County Commissioner Randy Dallke expressed his displeasure during the Oct. 31 Board of Commissioners meeting about employees? use of county credit cards.
?There are a few things (in county government) that I am not entirely happy with, and one of these is employee credit-card use,? he said.
Dallke said state cutbacks in funding for counties, plus other economic factors, have led to commissioners needing to carefully monitor employee spending.
Commission Chairman Roger Fleming said spending for things like a $1.08 cup of coffee add up, and become questionable as legitimate expenses.
?Charging for a cup of coffee is totally ridiculous even if they are on county time,? he said.
Commissioner Dan Holub said, ?I agree with Randy. Some stuff just doesn?t fit for the public good.?
The three commissioners agreed it sometimes gets difficult to define whether an employee is on private business or on public business.
Dallke said it might be necessary for a month to have all purchases monitored through the county commission, but he added this could get tedious instead of beneficial.
Instead, the commissioners approved 3-0 sending a memo to all employees pointing out that tax dollars must be spent for the public good, and that they might have to justify charges for such things as a cup of coffee or a candy bar.
County Clerk Tina Spencer announced a payday figure of $763,443, which included $421,558 for payroll.
She said the county received regular sales tax of $60,040 and special jail bond sales tax of $52,379 from the state in October for taxes collected in August.
The commissioners noted that the city of Marion is beginning curbside collection of recyclable materials. They jointly predicted that the public will like the service, and that it will save county funds spent on trash disposal.
The commissioners attempted to judge pumpkin carvings for Halloween from multiple departments, but were unable to pick a winner from the entries that ranged from a multi-hole Holub jack-o-lantern to a two-headed pumpkin dummy.
The commissioners awarded a noxious-weed bid of $1,825 for 50 gallons of Crossbow herbicide to Markley Service of Marion over competitive bids of $2,494 from Ag Service Inc. of Hillsboro, and $2,125 from Agri Producers Inc. at Tampa.
They approved the appraiser?s office spending $1,350 lease expense for the first year and $400 a year after that for property mapping programming.
They approved a road and bridge area fuel bid of $15,915.25 for 5,300 gallons of diesel from Cooperative Grain & Supply of Hillsboro over a competitive bid of $16,112.20 from Cardie Oil Inc. of Tampa.
They approved a road and bridge transfer fuel bid of $22,836 for 2,500 gallons of unleaded gasoline and 5,500 gallons of diesel from CG&S over a competitive bid of $22,920.50 from Cardie Oil.
Commissioners considered replacing a road bridge on a dirt road near Alamo and 310th with a half-moon concrete box to enable farm equipment to get to fields.
Commenting on a request for gravelling dirt roads to enable wet weather transit to schools, Fleming said the county has to consider that costs for honoring all such requests would be more than the county can bear.
The commissioners said at this time they can?t do anything about the request.
New Emergency Medical Services Director Brandy McCarty said she has been working with area doctors and hospitals, and that all seems to be coming together well for creation of a new county emergency medical board.
