HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – An ABC 27 investigation of Harrisburg’s credit card statements during former Mayor Stephen Reed’s tenure uncovered tax dollars spent on expensive meals, thousands of dollars of antiques, and even alcohol.
The station filed a right-to-know request for city credit statements for 2000 through 2015. After several weeks of searching, the city said it couldn’t find statements from 2000 through 2004.
After going through the documents from 2005 on, ABC 27 discovered a charge of more than $7,000 at an antiques mall in Virginia. Earlier this year, the attorney general’s office raided Reed’s house for antiques, later claiming he purchased them with city money for his own use.
There was no way for ABC 27 to tell if the antiques charge in Virginia was for personal use, Harrisburg’s Civil War Museum, or something else because there were no receipts. In fact, none of the credit card charges from 2005 and 2006 had receipts.
ABC 27 called Reed’s attorney, Henry Hockeimer. A spokesperson said he would call if Reed had a response. He never did.
The remaining credit card statements showed restaurant charges well over $100, limo service rentals, and a $59 room service charge at the Harrisburg Hilton. Taxpayers were not pleased when they learned where their money went.
“I mean, do you put money in your bank for other people to use?” Tanesha Black, who lives in Harrisburg, asked. “Do you? I don’t either. That’s how I feel about it.”
“I think that should be coming out of their pocket instead of taxpayers paying for it,” Frank Gorsuch, who works in Harrisburg, said.
The city credit card expenses went all over the country. Conferences, hotel rooms, and sometimes resorts were booked in San Antonio, Seattle, New Orleans, and California. Flights went to Nashville, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Arizona.
ABC 27 found fuel expenses and truck rentals in Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi.
There were also hotels closer to home, like Washington D.C., Pittsburgh, and in Lancaster and Harrisburg.
In total, the City of Harrisburg spent $50,943 on travel from 2005 to 2010; all while vendors weren’t getting paid and the city was sliding further into debt.
“To me it’s not fair,” Gorsuch said. “That money could be put to better use.”
There’s more. In December 2008, just before New Year’s Eve, there’s a tax-exempt $441 charge for champagne, peach schnapps, Irish liquor, and more at a wine and spirits store.
“I would be hard-pressed to think where that would be an appropriate purchase,” Harrisburg’s current finance director, Bruce Weber, said.
Weber wasn’t working for the city when all this happened. Neither was the rest of the finance department. That meant starting from scratch.
“I think we’re in growing pains now,” Weber said. “Before it was birthing pains, and they’re always a lot worse.”
Part of those pains included the elimination of the city’s credit card in 2010. ABC 27 found a notice from FedEx terminating Harrisburg’s credit privileges with them, but couldn’t find documentation about why the card itself was axed.
Neither could the current finance department.
“So we just looked at it from a fresh perspective,” Harrisburg’s purchasing manager, Hillary Greene, said.
Greene helped the city secure a credit card this year after five years without. She says several purchases in the modern world require some kind of card. She also says there is now a lot more oversight.
“We’re not telling people that they can use their credit card just for convenience purposes and for immediate purposes,” Green said. “They still have to plan out in advance through that request process.”
Greene says the new credit card limit is $2,500. Employees are not allowed to take the card on trips, and only two people can approve purchases. Even then, receipts are a must.
“You have to be accountable,” Weber said, “literally prove it.”
ABC 27 looked through the current administration’s expense reports. There’s a lot less travel, a lot more documentation, and no sight of alcohol, room service, or antiques.
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