Credit Slips Tell of Questionable Buys

In 1989, there was the trip to Las Vegas with a stop at Caesars Palace.

In 1990, a Caribbean cruise that included visits to duty-free shops in the Bahamas and Barbados.

And in November, 1991, the short jaunt on the Viking Serenade, a gambling ship that cruises from San Pedro to Ensenada, Mexico.

City credit card statements provide a glimpse of the trips that former Bradbury City Manager Aurora (Dolly) Vollaire took with the city’s BankAmericard tucked at her side, even though none of the trips concerned city business, according to Bradbury officials.

But of all the trips chronicled by bank statements and the collection of clipped receipts that Vollaire stapled into city files, perhaps none offers a better look at her spending and use of city money to pay for personal expenses and purchases than a pre-Christmas jaunt to New York City in 1991.

The December trip was only part of an expensive month for the city of Bradbury, which forked out $3,300 in taxpayer dollars to Vollaire, her personal credit card and the city card for purchases she said were related to city business. Of that, $2,552--including a $993.75 check marked Bonus-- never appeared on the monthly list of expenses approved by the City Council.

In what appears to be a long weekend trip from Friday, Dec. 6, through Monday, Dec. 9, Vollaire spent more than $988.42 on the city credit card at fine stores and restaurants in New York City. The city paid for other purchases that weekend under petty cash and as reimbursement for Vollaire’s personal credit card.

Like her other out-of-state trips, Vollaire’s visit to New York was not business-related, Bradbury officials said.

Her spending in New York began on Dec. 6. with a stop at Tiffany and Co., where Vollaire charged $184.03 on the city credit card. Vollaire never submitted a receipt to back up that purchase, which shows up on the city’s monthly credit-card statements.

Saturday included a $54.13 purchase at Bloomingdale’s and a $42.20 lunch at Tavern on the Green in Central Park. Both were charged on the city credit card. The Bloomingdale’s receipt was cut in a way that eliminated the store’s name but that shows the purchase was for stationery; the meal receipt also had the name of the restaurant cut off. But both expenditures showed up on the monthly credit-card statements, with amounts matching the cut receipts.

On Sunday, her expenses included another purchase at Bloomingdale’s for $18.67. She also stopped at the Plaza Hotel and Russian Tea Room, charging the cumulative tabs of $83.71 on the city BankAmericard. In all three of these cases, she submitted receipts with the vendors’ names cut off; again, the purchases matching those amounts showed up on the credit-card statement.

Vollaire used her personal credit card for two other purchases that day, but later put in for--and received--reimbursement from the city. The receipts show purchases of $123.41 and $155.88, but are cut so that the names of the stores involved are missing and no credit-card statements are available to show where the money was spent.

On Monday, her busiest shopping day, Vollaire charged $400 on the city credit card at Omni Hotels, purchased Gino Bellini shoes for $129.90, popped into Tiffany and Co. again for a $75.78 purchase, and used her personal credit card at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Only the Saks receipt, showing $116.91 in accessories, was submitted by Vollaire intact, and she was reimbursed for the expense. No receipt appears for the spending at Omni Hotels. The Tiffany receipt is cut so that the store’s name and item purchased do not show. Vollaire submitted a receipt on the city’s petty cash account for $129.90; although the receipt does not show the store, it does itemize a pair of red shoes, size 8 1/2.