YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s board of control today is expected to adopt changes to its meal reimbursement policy for city workers when they travel on official business or to conferences.

The changes include increasing the amounts a city employee can spend on meals and requiring receipts to get reimbursed for food.

“What we’ve encountered since COVID is costs for travel have gone up dramatically and we need to update our reimbursement amounts for food,” said Finance Director Kyle Miasek.

The current policy permits city workers traveling in Ohio to get $40 for meal reimbursements for a 24-hour period and $60 for those traveling out of state.

Those amounts will be increased to $70 and $100.

But city employees who are traveling will not be able to spend all of that money on one meal, Miasek said.

“If the travel is for less than one day, the last thing we want is someone to spend it all on lunch,” he said.

The policy was last updated June 6, 2002.

The new policy allows those traveling on city business or to conferences in Ohio to be reimbursed up to $16 for meals between midnight and 7:59 a.m., $19 for meals between 8 a.m. and 5:59 p.m. and $35 for meals between 6 p.m. and 11:59 p.m., said Kristin Rogers, the city’s general accounting manager who is responsible for overseeing transportation reimbursements.

Those traveling out of state can be reimbursed during the three time periods for up to $20, $30 and $50, respectively, she said.

Tips of up to 20% from the current 15% limit will be permitted.

“The difference in travel costs in the last few years means it’s not easy to stay in the current limits,” Rogers said. “Things have gone up. We wanted to make it more with the times.”

Also, the purchase of alcoholic beverages or reimbursements for entertainment tickets — such as sporting events or movies — are still not permitted, Miasek said.

“We haven’t had any issues and the policy restricts a blanket per diem,” he said.

The current policy permits city workers to get $30 per 24-hour period while away on travel without providing a receipt, Rogers said.

That is being eliminated with the policy being adopted today by the board of control, she said.

“It hasn’t been an issue,” she said. “People kept receipts. But the mayor wanted to make the change.”

Miasek added: “This protects our policy so city taxpayer funds are not used inappropriately.”

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