

Isn't there a limit on most cards as to how many miles can be earned per year?

lovetotravel

He seems to have violated city policy of not being allowed to use personal credit cards for city expenses. And he did it 2 months after someone else on the same commission was involved in another financial scandal. He was being arrogant that no body could touch him. He did this very deliberately. According to the article, he charged a payment, paid it off, and repeated until $270,000 was charged and paid. He used city funds to pay off. He could have paid the vendor with the city funds directly.

He may not have done anything illegal but being a public servant should come with higher standards. But of course they all abuse it and personally benefit from their public service. City of Bell....does that ring a bell.
The end result is public disillusion, apathy and the possible birth of occupy type movements.

drbobguy

I agree he should probably be fired, but as corruption goes this is small potatoes. Certainly not worthy of the time/cost of criminal prosecution.

biggestbopper

IMHO what was done here was very illegal. The public employee must put the public's interests before his maniacal desire to get miles.

Aside from rather obvious violation of the usual public purchasing method--send P.O., get merchandise, PAY BY CHECK from audited account--rumor has it that he did pay (a lot) more from a vendor that would take his credit card. And, what responsible vendor would take a personal credit card for a quarter of a million buck purchase by a public agency?

The Colosseum has been rocked by loads of scandels, including at least one underage teen age girl's death at an event there where the security was (with some attempts at hiding it) provided by a company with payoff ties to Colosseum employees.

satman40

I have bought, and donated many sound systems to universities with my Credit Cards....In the business.

Our Local Politicians are always taking free trips...along with many non profit groups....

We loan a company 500 million and 4 weeks later they file bankruptcy and no one is upset..

Be nice to the guy

biggestbopper

That's very nice and thanks for your generosity.

I suspect you did not ask the University to reimburse you for your donations.

IMHO, we need a zero tolerance policy for corruption.

I recall years ago I was in a Chicago city office (right after Operation Greylord by the FBI had put away a lot of judges and pols) and paid a fee of maybe $9 in cash. Told the lady behind the desk to put the change from my ten into the charity box on her desk. She refused, saying it was not permitted to even take a donation for a charity.

She was right, I was wrong.

Zero corruption is the way to go.

tassojunior

HOW is this different from people keeping airline frequent traveler miles for business travel when doing so is against company policy?

aubreyfromwheaton

270k was the medium award level?

fstop75

I can't imagine that a $270K purchase would fall UNDER the bid limit of this quasi-governmental organization. Meaning that this guy would not have had the ability to make a purchasing decision based solely on which vendor would take his CC; it would've been bid out.

x712xdamx

Charging tax payers for luxury cars and "personal expenses" like the article says - is wrong.

However, I don't see much wrong with earning miles for company purchases, especially considering that the company implemented a new policy of not allowing the employees to hold company cards.

If the company didn't allow employees to make purchases on personal cards and get reimbursed, then... yes, this would be wrong. Just my 2 cents.

Ritz

Incentivised his defense attornies?

lovetotravel

If someone violates company policy, they are usually disciplined and fired for repeated violations.
Why should public service employees be treated differently?

biggestbopper

Apparently, he snuck around the mandatory bidding procedures to go to vendor who would take his card in violation of the mandatory bid procedure with the cooperation of other managers in the Colosseum Authority--which, by the way, is a publicly owned and operated government unit.