Rockville Clerk-Treasurer voices concerns over Amazon spending

Out of control.

Those are the three words Rockville Clerk-Treasurer Brandy Asher used to describe the spending within the town when it comes to shopping on Amazon.

Asher approached council, seeking changes to the ordering procedures with credit card charges. 

"The Amazon purchases are out of line. It took me way too long, and I don't have the time to spend going through almost 50 different orders in a month's time to process a payment for a credit card," Asher said. 

She mentioned this was nothing new for council to consider, stating she mentioned the same concerns several months ago. 

"I had asked that we just start going to once a week. I would like to know your thoughts on that and a little bit of help because it seems like I am getting credit card purchases for Amazon almost every single day. I am spending way too much time going through that bill, and I think it's ridiculous when I've got half a million dollars worth of claims to get processed," said Asher, who also proposed making credit card purchases twice a month. "I don't have to go through an Amazon order that is being placed every day."

Council president Dave Brown asked if Asher had to go through every order to see what department made the order.

"Yes. It is not as easy as you have your credit card bill at home and you write a check for it. I have all the papers but there is this charge and that charge. I had 44 charges today, and that is at least 44 pieces of paper to go through and match those all up, separate them from departments and charge them accordingly. It is just too time consuming when there are those many orders being placed. I would just appreciate some assistance on that," Asher said. 

Rockville Police Chief Bill McMichael said sometimes when he places an order for a week he sometimes gets multiple invoices emailed on that one purchase because they don't all ship at the same time.

"If you're saying you are ordering once a week, I am getting more than one a week from the police department," Asher said.

Asher doubled down, saying the ordering from Amazon had gotten out of control.

"The ordering has just gotten, in my opinion, out of control. There are too many things being ordered. Quite frankly, I don't think we need a lot of the things that are being ordered. And, especially, not in an immediate time frame. I wish you guys understood the time it takes me to differentiate 44 Amazon payments. It takes a lot of my time to do that, and I would appreciate it if we would not order so frequently," Asher said. 

Councilwoman Liddy Dowd-Wright asked if it would be feasible for the departments to have their own card.

"If that's what it takes. I don't know if that's what they want to do, but then that's on them and those particular charges," Asher said. 

Asher said the way it is now, every department can use their own credit card.

"I don't have two hours every month to spend on a credit card statement because there are multiple purchases all the time," she said, adding every receipt has to match every charge. 

Brown asked how much the Amazon bill is each month.

"Well, this month was almost $10 thousand," Asher replied, prompting a shocked look from Brown. 

Dowd-Wright asked McMichael and Street Supervisor Doug Gordon if they had their own cards if it would help matters.

"I order once a week, and I would probably order the same amount of stuff in two weeks. It would be twice that. I don't know what that does," McMichael said. 

Gordon said his department would be willing to do whatever would help Asher. 

Asher asked if council could look into the departments having their own cards and then sending her the information of the purchases. 

Town attorney Nick Sauter told Asher he would look into the request and what needs to happen to make that possible.

"You can designate credit cards. There is a path to do that, but it's up to you guys," Sauter said. 

Asher said she would like to see the police department handle their own ordering and produce a monthly report stating what they ordered and how much they spent.

"The expense part is not an issue. It is a matter of the time it takes to match everything up, so if they would do that, that would be a helpful start," Asher said. 

Council opted to take no action on the matter.