HomeMy WebLinkAbout68 - Presentation and Payment of Claims, Demands, and Warrants (Amended by Ord. 155)ORDINANCE NO. 68
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA, PRESCRIBING
THE METHOD OF PRESENTING AND PAYMENT OF CLAIMS, DEMANDS AND
WARRANTS.
The City Council of the City of Costa Mesa does ordain
as follows:
SECTION 1. PERSON TO PRESENT CLAIM. No city officer
shall, except for his own service, present any claim, account
or demand for allowance against the City, or in any way,
except in the discharge of his official duty, advocate the
relief asked in the claim or demand made by any other person.
Any person may appear before the City Council and oppose the
allowance of any claim or demand made against the City.
SECTION 2. ITEMIZING NECESSARY. The City Council shall
not hear -or consider or allow or approve any claim or demand
against the City unless the same be itemized giving names, dates,
and particular services rendered, character of process served
and upon whom, distance traveled, character of work done, the
number of days engaged, material and supplies furnished, when
and to whom and in what quantity furnished, the price therefor,
and other pertinent details as the case may be, -Salaries and
wages of officers and employees of the City shall not be
considered to be claims, accounts, bills or demands against
the City hereunder.
SECTION 3, PRESENTING AND FILING. Claims and demands
arising out of tort and all claims and demands not founded upon
contract shall set forth the time and place the claim arose,
the public property, officers or employees alleged to be at
fault, the nature or extent of the injury or damage claimed, and
full details as to the nature of the claim, and shall be signed
and verified tc be c�crrect by the claimant or someone authorized
by him, and shall be filed with the City Clerk within ninety (90)
days after the accident or event occurred. All other claims
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and demands shall be presented in writing to, and filed with,
the City within one (1) year.after the last item of the account
or claim accrued and need not be signed or verified. Unless
so presented and filed, no such claim or demand shall be
approved, allowed or paid and the City shall not be liable upon
any suit or action based upon any such claim or demand which
is not filed in the form and within the time herein provided.
.SECTION 4. SUIT. ,Any claim or demand against the City
or against any City officer in his official capacity, payable
out of any City fund or any fund under the control of the City
Treasurer shall be filed and presented to the City Council as
herein provided before any suit may be brought thereon. No suit
may be brought on any claim until it has been rejected in whole
or in part. If the City Council refuses or neglects to allow
or reject a claim for ninety (90) days after it is filed with
the City Clerk, the claimant may treat such refusal er neglect
as final action and rejection on the ninetieth day.
SECTION 5. METHOD OF APPROVAL. Each claim or demand
shall be presented by the City Clerk to the Department Head, if
any, who authorized the same for his written approval thereof,
and each claim or demand shall thereafter be presented to the
City Manager for his written approval thereof. The City Manager
shall inform the City Council in writing of any claims or
demands presented against the City which shall fail to obtain
the approval of the proper Department Head or which shall fail
to obtain the approval of the City Manager. All such claims and
demands, whether approved as aforesaid or not, shall be forwarded
by the City Manager to the City Council for audit. The City
Council shall audit said claims and demands as required by law.
SECTION 6. DISPOSITION OF CLAIM. If the City Council
finds that any claim or demand is not a proper charge against the
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City, it shall be rejected by resolution or minute action, and
the fact of rejection shall be plainly endorsed upon the claim by
the City Clerk. If any claim or demand is determined to be a
proper charge against the City, the same shall be allowed only by
resolution setting forth as to each claim the name of the claimant,
a brief statement of the claim, the amount allowed and a designation
of the fund out of which it is to be paid. Any claim may be
allowed in part and rejected in part by the City Council.
SECTION 7. APPROVED AND ALLOWED. If any claim or demand
be approved and allowed by the City Council, the City Clerk shall
endorse upon each of the duplicate copies thereof the words
"Allowed by the City Council of the City of Costa Mesa", together
with the date of such allowance and for what amount and from what
fund, and the City Clerk shall attest the same with his signature.
The City Clerk shall thereupon file the first copy of said claim
and deliver the duplicate copy thereof to the City Manager together
with a copy of the resolution allowing the same.
SECTION 8. SUFFICIENT MONEY IN TREASURY. Except as other-
wise provided by law, no warrant shall be drawn or evidence of
indebtedness issued unless there be at the time sufficient money in
the treasury legally applicable to the payment of the same.
SECTION 9. ACCEPTANCE BY TREASURER. Upon presentation to
the Treasurer of any warrant drawn and countersigned as aforesaid,
the Treasurer shall accept the same by his signature, and the said
warrant shall thereupon become a check in payment of the claim or
demand for which it is drawn, and shall be delivered to the claimant.
SECTION 10, This Ordinance shall take effect and be in
full force thirty (30) days from and after its passage. Prior to
the expiration of fifteen (15) days fr®m and after its passage, this
Ordinance, together with the names of the members of the City Council
vot-fng_fo'r and against the same, shall be published once in the
Costa Ifea-a^globe Herald, a newspaper printed in the City of Costa Mesa.
Passed and adopted thisday of Ne"Abe r, 1954•
ZZ
ATTEST: / Mayo the C �T or Costa Mesa
Ciy lark of the ity of Costa Mesa
' S• -:A'22 G07VC
.11' T .`11 I. PL:
COUITTY OF ss -
CITY CF -COSTA EESA y
I, A. C. S'•IARTZ, City Clerk of the City of Costa I.-Lesa, do hereby certify that at
a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Costa 'esa, held on the First
day of November , 1954. the foregoing Ordinance, containing ,�f
sections, was considered section by section, and that the said Ordinance was then
passed and adopted as a whole by the following vote:
AYES Five COUNCIDW: Nelson, ,j tin.. Pinklej, Smith „ and
Tewinkle
ROES:None COWICILMM:
ABSEITT: None COUNCIUMIT:
I further certify that said Ordinance was thereupon signed ty the Mayor of the
City of Costa Mesa.
ATTEST: _
Gam, j�
City Clerk of the City of Costa Mesa