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What’s in a name?
Well, if you’re a public official – a lot, especially if it’s tied to a credit card a City, County or government agency issues them.
The question is why are credit cards available to politicians in the first place?
It has always bothered me that politicians are issued credit cards especially since the public has no idea what our money is buying and how much these politicians are spending. Even when the public and media seek answers we are not given full and complete explanations.
One recent example is a doozy: Former Miami-Dade School Board Vice Chair Lubby Navarro is accused of charging over $100,000 on personal items including vacations to Las Vegas and the Dominican Republic. She allegedly spent taxpayer dollars on equipment for her ex-boyfriend’s restaurant and bizarrely on items that helped her fake a pregnancy. Are you telling me that none of these transactions were a red flag for administrators at the Miami-Dade County Public Schools? Thankfully, what happened in Vegas didn’t stay there, this time.
Here’s another one: Coral Gables employees are now being scrutinized for usage on purchasing cards that include fitness drinks and blue light blocking glasses. As a result, the City Commission voted to audit the City’s Amazon cards to see if any rules were broken.
What about Miami-Dade County? Here are some of the limits the County places on its cards, as of April 2023:
$5,000 for a single transaction
$5,000 is the total daily limit
$25,000 is the total monthly limit
The reality is that having purchase cards is more efficient, which is why it’s done. But this still doesn’t come close to solving the problem of oversight and accountability.
Taxpayers deserve the following:
Stop issuing credit cards to politicians and use purchasing cards.
The statements of each card issued to any official – elected, appointed or hired – gets posted on a government’s website each and every month. If a purchase is generalized like “Target” the purchaser needs to detail the items purchased.
Any purchase of $250 or more is flagged by a department official and has to be approved in advance, not after the fact. Otherwise, we only learn about it months or years later, or never at all.
All purchases for the past five years using credit and purchasing cards need to be made available online immediately. There should be nothing to hide. If you are not willing to do so we will assume you do have something to hide.
Everyone who has an ATM or credit card knows how easy it is to go online and check all your purchases going back years in a matter of minutes. The fact that organizations MDCPS and Coral Gables have not provided this already, even after alleged impropriety, means they either have zero controls in place or are covering up.
Every City and County and related agency should be looking at its credit card spending to determine if it’s built to prevent abuse or loose enough to invite it. There is an easy fix. Put everything online. You’ll sleep better at night and taxpayers deserve this transparency.
If you have any questions or comments, call me at 305-323-8206 or email me at grant@cnews.net
