(A) Definitions.
CONVENIENCE FEE. A convenience fee that is charged to a customer for the convenience of making a credit card payment. A CONVENIENCE FEE charged to a customer typically covers all or a portion of a payment vendor's transaction costs (see TRANSACTION FEES below), as well as any other additional fees that are charged by the town to recover direct costs associated with receiving a debit card or credit card payment. Such CONVENIENCE FEE shall not exceed $3 per transaction and shall be uniform regardless of the bank card or credit card used.
CREDIT CARD. A credit card means a (1) credit card; (2) debit card; (3) charge card; or (4) stored value card as defined in I.C. 36-1-8-11(b).
CUSTOMER. A person who is purchasing town goods/services/paying fees/fines or taxes with a credit card.
ELECTRONIC PAYMENT PROCESSING PROTOCOL. The standard, town-wide processes used by the town when accepting credit or debit card payments from customers, including, but not limited to, contracts with financial services providers and business procedures.
PERSONAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION. The information provided by the customer in the course of completing a payment transaction with the town through an electronic transfer of funds, including, but not limited to credit card number.
TRANSACTION FEE. The same as TRANSACTION CHARGE and refers to the cost incurred by the town for executing an electronic payment. If the town passes all or a portion of this transaction charge on to the customer, then the resulting fee to the customer is typically called a CONVENIENCE FEE (see definition above).
(B) Responsible department. The Department of Finance and Records shall be the department in charge. The Director of the Department of Finance and Records ("Director") shall responsible for all credit card payments and for ensuring appropriate internal controls are in place prior to the acceptance of credit card payments by the town. The Director shall be responsible for regularly monitoring such internal controls, including but not limited to testing internal controls for all departments no less than quarterly.
(C) Credit card payments. The town, its departments and municipally owned utility may accept payment by credit card for any business service, purchase of town goods or payment of fines, fees or taxes pursuant to this section and I.C. 36-1-8-11 et seq.
(D) Accounts. The Director shall authorize and open all credit card accounts. The applicable town department will provide required information to the Director to establish such accounts, monitor compliance of internal controls, and report to the Director on the usage rates of such accounts.
(E) Convenience fee. Credit card transactions for the purchase of town goods and services, payment of fines, fees or taxes may be subject to a convenience fee.
(F) Policies. The Director, with technical assistance and equipment if necessary from the town's Information Technology ("IT") Department, shall establish and maintain the electronic payment processing protocol for electronic payment processing, including, but not limited to, contracts for electronic payments, convenience fees, and standard business processes and procedures.
(G) Privacy. No town department shall store a customer's financial information in a database accessible to the public. If the town department has a legal and justifiable business need to store personal financial information obtained from customers during an electronic payment transaction, the agency is required to provide written procedures and policies for the safekeeping of such personal financial information. Such written procedures and policies shall include the names of town employees who will have access to such personal financial information. Such procedures and policies shall be forwarded to the Director for written approval before storing personal financial information in a database accessible to town employees.
(Ord. 2023-50, passed 12-18-2023)