Wichita ? Of the more than 140 city employees who had access to cell phones last year, only four reimbursed the city for personal calls, The Wichita Eagle reported Friday.

The city provided The Eagle and KWCH television a 13-page summary of cell phone use after they requested copies of individual cell phone bills. The city said it would be too costly and burdensome to find and copy the bills.

The city has no policies governing its cell phone use and relies on the honor system for employees to pay for personal phone calls they make at taxpayer expense.

In most cases, spokesman Mike Taylor said, the city does not know whom its employees call. In some cases, Taylor said, employees may never see their bills.

City officials began a review of cell phone records this week at the request of Mayor Carlos Mayans and the local media. Mayans said he wanted to make certain taxpayers weren’t paying more than necessary for cell phones.

The city does not request a list of phone numbers called on the bills it receives and has no way of knowing if those calls are business or personal, Taylor said. That includes the $2,468.27 worth of calls made last year by George Rogers, a former City Council member who now runs a mentoring program for at-risk children on behalf of the city.

Rogers had the highest phone bill, according to the information provided to The Eagle. Taylor had the second-highest phone bill, with $1,683.33 in calls.

Rogers said Thursday that he did not know what his phone bill was, nor did he know how many minutes he was allowed each month under his calling plan.

The city’s review also found that the city does not purchase cell phone service in bulk. It buys each phone individually from four different services, using a variety of plans.

The city has left it up to cell phone users and department heads to make sure they have the best calling plan available, Taylor said. But in many cases, he said, employees may not know how many minutes they are actually using because they never see their bills.

“Without trying to make excuses, the bottom line is the technology and advancement of cell phone use got ahead of us controlling it that tightly,” he said.

Mayans, who said he used his own cell phone rather than one provided by the city, began questioning the cell phone policy after he noticed a number of city employees had phones.

His intent, he said, is to find a way to save taxpayers money.

Mayans said he might propose giving employees a basic phone allowance and requiring employees to pay their own cell phone bills. That tactic was taken by the Wichita school district in late 2001, after The Eagle’s review of phone records found one board member was spending an average of $186 per month, largely on personal calls.