66.0607 Withdrawal or disbursement from local treasury.

(1) Except as otherwise provided in subs. (2) to (5) and in s. 66.0608, in a county, city, village, town, or school district, all disbursements from the treasury shall be made by the treasurer upon the written order of the county, city, village, town, or school clerk after proper vouchers have been filed in the office of the clerk. If the statutes provide for payment by the treasurer without an order of the clerk, the clerk shall draw and deliver to the treasurer an order for the payment before or at the time that the payment is required to be made by the treasurer. This section applies to all special and general provisions of the statutes relative to the disbursement of money from the county, city, village, town, or school district treasury except s. 67.10 (2).

(2) Notwithstanding other law, a county having a population of 750,000 or more may, by ordinance, adopt any other method of allowing vouchers, disbursing funds, reconciling outstanding county orders, reconciling depository accounts, examining county orders, and accounting consistent with accepted accounting and auditing practices, if the ordinance prior to its adoption is submitted to the department of revenue, which shall submit its recommendations on the proposed ordinance to the county board of supervisors.

(3) Except as provided in subs. (2), (3m) and (5), disbursements of county, city, village, town or school district funds from demand deposits shall be by draft or order check and withdrawals from savings or time deposits shall be by written transfer order. Written transfer orders may be executed only for the purpose of transferring deposits to an authorized deposit of the public depositor in the same or another authorized public depository. The transfer shall be made directly by the public depository from which the withdrawal is made. No draft or order check issued under this subsection may be released to the payee, nor is the draft or order check valid, unless signed by the clerk and treasurer. No transfer order is valid unless signed by the clerk and the treasurer. Unless otherwise directed by ordinance or resolution adopted by the governing body, a certified copy of which shall be filed with each public depository concerned, the chairperson of the county board, mayor, village president, town chairperson or school district president shall countersign all drafts or order checks and all transfer orders. The governing body may also, by ordinance or resolution, authorize additional signatures. In lieu of the personal signatures of the clerk and treasurer and any other required signature, the facsimile signature adopted by the person and approved by the governing body may be affixed to the draft, order check or transfer order. The use of a facsimile signature does not relieve an official from any liability to which the official is otherwise subject, including the unauthorized use of the facsimile signature. A public depository is fully warranted and protected in making payment on any draft or order check or transferring pursuant to a transfer order bearing a facsimile signature affixed as provided by this subsection notwithstanding that the facsimile signature may have been affixed without the authority of the designated persons.

(3m) A county, city, village, town or school district may process periodic payments through the use of money transfer techniques, including direct deposit, electronic funds transfer and automated clearinghouse methods. The county, municipal or school district treasurer shall keep a record of the date, payee and amount of each disbursement made by a money transfer technique.

(4) Except as provided in sub. (3m), if a board, commission or committee of a county, city, village, town or school district is vested by statute with exclusive control and management of a fund, including the audit and approval of payments from the fund, independently of the governing body, payments under this section shall be made by drafts or order checks issued by the county, city, village, town or school clerk upon the filing with the clerk of certified bills, vouchers or schedules signed by the proper officers of the board, commission or committee, giving the name of the claimant or payee, and the amount and nature of each payment.

(5) In a 1st class city, municipal disbursements of public moneys shall be by draft, order, check, order check or as provided under sub. (3m). Checks or drafts shall be signed by the treasurer and countersigned by the comptroller. Orders shall be signed by the mayor and clerk and countersigned by the comptroller, as provided in the charter of the city. Disbursements of school moneys shall be as provided by s. 119.50.

(6) Withdrawal or disbursement of moneys deposited in a public depository as defined in s. 34.01 (5) by a treasurer as defined in s. 34.01 (7), other than the elected, appointed or acting official treasurer of a county, city, village, town or school district, shall be by endorsement, written order, draft, share draft, check or other draft signed by the person or persons designated by written authorization of the governing board as defined in s. 34.01 (1). The authorization shall conform to any statute covering the disbursement of the funds. A public depository is fully warranted and protected in making payment in accordance with the latest authorization filed with it.

(7) No order may be issued by a county, city, village, town, special purpose district, school district, cooperative education service agency or technical college district clerk in excess of funds available or appropriated for the purposes for which the order is drawn, unless authorized by a resolution adopted by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the entire membership of the governing body.

History: 1971 c. 154; 1971 c. 211 s. 124; 1977 c. 142, 225; 1979 c. 318; 1981 c. 20; 1983 a. 145; 1983 a. 189 s. 329 (21); 1983 a. 192 s. 303 (2); 1983 a. 368, 538; 1985 a. 91, 225; 1989 a. 56 s. 258; 1993 a. 399; 1999 a. 150 s. 109; Stats. 1999 s. 66.0607; 2001 a. 16; 2017 a. 207 s. 5.