Roy councilors disagree over role of acting city clerk-treasurer

The Roy City Council chose not to second a motion to grant Beth King, the city’s acting clerk-treasurer, access to necessary bank accounts assigned to the role despite pushback from the mayor and city attorney during the Monday, Aug. 19, meeting.

Councilor and Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Starks was the primary opposition to King accessing the bank accounts due to the council not having an opportunity to interview her. Starks also claims that she and Mayor Kimber Ivy can handle the duties themselves.

Ivy told the council that King’s inability to perform duties tied to the city clerk-treasurer seat such as payroll, accounts payable and compiling the budget has made those tasks “very difficult” for city staff to handle.

“We have a temporary work-around where we can create the checks, and then myself and the mayor pro tem have to come in and sign them. Staff elected to have their paychecks deposited as it was easier for them, so now that’s an inconvenience for staff members,” Ivy said. “As you know, we’re in the budget season, so compiling the documents necessary for the budget and working with the CPA has been put in a halt until we can figure out who is going to have the access in order to do these tasks.”

Starks replied that previously, she and volunteers used to validate electronic transfers and checks without the volunteers requiring access to the bank accounts. She also said she “hadn’t seen proof” that King’s appointment was temporary and that she hadn’t seen the job posted anywhere.

City Attorney David Galazin pushed back on the move to deny King access to the bank accounts, citing that even if signing authority from the mayor and mayor pro tem is possible, the clerk-treasurer performs many more duties for the city to function.

“In order to function, you need to have a person there doing the job in an acting capacity in order to make sure that all the financial accounts are properly maintained,” he said. “You have the mayor pro tem who is authorized as the signatory, but as an appointed official, she’s not authorized to do the job of the executive branch. As long as somebody is in that position in an acting capacity, it would help the function of the government and help things run more efficiently if that person has the authority to work with all the accounts as a city clerk-treasurer would in that position.”

Councilor Edmund Dunn made a motion to grant King access to the accounts, which did not receive a second and therefore failed.

In other council news, the council voted unanimously to enter into negotiations with Roy Pioneer Rodeo Association to renew its lease. It also hosted a budget retreat to kick off the budget season and identified the improvement of water quality, public safety, police, park equipment, and city events as its main priorities going into 2025.