Discussion of credit card purchases was had during the Guthrie Center City Council’s recent meeting.

The Council received the fiscal year 2019 City audit report from Cornwell, Frideres, Maher & Associates, P.L.C. of Fort Dodge, which showed there were Amazon charges made by library staff with a City credit card that were not library expenditures. City Council Member Carolyn Masters said these purchases were approved by the Library Board, “I’ve been working on this for quite a while and I’m just asking that we set a precedent so that nothing happens, okay? There was a purchase made, the Board okayed it and it came through here. If it hadn’t been brought to my attention, this whole thing would have just went zip over and nobody would have known the difference.”

City Administrator Laura Wolfe said unlike the City, the library currently doesn’t have its own Amazon account, and that the personal purchase made with the library’s credit card was then reimbursed with a gift card. Wolfe said the issue with a gift card is it leaves no paper trail. The Council directed Wolfe to inform the library to create its own Amazon account, and if they use a personal credit card for a purchase it may be reimbursed, at the discretion of the City.