Shelby Co TN: (Mayor) Rout also used (county)card for personal items

Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout used the same county-issued credit card for personal expenses as his former top aide, whom Rout recently suspended amid allegations of credit card abuse.

Rout, who has his own county credit cards, repaid the charges on his assistant's balance with checks from his mayoral campaign fund, records show.

On Monday, Rout suspended his senior adviser, Tom Jones, as Jones was busily submitting checks to pay back at least $45,000 for personal expenses dating back to 1999. Rout officially leaves office after today; he had not sought re-election.

John Trusty, director of administration and finance, said Friday that the use of county credit cards for personal expenses has never been permitted.

"I do not believe nor will I ever say that personal use was an acceptable use," said Trusty, who Friday said he was toughening the review process of credit card bills to screen for misuse.

Rout said Friday that he has written 55 or 56 checks in all since February 1995 to reimburse the county for "anything that was not, to our knowledge, a county charge."

Of the copies of 13 Rout reimbursement checks obtained by The Commercial Appeal so far, which total $5,553.57, eight were submitted in the past two months.

Reimbursements included airfare for Rout's wife, Sandy, for county government business trips and several pricey meals.

One of the heftiest checks, $968.52, was half the bill for a $1,937.04 dinner at Vidalia, a Washington restaurant with "Southern charm" according to one reviewer.

Rout and County Commission Chairman Morris Fair, who reimbursed the other half, treated commissioners to dinner using the card in March during a National Association of Counties conference.

"Each of us paid half of that because we wanted to be sure and do a little something special, if you will, for the outgoing commissioners," Rout said.

County officials have not yet commented on why Jones was suspended, citing an ongoing internal investigation. Jones not only used the card for personal expenses, including thousands of dollars on CDs and books, but often reimbursed the county months and even years after the bills were due.

Jones, who received a week's suspension (WITH PAY) after an audit, has said he has paid back about $35,000 of what he personally owes with roughly $10,000 remaining to pay back. Checks obtained by the newspaper so far show that Jones has turned in 39 checks totaling $26,035.17.

Some of Rout's charges also appear to have been repaid months after they were incurred, though Rout said Friday that Jones was responsible for reconciling those bills.

When asked to comment on his use of the cards for personal expenses in light of Jones's suspension, Rout said: "I'm not familiar with his particular case. But ours was looked at by the auditors, as was (Chief Administrative Officer) Mr. (Jim) Kelly's, as was all of the elected officials, you know internal auditors and external."

Some questions had emerged as to whether Jones and others could even use the cards for food, gasoline, hotels and airfare. The county's procurement card manual prohibits those charges.

But finance head Trusty said Friday that, some years ago, the purchasing department lifted those restrictions, permitting division directors and those higher up to more freely use the cards for county business.

Jones has said he believes that directors and senior staff could use the cards for personal charges provided they reimbursed the county.

Meanwhile, Trusty said he was implementing a tougher review policy of card statements.

Years ago, he said, finance division clerks checked credit card charges to make sure they were for legitimate county business uses. They would notify managers of potential problems, he said.

"What I have learned this morning is we've had a breakdown in control over transition of a couple of different heads of that department over the last couple of years," Trusty said.

Trusty's predecessor, Henry J. Marmon, was accused in 1998 of misdirecting tax dollars for personal use. Later, Marmon, a holdover from the Bill Morris administration, pleaded guilty to embezzling $40,000 from county government between 1996 and 1998.

Trusty said finance employees have only been checking for receipts and not asking, "Does this make sense as a county expense?"

Trusty said he instructed finance administrator Mike Swift on Friday to revive the practice of screening for misuse on all credit cards, including those of elected officials.

"I don't have the authority to tell an elected official, 'I won't pay it,' but we're going to certainly raise the flag and ask questions," he said.

"There hasn't been much policing of it, at all," Thomas said. "If (the county finance staff) had someone that looked at the credit card and procurement card expenses that come through, and raised a flag and sent it back to the director - I actually would like that," he said.

Trusty said he had been unaware that anyone was using their county credit cards for personal use.

"Nobody had made me aware that we had any problems. I think they probably should have in the case of Tom's," Trusty said. "Literally, I found out what was going on when I started reading it in the paper, unfortunately."

MY QUESTION why was the mayor wasting taxserfs money by dining at such a PRICY resturant in the first place?

Which means WE taxserfs picked up the tab for the interest.

YEAH BUT THIS WASN'T COUNTY BUSINESS this was PERSONAL BUSINESS

JONES IS DUMB this can and does lead to abuse as we can see in this case. NEVER put temptation in folks path, to many of them prove to weak to resist it.

IF you or I had done this then we would be FIRED, not given a week's paid vacation.

You are so right but I will bet this is done all over this country.That is why so many mayors and council leaders cannot take stands against their so called Administrators or Chairpersons they all do it. And when books are audited they are audited against information supplied by those who are using the cards wrongly.All government audits have these disclaimers and that is what has gone on in government and big business for years.Books are very seldom audited to look for fraud like this,they are audited to balance them.I will bet if all governments had forensic audits they would have this problem.

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