Former Albert Lea City Finance Director Rhonda Moen is slated to be the first person on the stand Thursday to give testimony in the case of former City Manager Jim Norman.

Moen, who was the first person to notify authorities last summer that Norman allegedly misused the city-issued credit card, was seated on the witness stand briefly on Wednesday as a witness for the prosecution.

In previous court hearings on the case, Norman’s lawyer, Peggy Rockow, and Chief Deputy Waseca County Attorney Brenda Miller described Moen as a “star witness” in the prosecution’s case.

She became the city finance director in 2004 after first working as assistant city finance director for 11 years. Her last day as finance director in Albert Lea was in October 2010, after finding a new position as Owatonna finance director.

During her brief appearance Wednesday, Moen explained how city-issued credit cards came about.

She said department heads and the city manager began getting city-issued credit cards in 2006 under the direction of the Albert Lea City Council.

The cards have each employee’s name and the city logo on them, and the accounts are through US Bank.

Prior to being given a city-issued credit card, the employees would sign a user agreement, which explained what they were allowed to use the card for. She said they were only able to use the cards for city purposes.

She noted that an electronic transfer was made from the city’s main checking account to cover the purchases on the credit cards a week after the statement was issued.

When she was finance director, she would receive a statement of all city credit card purchases the third week of each month, which would account for the previous four weeks. Each department head and the city manager would also receive one just for their purchases.

She said she would briefly scan the statement before the department heads had to turn in receipts and vouchers for their purchases.

Moen had just started talking about Norman’s employee contract when the trial recessed for the day.

Look to the Tribune Thursday to find out more about Moen’s testimony.