Topeka ? A City Council member here is questioning spending last year by city employees using special cards, including $10,232 for coffee and $483 for tickets to a concert by rapper Ludacris.

About 280 city employees carry procurement cards, or “P-cards,” which are like credit cards and allow the holder to purchase items for the city that cost less than $1,000.

Employees charged about $1.9 million in spending to their cards in 2002, an amount that council member John Alcala said “floored” him.

“I’m not saying the purchases are inappropriate, but I question some of them,” Alcala said Wednesday.

Dave Graversen, the city’s chief administrative officer, said individual employees had been disciplined for using their cards inappropriately. Mayor Butch Felker said he hadn’t seen the information and couldn’t comment on it.

Among the expenditures Alcala cited were the coffee purchases, the rap tickets, an additional $18,500 charged for dining out and $350 in gift bonds from Kansas City, Mo.’s Country Club Plaza shopping district.

Alcala’s questions came as the council is considering whether to raise property taxes or cut programs to cover a projected $3.8 million shortfall in its budget for 2004.

Last year, a city employee used a card on April 12 and April 18 to purchase the rap concert tickets.

“Why would 12 tickets be purchased for a Ludacris concert?” Alcala asked. “I’m not saying it’s not legitimate, but why? Maybe they were sending kids, but I don’t think people want city money to be paid for their kids to see that concert.”

Cardholders must sign an agreement stating they won’t make personal purchases on the card.