Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
Yelm City Councilors approved Resolution No. 666 with a vote of 6-1 during a meeting on Tuesday, March 24, to establish guidelines to the city’s credit card policy and utility billing policy.
Councilor David Johnstone was the lone vote against the resolution. Though he claims he’s in favor of the policy, the councilor voted against it due to the resolution being numbered 666.
“Fair enough,” Mayor Joe DePinto said in response to Johnstone’s vote.
Stephanie Nanavich, Yelm finance director, said the city attorney has already reviewed the resolution and its attached policies. Additionally, Nanavich said the finance committee did not have a meeting in March, though she sent out the information to members for review.
“We have two policies. The state auditor’s office has recommended that we issue these policies to protect public funds and reduce the risk of fraud or misuse,” Nanavich said. “On the credit card policy, they’re considered high risk because they allow for spending without the same upfront approvals as we would if we processed something through our accounts payable with an invoice and paid with a check. Because of that risk, we need to outline our internal controls governing the credit card procedures on how to use the credit cards, what they can be used for, who can use them and how we safeguard those.”
She noted that there’s only 10 credit cards authorized for City of Yelm use.
According to Nanavich, a total of $111,000 was spent on city credit cards in 2025.
“Not a huge amount of use. We do have them,” she said. “We use them for travel. We use them for some supplies, some services. We just want to outline how to use them, how to account for them and show the receipts — that sort of thing on the credit cards.”
Councilor Tracey Wood asked Nanavich if councilors are establishing guidelines for city staff using credit cards with an approval of the resolution. She said yes, and added that it also informs auditors what the internal controls are over those credit cards — along with how they’re administered and documented.
The second policy, Nanavich said, related to utility billing. Specifically, she noted that water, sewer and storm water are the only utility bills administered by the City of Yelm.
“That is one of our largest revenue streams. We bring in just under $10 million in utility revenues every year,” she said. “The policy outlines internal controls over how we bill out our customers and how we receive those payments, along with just the normal billing routines that we have when it comes to utilities.”
Nanavich added that there’s also adjustments on accounts, leaks and what the city does when accounts “are in the rear.” She noted this policy specifically outlines how Yelm would administer that program of billing and receiving in for the utilities that they’re in charge of.
Additionally, Nanavich stated both policies comply with local and state laws and regulations — along with the Yelm Municipal Code.
“We’re not changing municipal code here. We’re just outlining what our procedures and our internal controls are,” she said.
