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Joyce Clark Unfiltered

For "the rest of the story"

Jun 25

11

Councilmember Turner and use of ProCard, Part 3

Posted by Joyce Clark on June 11, 2025
Posted in Barrell District • City Council Actions • City issue and actions • City of Glendale • Glendale elected officials • Glendale finances  | Tagged With: , , , , | No Comments yet, please leave one

Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

To date in Part 1, I explained the use of a city ProCard and how seriously it is taken. In Part 2, I showed what travel expenditures Councilmember Turner has publicly posted as well as all of the trips he has not posted publicly.

In this Part 3, the public information request I made includes any and all emails between city staff and Councilmember Turner:

  • February 15, 2022, Councilmember Turner is sent an email with an attachment that specifies his councilmember responsibilities with regard to travel as well as other items.
  • March 7, 2022, Councilmember Turner is sent an email with the city’s Travel and Reimbursement Policies.
  • February 1, 2024, Councilmember Turner is sent a ProCard audit of his ProCard use.
  • February 2, 2024, Councilmember Turner’s ProCard limit is increased to $7500; there     are also requests for receipts covering April 7, 2023; September 12, 2023; October 24,  2023 and February 2, 2024.
  • March 18, 2024, Councilmember Turner is sent a request for various receipts.
  • March 25, 2024, Councilmember Turner is sent a request for various documentation.
  • April 17, 2024, Councilmember Turner is sent the City Travel Policy.
  • April 24, 2024, Councilmember Turner is sent a request for documentation of travel
  • April 24, 2024, Councilmember Turner is notified that his ProCard is suspended.
  • April 24, 2024, Councilmember Turner is notified that his ProCard limits are set to zero and his card is inactivated.
  • June 25, 2024, Councilmember Turner is sent a request for receipts.
  • June 28, 2024, Councilmember Turner is sent a request for receipts.
  • December 20, 2024. Councilmember Turner is notified that his ProCard is deactivated.

Please note that I received no emails reflecting Councilmember Turner’s responses to repeated staff requests for receipts and documentation. He may have responded verbally and that would not be within the scope of my public information request. However, verbal responses are not sufficient according to city policy. All documentation and receipts are to be in writing.

There is no problem with elected officials attending the National League of Cities and Towns (NLC) meetings. It is a good way to learn by attending workshops and lectures. There is also the opportunity to network with other elected officials from throughout the country.

Typically, elected officials will attend the annual state and national NLC Conferences and in March will go to Washington, D. C. to meet with Congress members to lobby for projects that benefit their communities.

It was at one of these NLC conferences that Mayor Weiers learned about veterans’ housing. He brought the concept back to Glendale where it was then implemented.

Councilmember Turner seems to have no problem spending money – your taxpayer dollars – when traveling. For example, he, Councilmembers Malnar and Tolmachoff and the Mayor attended the National League of Cities Summit in Kansas City, MO from November 16-19, 2022. Mayor Weiers’ total for the trip was $1,968.23. Councilmember Malnar spent $2,269.60. Councilmember Tolmachoff spent $2,296.29. Councilmember Turner spent $3,285.79. Turner spent 67% more than Mayor Weiers; 45% more than Councilmember Malnar and 43% more than Councilmember Tolmachoff.

Here’s another example. Mayor Weiers and Councilmembers Malnar, Tolmachoff and Turner attended the National League of Cities Conference in Washington, D. C. from March 9 to March 13, 2024. Mayor Weiers’ total was $4,038.66; Councilmember Malnar’s total was $3,844.89; Councilmember Tolmachoff’s total was $2,973.60 (may have used airline miles to reduce the cost of her airfare); and Councilmember Turner’s total was $4,631.96. Turner spent 13.47% more than the mayor. He spent 20.47% more than Councilmember Malnar and 55.77% more than Councilmember Tolmachoff.

It was also on these two trips that Councilmember Turner received seat upgrades. On his Kansas City NLC trip an additional $96.59 was spent on seat upgrades and on his Washington, D. C. he spent $143.00 on seat upgrades. This is contrary to city policy which states the ProCard cannot be used to pay for seat upgrades.

He also tends to overtip (more than 20%) Uber drivers. Again, city policy caps tips at 20%.

As is documented under my public information request, Turner was asked repeatedly for receipts and documentation for various trips which apparently, he did not provide. This lead to the termination of his ProCard in December of 2024. 

Why did he not respond to repeated staff requests for further documentation and receipts for his travel expenditures?

He tends to spend more than any other Glendale official on these trips. It appears that he certainly doesn’t have you, the Glendale taxpayer, in mind. It may be that he forgets exactly whose money is being spent.

In Part 4 and last of this series, we’ll look at some problematical trips Councilmember Turner has taken and then draw some final conclusions about his travel expenditures.

© Joyce Clark, 2025   

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which is in accordance with Title 17 U.S. C., Section 107. The ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law and who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such material. For more information go to http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

 

 

May 25

22

Councilmember Bart Turner and his use of a City Procurement Card, Part 1

Posted by Joyce Clark on May 22, 2025
Posted in Barrell District • City Council Actions • City issue and actions • City of Glendale • Glendale elected officials • Glendale finances  | Tagged With: , , , , , , | No Comments yet, please leave one

Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

On January 16, 2025, I made the following Public Information Request of the Glendale City Clerk: “All available information held by the city relating to Councilmember Bart Turner and his travel and any requests for reimbursement as a result of the use of his ProCard for his travel from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2024. That includes, but is not limited to, correspondence, emails, charts, and memoranda between the Councilmember and any member of the City of Glendale staff.”

On March 12, 2025, I received the public records I had requested.

I had heard from various sources that Councilmember Bart Turner’s Procurement Card (also referred to as ProCard or pcard) had been terminated. This is highly unusual. That is why I made the Public Information Request. It was to verify that his ProCard had indeed been terminated and why.

All of the information used is a public record and can be obtained by making the same request to the City Clerk for information that I did.

If anyone from the media wishes to confirm this public information or do further reporting, I will make the public records I received available.

First, it is important for you, the reader, to know some background information. A ProCard is, in essence, the city’s credit card. Certain levels of department personnel and elected officials have a ProCard issued to them. Routinely it is used for educational courses, office supplies, event supplies and travel. With the exception of travel, the charges are usually small.

The city takes the use of a ProCard very seriously. It must be used exclusively for small purchases, education, travel or city business that will benefit an employee’s (including elected officials) productivity by learning new methods or procedures related to one’s job or by networking with others in the same field or by gaining instruction on new or amended federal or state laws that can impact the city. There are miscellaneous reasons, such as grant procurement, for use of the ProCard but they must be related to and in some way bring a benefit to the city. Under no circumstances may a ProCard be used for any personal reason or to purchase alcohol.

Here is the city policy regarding employee reimbursement from SimpliCity Employee Expense Reimbursement (EER) dated 4/14/2020:

“An employee expense claim can take the form of a travel expense per Financial Administrative Policy (FAP) #7, education expense, or other expenses such as vest/supplies/professional development/miscellaneous expense.”

Many years ago, the Glendale City Council adopted a policy that it, too, would be subject to the very same employee policies related to reimbursement for travel or any other legitimate expenditures.

The city’s Travel and Expense Reimbursement Policy dated 12/15/20 and last revised on 4/01/2022 states,

Purpose: “It is the duty of all travelers to carefully weigh any expenditure of public funds. Travel expenditures should only be incurred when there is a clear business need that benefits the city. It is the responsibility of the traveler to maintain correct and proper records to report only authorized city business related expenses when reporting expenses for travel. In addition, it is the employee responsibility when requesting reimbursement for expenses to make sure the expenditures reflect allowable City business, are documented and receive proper authorization.”

Application: “This policy is applicable to all City of Glendale employees, contract employees, temporary employees, agents, volunteers, and contractors unless otherwise specified. To the extent that elected officials resolve to follow this policy, certain exceptions may apply.”

Now that I have shared the responsibilities and requirements for the use of a city issued ProCard, in Part 2, we will take a deeper dive into Councilmember Turner’s use of his ProCard. Look for Part 2 to be posted soon.

© Joyce Clark, 2025   

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which is in accordance with Title 17 U.S. C., Section 107. The ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law and who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such material. For more information go to http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.