Town of Paradise Valley Town Council members approved an ordinance, at the Jan. 23 regular meeting, to amend town code clarifying select offices and transaction approvals.
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Town of Paradise Valley Town Council members approved an ordinance, at the Jan. 23 regular meeting, to amend town code clarifying select offices and transaction approvals.
The amendments are designed to align town code with organizational structure changes by establishing the office of Chief Information Officer and maintaining an adequate number of available check signers for operations’ continuity, according to a staff report.
Since the town’s organization structure was modified in December 2019, some of the impacted functions and the department responsible for providing those services changed, the report said, adding that the changes in organization structure and code “are not necessarily always synonymous; autonomous changes do occur.”
Although the Deputy Town Manager was added to the organizational chart, along with the power to sign for town checks greater and less than $25,000 as of May 2018, according to the staff report, the position was phased out as previously published.
Part of the personnel reorganization, announced during a Dec. 5 Town Council meeting, included eliminating the deputy town manager position to be replaced with an entry-level planner position; dispensing with the employ of former Deputy Town Manager Dawn Marie Buckland as a result of the changes.
Ms. Buckland, whose last day in office was Nov. 8, joined the Town in 2015. She served in the deputy town manager role and was responsible for many departments and programs including Intergovernmental Affairs, Information Technology, Public Works, and Community Development.
Meanwhile, town office structures will be revised to remove the Deputy Town Manager references and adding Chief Information Officer in its place to make the proposed change the first inclusion of the Chief Information Officer as an office.
With the Deputy Town Manager title removed from the list of authorized signees within the Town, changes were addressed about individuals authorized to sign checks to include any combination of the town manager, chief financial officer, town clerk, mayor and vice mayor could sign for amounts of $25,000 or less, according to the report.
For amounts more than $25,000, checks will be signed by the mayor and vice mayor, or by one of them with a counter-signature of the town manager or chief financial officer, the report said, noting the removal of the Deputy Town Manager title from the list of those authorized.
A survey conducted by the Finance Department also suggested to limit check signers; have the same signers for all threshold transactions; use electronic signatures; and to have strong internal controls, cited the report.
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