Perrysburg officials look closely at the misuse of city credit cards

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PERRYSBURG, Ohio (WTVG) – The conversation continues about the misuse of city credit cards for Perrysburg employees.

Perrysburg Finance Director Amber Rathburn said Tuesday the town currently has more than 20 credit cards.

The 13abc crew asked for the exact number of cards and it appears there are 29 in the city.

“Right now we have about 30 Mastercards. And I’ll be honest I think it’s been built up over the years,” Rathburn told 13abc.

With the approval of a resolution by the city council earlier this week, the city will soon have only three cards. Each card will have the name of the city on it and the directors must sign it out for use. This process will be new for city employees because they can get cards again.

“We will get them financially. Only regular letters can be checked if needed,” Rathburn said.

Rathburn said the changes are not related to a recent audit by the state auditor but rather, some recent events.

“There have been some increases in fraud recently,” Rathburn said. “It’s about four levels in the last four weeks.”

During Christmas, the city discovered that some employees were not using the cards as they should.

“We had some employees two months ago who accidentally used their city cards instead of their own. One of the Christmas shopping. One was in a restaurant. We’re going after those,” Rathburn said.

Jonathan Smith, Perrysburg City Councilman, asked if there were any consequences for misuse of the cards.

“For those who are doing this, are we doing any regulation or anything about that? Because that could be a big payback,” Smith said.

However, the implications were not discussed during the meeting. Rathburn said the city will take action this week.

“There will be a resolution to this situation. The state auditor needs it,” Rathburn said. He added that he followed through on any fraudulent charges and was told the city could not be held liable.

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