§ 7-9. Expenditures and accounting.

a.

No purchase shall be made by any department, agency, board, commission, or officer of the City other than the Probate Court, except through the Purchasing Agent. The Director of Finance shall have recorded the amount of authorized purchases and contracts for future purchases as encumbrances against the appropriation from which they are paid.

b.

No voucher, claim or charge against the City shall be paid until the same has been audited by the Director of Finance or agent of the Director and approved by the Director for correctness and validity. Payment of all approved claims shall be authorized by the Director of Finance which authorization shall be valid when countersigned by the Treasurer, provided, in the absence or inability to act of either the Director of Finance or Treasurer, the Mayor may be authorized to substitute temporarily for either or both of them.

c.

The Director of Finance shall prescribe the time at which and the manner in which persons receiving money on account of the City shall pay the same to the Treasurer.

d.

The several departments, commissions, officers and boards of the City shall not involve the City in any obligation to spend money for any purpose in excess of the amount appropriated therefore until the matter has been approved by the City Council and each order drawn upon the Treasurer shall state the department, commission, board or officer and the appropriation against which it is to be charged.

e.

The Mayor may at any time transfer any unencumbered appropriation among programs within a department, office, board, commission or agency. Upon the request of the Mayor but only within the last four (4) months of the fiscal year the City Council may by resolution transfer any unencumbered appropriation, balance or portion thereof from one department, commission, board or office to another. No transfer shall be made from any appropriation for debt service and other statutory charges.

f.

Additional appropriations over and above the total budget may be made from time to time by resolution of the City Council, upon recommendation of the Mayor and certification from the Director of Finance that there are available unappropriated general fund resources in excess of the proposed additional appropriations.

g.

Appropriations for construction or for other permanent improvements, from whatever source derived, shall not lapse until the purpose for which the appropriation was made shall have been accomplished or abandoned, provided any such project shall be deemed to have been abandoned if three (3) fiscal years shall elapse without any expenditure from or any encumbrance or the appropriation therefor. Any portion of an annual appropriation remaining unexpended and unencumbered at the close of the budget year shall lapse.

h.

Every payment made in violation of the provisions of this Charter shall be deemed to be illegal and every official authorizing or making such payment or taking part therein and every person receiving such payment or any part thereof, shall be jointly and severally liable to the City for the full amount so paid or received. If any officer or employee of the City shall knowingly incur any obligation or shall authorize or make any expenditure in violation of the provisions of this Charter or take any part therein, such action shall be cause for that person's removal.

i.

If at any time during the fiscal year the Mayor shall ascertain that revenues for the year and the general fund surplus from the preceding year will be less than the total of the appropriations, he shall revise work programs and allotments to forestall the incurring of a deficit. He shall report to the City Council without delay, indicating the estimated amount of the deficit and his recommendations as to further action. The Council shall then take such action as may be necessary to prevent or reduce any deficit and for that purpose it may, by resolution, reduce one or more appropriations.

j.

Whenever at the close of a fiscal year there shall appear a deficit in the current accounts of the City, it shall be mandatory to make an appropriation sufficient to cover such deficit in the next succeeding budget.