Council Perks Now Face Public Scrutiny

In an effort to keep council members’ perks in check, the city has passed a new law that would require any extra expenditures that are not part of the regular budget to be approved by a full council vote.

Now, council members will be forced to justify their spending requests at a public meeting attended by local residents.

“If you bring it up in public it keeps everyone honest,” said Councilman Jim Potts, who proposed the ordinance last month after a controversy involving cellular telephones.

Potts has criticized the city for providing some council members with the portable phones while some went without. The expense had not been provided for in the city’s 1991-92 fiscal budget.

Potts, who retained his seat in the April elections, said the new ordinance is designed to keep council perks equitable.

Although other council members did not share Potts’ fervor for the ordinance, it passed unanimously.

“I don’t know that there has been any abuse like that in the past,” Councilman Charles E. Puckett said recently. “I don’t know that there is a need for something like that.”