(a) General Conditions for Reimbursement.
(1) Advance approval by the City Council is required for business-related travel outside of the state of Ohio. Advance approval by the Mayor is required for business-related travel inside the state of Ohio. Request for reimbursement for travel will not be honored if appropriate advance approval is not obtained.
(2) Employees may only submit reimbursement requests for personal travel expenses. Employees may not submit requests for reimbursement for an expense incurred by more than one employee.
(3) Requests for reimbursement must be filed with your department supervisor using the city's reimbursement form. Upon approval of the employee's supervisor the request form should be submitted to the Finance Department.
(4) Reimbursements rejected in whole or in part by the Finance Department due to non-compliance with any of the provisions of this policy shall be returned to the employee submitting the request with a reasonable explanation of the denial of reimbursement.
(b) Transportation.
(1) The City will authorize full reimbursement of common carrier (commercial airlines, trains, bus, etc.) charges incurred by an employee in the course of performing work for the City when there is evidence and reassurance that the charges are reasonable and customary.
(2) City funds will not be used to pay for unused reservations on commercial carriers unless City Council is satisfied that the failure to use the reservation was unavoidable due to emergency conditions.
(3) No reimbursement will be made for an employee's regular commute between his/her home and the work site.
(4) Reimbursement for parking charges, road tolls, and other reasonably incurred transportation expenses will be authorized upon presentation of valid receipts for such expenses in excess of one dollar.
(5) Reimbursement for city-related travel using a personal vehicle will be equal to the maximum allowed under the most current regulations of the internal revenue service.
(6) Reimbursement shall be made to only one of two or more City employees traveling in the same vehicle.
(7) Frequent flier miles: employees accruing frequent flier miles may not reimburse such miles for personal use. Employees are required to report such miles to the City and may use such miles for further city business.
(c) Lodging.
(1) With the prior approval of City Council employees may be reimbursed for lodging expenses incurred while traveling on city-related business outside the state of Ohio.
(2) With prior approval by the Mayor employees may be reimbursed for lodging expenses incurred while traveling on city-related business inside the state of Ohio.
(3) A maximum daily expenditure will be reimbursed as established by City Council for out of state or the Mayor for in state travel.
A. For conferences or other business-related travel where the lodging accommodations are part of a package deal, the overnight lodging expenses may be reimbursed at actual cost provided such cost is reasonable and authorized by the Mayor/City Council.
(4) When possible, employees of the same sex required to travel overnight for City business should share a hotel/motel room.
(5) The City does not reimburse employees for extraneous non-lodging expenses including in-room movies, dry cleaning, alcoholic beverages, personal telephone calls or internet access.
Employees incurring such charges will be responsible for paying for these items at the time of checkout or, if the charges were submitted to the City as part of a direct billing agreement, the employee will be held responsible for contacting the Finance Department to arrange for reimbursement to the City.
(d) Meals.
(1) Employees traveling on City business for at least twenty-four consecutive hours may be reimbursed for meal expenses up to the maximum daily rate. The maximum daily rate includes any amounts paid as gratuities. In order to get reimbursed for meals you must have an itemized meal receipt which includes line items indicating what was purchased. (ie., meal, beverage, dessert)
A. The maximum allowed for reimbursement (up to 15% gratuities) is:
• Breakfast - $9.00
• Lunch - $13.00
• Dinner - $20.00
(2) The City Council may approve a higher maximum daily reimbursement when the employee is traveling out-of-state to an area with a significantly higher cost-of-living.
(3) When attending conferences or other events where the registration fee included meal provisions, employees may not file for reimbursement of those meal expenses or forego pre-paid meals and file for reimbursement of meal expenses incurred as a substitute.
(Ord. 35-2010. Passed 1-11-11.)