Quorum Court approves changes to travel expense policy

BENTONVILLE — Benton County’s Quorum Court on Thursday night approved changes to the travel expense policy.

A third and final reading of the ordinance was held in the Quorum Courtroom at the County Administration Building.

“More than anything, the policy now incorporates per diem, as well as documentation requirements for travel expenditures,” comptroller Brenda Guenther said. “The update also clarifies policy in purchasing cards and other areas that were vague previously.”

The policy also has been put into a more formal and readable format, she said. The policy will be posted on the comptroller’s page on the county website, she said.

The county has looked to update the policy since 2016-2017 as part of a financial controls review, she said.

“We started to work on this in 2018 working with the elected officials,” she said. “It was then put on a shelf for a few months and brought back into the approval cycle in the summer of 2019.”

It has been many years since the policy was updated, Guenther said.

Justice of the Peace Brent Meyers said he was OK with the changes, and he noted sometime policies need to be updated.

In other business, the justices of the peace:

• Authorized millage rates for the general fund, the road fund and the ambulance service improvement district to be collected in 2020. The general fund will be 5 mills, the road at 1.9 mills and the ambulance district at 0.2 mills. The rates are unchanged from last year.

• Agreed to spend $37,000 to retrofit the Bella Vista radio tower for the new radio system being implemented through Motorola.

• Move the November and December Quorum Court meetings up. The November meeting was moved from Nov. 28 — Thanksgiving Day — to Nov. 21, and the December meeting was moved from Dec. 26 to Dec. 19. The meetings will start at 6 p.m.

County Judge Barry Moehring also updated the group on work caused by storms in the county early Monday morning. His brief presentation showed the number of fire and police calls to Central Communications. He also showed a slide marking the damage from two tornadoes and straight-line wind. Moehring called the damage “intense.”

Channing Barker, communications director, said Thursday night all county roads closed because of the storms are open.