Council adopts role-based bank signers for municipal court and city accounts

The City of Republic on Tuesday adopted two resolutions that change how authorized signers are designated on city bank accounts, moving from named individuals to role-based signers. Bob Ford, chief financial officer, told council the Office of State Courts Administrator (OSCA) requires that only employees fully dedicated to municipal court be signers on the court's bank account. To satisfy that requirement and simplify future transitions, staff recommended authorizing the presiding judge and the municipal court clerk as the signer roles and, within that framework, named David Doran as presiding judge and Kim Winkler as municipal court clerk for the account at Arvest Bank. Council adopted the resolution (25-R-26) by unanimous voice vote. Ford said staff is applying the same role-based approach to the city's general operating and bond accounts with Arvest Bank: removing the obsolete title of assistant city administrator and adding the community development director as an authorized role. He noted that using roles allows the city to notify the bank of personnel changes by letter rather than returning to council for each personnel turnover. Council approved that resolution (25-R-27) 8-0. Council discussion confirmed the intent that, when a person occupying a role changes, staff will send a letter to Arvest Bank identifying the new authorized signer for that role; council does not need to re-approve the change each time the personnel occupying the role changes. Both resolutions were adopted unanimously and will be implemented administratively by the finance department.