Mississippi § 21-39-13 - Issuance of warrants or checks; assignment thereof.

§ 21-39-13. Issuance of warrants or checks; assignment thereof.

The clerk of the municipality shall draw all warrants or checks for claims and accounts allowed and approved by the governing authorities. Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c), the warrants or checks shall be signed by the mayor or a majority of the members of the board of aldermen in any municipality operating under a mayor-alderman form of government, and attested by the clerk, and to which there shall be affixed the seal of the municipality. The governing authorities of any municipality may adopt the use of a standard check signing machine to be used in lieu of the manual signing of warrants or checks under such terms and conditions as the governing authorities shall deem meet and proper for the protection of the interest of the municipality. A municipality may authorize a municipally owned utility to make early payments to its electricity suppliers for the purpose of receiving early payment discounts from such distributors. The governing authorities of a municipality may authorize the clerk of the municipality to issue a warrant or check for the purpose of immediately refunding to a customer of the municipally owned utility his or her deposit for municipal utility services after the municipal utility has determined that payment for all services and any other obligations which the customer may have incurred in regard to the municipal utility has been made. Every warrant or check drawn on the treasury shall express on its face to whom issued and for what purpose allowed, and the ordinance authorizing its issuance shall be cited, by minute book and page, in or upon it. All such warrants or checks shall be drawn against the proper fund in the municipality from which such allowed claims shall be paid, and all such warrants or checks shall be drawn in the order of their allowance. No warrant or check shall be signed, removed from the warrant book or checkbook or delivered by the clerk until there is sufficient money in the fund upon which it is drawn to pay the same and all prior unpaid warrants or checks drawn upon that fund, whether delivered or not. The owner of any claim against a municipality, either before or after allowance, may transfer same by assignment, and the holder of such assignment shall be entitled to receive the warrant or check therefor at the proper time by presenting such assignment to the clerk at any time before the delivery of the warrant or check to the original claimant.