Roanoke Mayor Nelson Harris is calling for an audit of the city council’s expenses for meals and travel after learning that one member spent nearly as much last year as the rest of the body combined.
Councilman Alfred Dowe went through $14,604 on restaurant tabs, hotel bills, rental cars, airfare, conference fees and meals he shared with guests — expenses that he said were all related to city business.
The charges, billed to Dowe’s city-issued credit card, accounted for 42 percent of the total spending last year by all seven members of the council.
Harris, who last month asked Dowe to curb his spending, said Thursday he has concerns about the cumulative total of the councilman’s spending as well as some particular expenses.
“There are expenses by Mr. Dowe that in my mind he needs to justify, and it really is for this reason that I’ve asked the municipal auditor to do that investigation,” he said.
The mayor also is directing City Attorney Bill Hackworth and City Clerk Stephanie Moon to review the policies that govern council spending on meals and travel.
While Harris said he has no reason at this point to question expenses by other members of the council, he wants the investigation by municipal auditor Drew Harmon to cover the entire body.
A report should be completed and delivered to the council within 45 days.
Harris declined to talk in detail about his concerns. But he confirmed they include two expenditures by Dowe that are detailed in documents obtained by The Roanoke Times under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
One expense involves $634.69 for the rental of a Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo that Dowe used for 12 days in October. Dowe spent four nights in Williamsburg for a Virginia Municipal League conference during that time period, but his expense reports show no other out-of-town trips during the use of his rental vehicle.
Dowe said that he would sometimes keep a rental car for several days following a city event, but that he paid for his personal use of the vehicle out of his own money.
In the second case, Dowe billed taxpayers $33.76 for greeting cards he bought at Wal-Mart, according to an expense form and receipt he submitted to the city clerk. The paperwork indicates that Dowe bought a sympathy card for a planning commission member whose mother had died, as well as Mother’s Day cards for mothers of the spouses of city council members.
Dowe said Thursday that while his memory was fuzzy on that purchase, it sounded like something he would have paid for himself. “I don’t remember ever billing anything like that to the city,” he said.
As for his overall spending, Dowe stressed that much of the money was for out-of-town conferences.
A member of the council for six years, Dowe said he decided last year to become a more active leader, attending more conferences and listening to members of the business community over lunch or breakfast.
“I’ve put a fair amount of time and money and energy into it,” Dowe said. “And I stand behind what I have learned and the things that I have to offer.”
Last year, Dowe billed the city for at least 60 meals at area restaurants that he said were related to city business — even though one of his guests said the conversation was more about their golf game.
The $14,604.03 Dowe spent in 2007 was about three times his total from the year before. That increase accounted for more than half of the overall jump in council spending on meals and travel, which rose from $16,773.86 in 2006 to $34,570.67 last year.
Harris said his concerns about Dowe’s spending date to last year. But after a newspaper story about the issue ran Thursday, he decided to convene a meeting with Moon, Hackworth and Harmon.
“We’re not dealing with a large amount of money,” he said. “But I think that it is significant in that council members, individually and collectively, should be seen as operating by the same standards that we ask our municipal employees to operate under.
“Our actions should indeed be transparent. … I think as elected officers, we ought to hold ourselves to a high standard.”
Harris acknowledged the policies that govern the city council’s spending may need clarification. The written procedures that apply to city-issued credit cards state they should be used for legitimate business purposes only.
“I’m not sure that there is one,” Harris said when asked for the exact definition of a legitimate business purpose. “I’d like to think that good judgment and common sense would be the rule of the day.”
Until recently, he said, the question just hadn’t come up. The review of policies, which could lead to recommended changes, should be completed at about the same time as the municipal auditor’s report.
While there may be no clear limits on how much spending is too much, Councilwoman Gwen Mason said that when she took office in 2006, Harris sat down with her and made it clear she was expected to use good judgment, as he does with all incoming members.
“It’s something to be used gingerly,” she said of the MasterCard she and other council members receive. “I certainly didn’t walk away from that meeting thinking, ‘I’ll just take someone to lunch every day at the taxpayers’ expense.’ ”
Yet at the same time, Mason said Dowe seems to view conferences as more than just a road trip.
“Every time Alfred Dowe has traveled to a conference, he’s briefed council and city staff about what he learned and saw there,” she said. “So that tells me that he takes it seriously.”