09-05-2016, 09:17 AM
Okay, in so far as the repayment in a timely manner. It's been established that his self-identified personal expenses were repaid on a timely basis, which is to say prior to the publicizing of his use of the pCard. This was not made clear by the Trib as they broke the story. Lots of confusion reigned because of that.
Apparently practicing an abundance of caution the Mayor then reimbursed charges that went back to the beginning of his administration that were either ambiguous or lacked support, for whatever reason. These charges were then paid as well, leaving precious little to base a theft complaint on.
The perspective I was provided on why the Mayor used only the pCard instead of carrying a personal card (which BTW he obviously was capable of qualifying for ), was to simplify the accounting between personal and business at the end of every charge cycle.
Since the Mayor is essentially on duty all the time, including weekends and while traveling, it makes some sense to have used the credit account that would reflect the majority of his charges. That was the pCard.
It was much simpler for that user to repay the card account than to get the Finance Dept to reimburse the use of a private cc. As Nancy Crawford testified, the accounting cycle for his pCard was expected to be within 1-3 months but was not specified exactly.
As far as impeachment....well that would require the Council to have investigated to the extent that the AG eventually accomplished. It's asking a lot when that body doesn't have the staff, the in house council, or the investigative powers as the Attorney General has.