Mills County's Employee Meal Reimbursement Policy Under Scrutiny

When out of town for official business or training, how much should county employees be allowed to spend for meals at the expense of taxpayers?

It’s a topic the Mills County Board of Supervisors has discussed on-and-off since August 2025. The discussion surfaced again Tuesday when supervisors were presented with a proposal by supervisor Jack Sayers that would set a meal reimbursement per diem at a maximum of $10 for breakfast, $12 for lunch and $18 for supper.

“It’s the exact policy of the state -  it’s $10, $12 and $18,” said Sayers, who has been pushing publicly for a policy update regarding meal reimbursement for employees. “It’s the state policy - $40 per day. That’s what the state of Iowa allows. Other counties have it, such as Dickinson County.”

Mills County’s current expense reimbursement policy, adopted by the board of supervisors in 2017, has no dollar amount restrictions for meal reimbursement.

“There’s a policy in place, it just doesn’t have any specifics in it as far as limits on meal reimbursements,” said Mills County Auditor Amber Farnan.

The current policy states, “Meals, only if overnight stay is required, and lodging shall be reimbursed at a fair and equitable rate. Expenses will be reviewed and approved by the department head and will then be submitted to the board for final approval.”

The policy also states that employees should submit completed travel expense reports, with itemized receipts, upon return from travel.

Sayers said an updated expense policy with meal reimbursement guidelines is long overdue, stating on Tuesday that it’s been 60 weeks since the matter was initially broached.

“We have been working on this for over a year,” said Sayers in an interview last week.

Sayers also voiced the need for an updated policy in a Facebook post last Wednesday that generated nearly 150 comments. In the post, Sayers shared copies of meal receipts for steak dinners, including some costing $60, submitted by Mills County Sheriff’s Office employees.

“I believe it is absolutely unacceptable for county employees to purchase luxury meals with taxpayer dollars while hardworking Mills County residents are brown bagging their lunches to save money,” Sayers wrote.

The meals were approved for reimbursement, Sayers said, because there is currently no per diem policy in place.

“It’s legal, but it’s not ethical,” he said.

Discussing the matter Monday, Mills County Sheriff Greg Schultz said he had not seen Sayers’ Facebook post, but said it’s not uncommon for law enforcement officers to eat light at breakfast and lunch and have their main meal in the evening.

“Generally speaking, and I’m not going to say flat out all of them, those are generally the only meals those guys ate for those days,” he said. “So, if there was no breakfast provided, they might have a cup of coffee and protein bar they brought along with them. For lunch, they would do something similar. A lot of my guys don’t eat big heavy meals during the day. Then, the evening meal, even though there’s not a ‘per diem,’ they would eat that evening meal to what a per diem would be for the day if there was a (daily) per diem.”

Farnan and Schultz were tasked by the board of supervisors to look at what other governmental agencies allow for meal reimbursement and provide recommendations back to the board for its new policy.

“We’ve gone through a few drafts. We went to the board a couple of different times and we had to revamp,” said Schultz, noting that steps needed to be taken to ensure any new policy doesn’t violate existing county policies.

Schultz said some governmental bodies have a daily meal allowance and some provide reimbursement on a per-meal basis. He said he’s put together proposals for both options using the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) formula used for federal government employees.

The daily per-diem proposal gives the employee more flexibility in the number and size of meals they eat. They are approved for a daily meal allowance and are given the discretion to spend the dollars as they please, whether it be for meals or something else.

If approved for the daily allowance, no receipts are required, Schultz said.

“Once I could prove that I was eligible for three meals in the day, using the GSA (General Services Administration) website, basically you punch in the zip code for where you’re going to go for your training and it tells you what the dollar amount is for that zip code,” he said. “Obviously, Washington, D.C. would be more than Des Moines.

“Basically, it would be set up for $20 for breakfast, $25 for lunch and $35 for supper - $80 a day. And, once you prove you’re eligible for those meals out of town, you receive that flat amount – once you prove you’re there for the whole day and the meals aren’t provided.”

The per-meal option would require receipts, Schultz said.

“The other option is to have those same dollar amounts, but rather then get that flat fee for meals, the amount you’d get reimbursed is the amount you’ve spent,” he said.. So, if you had a $20 allowance for breakfast and you only spent $15, you’d only get reimbursed for $15 and you’d have to turn in the receipt to prove that.”

Schultz said he sees positives in both proposals.

“For ease, I think the simple $80 a day because you don’t have to track receipts, you don’t have to have somebody verifying receipts. You have one person who can look at the training schedule and determine you were there all day, you get the full amount. But, I also think to be fiscally responsible, you keep your receipts and you get the amount you paid.

“I see the positives on both, but I’m not sure what’s the better policy for the county. I would rather see the board members make that decision.”
Sayers made a motion for the supervisors to approve his “$10, $12 and $18” proposal at Tuesday’s board meeting, but later tabled the motion after concerns were expressed about the specific dollar amounts by fellow supervisors Lonnie Mayberry and Richard Crouch.\

“I have a question, where can you get a $10 breakfast at besides McDonald’s,” Mayberry asked?

Under the proposal, Sayers said employees could spend over the policy limit, but would have to pay the difference out of their own pocket. Under that scenario, Farnan said the employee would not be allowed to pay with a county credit card for meal purchase, which is allowed in the current policy.

Crouch questioned whether the policy would allow employees to receive a per diem if meals were already being provided at their hotel or at the meeting / conference they’re attending.

Mayberry said he agrees the county reimbursement policy should be revised, but he isn’t in favor of the proposed policy presented by Sayers because of the dollar amounts.

After Tuesday’s discussion, Sayers amended his motion for the board to vote on a meal reimbursement policy at the supervisors’ Nov. 10 meeting.