We have to be careful in city government how and what we spend public money on. A few years ago the State Auditor took a Minnesota city government to the proverbial woodshed for a making a number of financial misappropriations, including one where the city spent public dollars to send flowers to the funeral of one of their own city employees. According to the State Auditor, spending public dollars on flowers for the funeral of a city government employee is not an authorized expense for city governments, according to Minnesota State Law.
And yet, it still needs to be done in order for the co-workers of that employee to feel decent and supportive, and for the family of the deceased to feel that their loved one was appreciated at work. So what to do?
We handled the situation here in Eden Prairie by creating something called the “Sunshine Fund.� We do a voluntary payroll deduction of $15/employee/year to pay for these sorts of “non-authorized” expenses throughout the year for employees. We use the accumulated money for funeral flowers, new baby flowers, and other related events. Most of our employees contribute to the Sunshine Fund, but not all of them.We spend money out of this fund for all employees (and their immediate families), regardless if the employee in question has contributed to the Sunshine Fund, or not.
Because employees fund the expenses of the Sunshine Fund with their own money, no public money is involved in the process. The City of Eden Prairie does not send flowers to the funeral of an Eden Prairie city employee. Eden Prairie city employees send flowers to the funeral of an Eden Prairie city employee.
And maybe that’s a better way to do it anyway.
