Brazos County commissioners approve more changes to the county's credit card policy

This podcast contains comments from the May 5, 2026 Brazos County commission meeting.Since January of 2025, Brazos County commissioners have regularly talked about and on occasion made changes to the county's credit card policy.At the commission's May 5th business meeting, approval was given to several changes requested by the purchasing office.Click HERE to read and download the amended credit card policy that was approved at the May 5, 2026 Brazos County commission meeting.The amended policy says "To facilitate a more efficient credit card approval process, only credit cards requested by a department in excess of $10,000 will be required to obtain Court approval. Those requested at $10,000 or below could be approved by Purchasing. A summary of credit cards will be provided to the Court periodically. To accommodate the payment of utilities or other fees without incurring late fees and to avoid the payment of a deposit, Purchasing, Auditor and Treasurer requests permission to obtain a credit card for these payments. A process of expanding credit card limits during an emergency or when one is imminent is added."Before the four to nothing vote, a public speaker asked that the policy required automatic termination of employees who misuse county credit cards. Commissioners made no change to the current policy which says employees may face termination.During the same meeting, purchasing agent Charles Wendt gave his first report on the county's new credit card providing a rebate back to the county. In August of 2025, Brazos County commissioners decided to change credit card providers, in part to take advantage of rebates.Wendt thanked county employees for their quick payment of credit card charges totaling $62,286.14 during the last six months that resulted in the county receiving a rebate of $1,124.80.