The Prairie Village city council on Monday took steps toward the creation of a formal policy governing what and how much council and staff members can spend during conference travel.

At Monday’s meeting, the council spent more than 40 minutes discussing what specific provisions should be included in a new policy. Assistant to the city administrator Chris Engle had prepared a memorandum for the committee with information about what policies neighboring municipalities had in place. Engle’s primary recommendation was that the city begin providing council members and staff a per diem based on General Services Administration guidelines — a recommendation that was widely embraced by the council. Engle also asked for input on whether there should be a provision on reimbursing alcoholic beverages, how much was reasonable to spend on airport travel, and whether the city should place a cap on the number of trips each council member can take.

The council had instructed city staff to look into the development of a formal conference spending policy before resident Jori Nelson used the public forum at its March 21 meeting to unveil a list of what she sees as excessive travel spending, but much of the discussion Monday focused on the need to address the perception among some residents that the council’s conference travel spending has been unreasonably high.

Nelson said during Monday’s public forum that the council’s discussion appeared to be a step in the right direction — though she took exception to some of the council members’ desire to continue allowing alcohol purchases and the use of car services for airport transportation.

“Airport shuttle and car service costs would still be too high,” Nelson said. “And I do not believe city tax dollars should be going to purchase alcohol. If you want a glass of wine with your dinner, I think you should be willing to pay for it.”

However, Engle said that if the city were to adopt a GSA per diem policy, the issue of whether council members could purchase alcohol with city funds would essentially become moot. Because staff and council members would receive cash up front based on the recommended GSA rates, the city would have no control over how council and staff spent their per diems.

Councilman Michael Kelly said a policy that went into too much detail about what expenses would and would not be acceptable might be counterproductive.

“Micromanaging wouldn’t be professional,” he said. “I think the assumption should be that whatever you spend is potentially going to be scrutinized. If you’re prepared to defend your expenses, more power to you.”

Councilwoman Diana Ewy Sharp, who defended her travel costs in the lead up to the mayoral race last month, said she welcomed the adoption of a formal policy, though she felt the city had spent conference money wisely.

“The bottom line is we have been prudent and responsible with taxpayer money,” said councilwoman Diana Ewy Sharp. “We were going to address this before it became an issue.”

Engle said the council was likely to take up a formal policy for approval at its June 7 meeting.