San Diego city employees have spent more than $16 million using purchasing cards since 2015, and at least $500,000 went toward items or services that may be prohibited by the city’s own policies.

Based on a review of more than 56,600 transactions using the p-cards — which function like credit cards but spend public funds — employees frequently purchase office or city supplies or pay for work-related travel and fees. These are acceptable expenses outlined in the city’s p-card manual, which is distributed to all cardholders during mandatory training.

The manual also also lists 19 prohibited uses, including the purchase of furniture, gas or oil for personal vehicles, gifts to acknowledge personal events in employees’ lives and purchases at bars, taverns and alcoholic beverage stores.


The prohibited purchases tend to be those that might require more scrutiny than a p-card allows or those that require a more rigorous purchasing method.

The manual emphasizes the prohibitions in capital letters, saying “p-cards shall NOT be used for” the categories in question. No process for exceptions is spelled out.

A U-T Watchdog review of expense records from January 2015 to June of this year identified hundreds of purchases that appear to violate at least nine of the 19 prohibitions.

Katie Keach, director of the city’s communications department, said the manual is intended to provide general guidelines on what can and cannot be purchased with a p-card.


“Management and those assigned by management have discretion to grant exceptions when appropriate, based on the nature and recurrence of the purchase, and based on timeliness considerations,” Keach said by email. “To request an exception, p-card holders work with the appropriate city departments to obtain approval for the purchase.”

Keach did not respond to questions about what this approval process entails and whether there is documentation of it.

The majority of prohibited expenses were retail purchases. The manual says employees shall not use the card to purchase “furniture, which includes file cabinets or keyboards that attach to furniture.”

Transaction data show more than 540 expenses totaling $267,600 were furniture related, including at least three file cabinets — one for $418 from Office Depot and another from Amazon for $82.15.


Nearly $7,300 of that went toward keyboard trays, stands and “articulating arm and keyboard platform” combos. Other furniture items include bookcases, podiums, foot rests, chairs, tables, decorative storage cubes and bins and clothing racks.

Keach said cardholders can purchase furniture items if it’s required to set up ergonomic workstations or to mitigate employee injuries, but all transactions must be vetted and approved by the city’s Risk Management staff.

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According to city documents, p-cards are an alternate form of payment that allow streamlined purchases to be made. Credit card transactions are consolidated into a monthly invoice, which reduces processing and review time.


City data show at least 739 employees from more than 100 departments and divisions have an active p-card account.

The policy manual says p-cards shall not be used to purchase materials for capital improvement projects. Six transactions, totaling $2,100, describe tools or hardware being purchased specifically for CIP jobs.

The manual says says the cards shall not be used for “purchases to acknowledge personal events in employees’ lives, such as birthdays, weddings, the birth or adoption of a child, death of a family member, illnesses, etc.”

Taxpayers have funded gift cards for interns, city employee service awards, retirement clocks, plaques and trophies and customized ballpoint pens and pen sets costing about $50 each to mark an employee’s 25th year with the city.


In June 2016, San Diego Fire Chief Brian Fennessy used a p-card to fund an $80 retirement breakfast for assistant fire chief Kenneth Barnes.

“Limited costs related to employee recognition for tenure and retirement are allowable under city administrative regulations,” Keach said. “P-card use is an appropriate procurement method for these expenses.”

According to the p-card manual, cardholders are not allowed to purchase computer hardware or software, referring employees to the proper channels for such purchases. U-T Watchdog identified 375 computer and software-related purchases made on p-cards, costing $135,700. Eighty-one of those transactions have “software” in the description.

In addition to the 19 prohibited uses, the manual says employees are not allowed to pay invoices when an existing purchase order is already in place to buy specific goods or services.


Nearly 200 expenses totaling $19,700 list a specific purchase order number in the description. Only one was returned and refunded “due to open purchase order,” records show.

Keach, the city’s communications director, said San Diego’s municipal code authorizes the head of each department or designee to approve purchases for goods or services required by the department.

Exceptions to some p-card restrictions are made for urgent purchasing needs, Keach said, provided they are properly justified and approved, and there are several layers of oversight in the p-card process to ensure cards are used properly.

Billing officials are responsible for verifying documentation provided by cardholders each month, ensuring that all purchases were authorized and are appropriate, and monitoring any “missing receipt” patterns to identify potential abuse. They sign off on all transactions before invoices are reviewed again and approved.


Data show more than 100 accounts for which the cardholder and the official reviewer were the same person — 440 transactions in all, totaling $151,860.

Among those transactions is a $65 parking ticket from University of California San Diego — an apparent violation of the p-card manual, which says cards shall not be used for “employee parking, traffic or toll citations.”

Records show City Council administration director Lori Witzel used her p-card to pay for the ticket in June 2016. She was also listed as the billing official responsible for reviewing and signing off on the expense.

Witzel said the parking ticket was issued to former council President Sherri Lightner, who was told she would have reserved parking while on “official business representing the city” at an event on campus.


“UCSD was unable to get it reversed afterward,” Witzel said. “So it was determined that the citation should be paid from her office since she received the ticket while on city business.”

Keach said this was an inappropriate expense and the city would recover the cost.

Arian Collins, a city spokesman, said sometimes new cardholders will inadvertently sign off on transactions, rather than saving them in the system for a department leader to review. In this circumstance, the cardholder would also be listed as the reviewer.

According to the p-card manual, cardholders who violate the program’s rules and regulations, such as purchasing prohibited or unauthorized items, will be punished.


“If the department is unable to justify the questionable expense, action is taken based on the severity of the violation,” Keach said. “Action may include temporary or permanent suspension of the p-card and employee disciplinary action.”

Keach said records of any disciplinary actions are confidential and declined to answer questions about the number of times disciplinary action has been taken since January 2015.

The manual says cardholders must provide adequate documentation of all purchases describing the goods or services purchased, the quantity, price per item, date of purchase, and any sales tax or shipping charges.

Descriptions on 35 transactions consisted of a series of numbers with no detail on what was purchased or why. U-T Watchdog was unable to categorize another 104 expenses, totaling $31,500, with the description and merchant information the city provided, including a $24.33 purchase at Lululemon Athletica and a $477 transaction for an unidentified “PayPal payment.”


City officials said the item description provided in transaction data is based on a field entered by cardholders. More detailed information is available on receipts and invoices provided for transactions, and this is used to assess the appropriateness of each expense, Keach said.


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