Rules Panel Wants to End Council’s Use of Credit Cards

San Diego City Council members should give up their city-issued credit cards and be made to adhere to new, stringent spending limits for entertainment expenses being imposed on municipal employees, a council committee agreed Monday.

The first move by the city’s elected officials to curb their own spending habits comes months after a scandal broke involving the use of city credit cards by Councilman Uvaldo Martinez and his former administrative assistant, Rudy Murillo. Both men will undergo a county grand jury investigation next month for possible fraud, as more than two dozen of Martinez’s purported guests have said they did not dine with the councilman on the dates he indicated on city records or, if they were present, did not discuss city business as he claimed.

Some of Martinez’s meals cost taxpayers more than $200 and $300 at San Diego’s most exclusive restaurants. Between them, Martinez and Murillo outspent the rest of the council combined for the last fiscal year, with dining and traveling expenses totaling about $9,500. Murillo has since left Martinez’s staff.

The council’s Rules Committee on Monday decided to prevent possible replays of the problems when its four members voted unanimously--Martinez included--to recommend that elected officials live by new credit card rules being implemented for high-ranking city employees. The new administrative rules governing meal and travel expenses were announced Dec. 23 for all city employees by City Manager Sylvester Murray and City Auditor and Comptroller Ed Ryan.

The new expense regulation, which was not intended to apply to elected officials and needed no council approval to become effective, does away with city credit cards for high-ranking administrators after their current cards expire this month.

For the first time, the policy sets spending limits for meals--$10 per person for lunch and breakfast; $20 per person at dinner--and it prohibits any reimbursement from city funds for meals solely involving city employees. Purchases of Christmas cards and flowers will not be permitted as business expenses.

As a further check on city employees’ spending habits, limits on how much each department can spend on city-related business will be included in the next municipal budget. All reimbursed expenses will be published every three months by the auditor, instead of every six months under the current system.

The changes by Murray and Ryan are significant departures from the scant guidelines the city had. Under the old system, the city issued credit cards to 34 employees and elected officials, and the auditor’s office simply processed their charge claims. The system was predicated on common sense and trust, city officials have said, and, as a result, no limits were set on meal expenses or definitions given of what constituted a legitimate business purpose.

Councilwoman Gloria McColl, who has said she has never used a city credit card since she joined the council in 1983, said during the committee meeting Monday that the council should also live by the new spending standards.

“I think it should be across the board,” she said. “I think everyone who works for the city should have the same rules.”

After the committee meeting, Councilman Bill Cleator, a longtime critic of city-issued credit cards, said he was “very pleased that we finally got up the courage to come up with the policy, not only for all of the staff but for the council, too. It was something that we were sweeping under the rug for years, and after three or four of these mini-little scandals, we finally came up with a policy.”

The committee’s recommendation will be forwarded to the full council, where it is expected to be approved.

Cleator on Monday also asked the city manager’s office to draw up a proposed policy regulating the use of district “mailers” by council members facing reelection. Cleator, a candidate for mayor, said his office has not sent out the mailers, which are computer-generated mass mailings.

Cleator said after the meeting that his request was not directed at Councilman Ed Struiksma, one of Cleator’s opponents in the mayoral primary. Struiksma’s office was one of the first on the City Council to buy a word processor and use it for community newsletters, which announce such things as what new traffic signals have been installed.

“It just happens to be one of the things that bothers the heck out of me, so I just threw it into the pot,” said Cleator, who added that his idea was inspired by two recent newspaper editorials against the practice of incumbents sending out mailers at city expense. “I don’t have the slightest idea of what Ed does.”

Struiksma aide Ellen Capozzoli said Monday that the councilman has not sent out any community mailers since March or April, 1984.