SAFFORD — Prompted by City Council member Dusti Brantner’s questions over Safford staff spending while traveling for work, the city’s Finance director came to the City Council Monday to seek direction.
Finance Director Troy Bingham said the city has a policy on spending for travel, as well as a procedure, and the two are in conflict.
“There is no federal law, there is no state law, there is no local law about how you pay people for travel. So it’s really up to council,” Bingham said.
Bingham started the discussion by explaining the city spent nearly $166,000 on staff travel in Fiscal Year 2024-25, which is less than 1 percent of the overall budget.
Bingham explained the City Council could decide between issuing a per diem amount to each city employee who travels, or the employee could use a city purchasing card for authorized expenses, such as meals.
A random sampling of 19 Arizona cities and towns showed 18 issued a per diem, but only one used the Arizona per diem rate, four used the federal General Services Administration rate and the others used their own spending formulas.
Bingham also explained that per diem rates aren’t always the most accurate to the areas to which staff are traveling. He used as an example a GSA rate of $110 for a hotel room in Safford, while the actual cost weekdays is at least three times as much,
The council came to consensus on staff using a purchasing card, with travel authorization approved by department heads and supervisors.
Bingham said he would bring to the council a formal policy for adoption at future meeting.
