Massachusetts General Laws
Chapter 44 - Municipal Finance
Section 24 - Authentication; Certification

Section 24. When a city, town or district votes to borrow money otherwise than by the issue of bonds, the treasurer thereof may make notes for the amount of the proposed loan, and may use one or more, in serial order, of the forms provided for in section twenty-three, with the blank spaces properly filled in. Notes issued hereunder shall be signed and countersigned as provided in section sixteen or other applicable provisions of law in the presence of the clerk of the city, town or district, who shall certify to the fact on the face thereof. The treasurer of the city, town or district, after making a record of the transaction in accordance with section twenty-three, shall forward, with the fee required by section twenty-six, every such note to the director, with a copy of said record and a copy of the order or vote authorizing the loan, certified by the clerk of the city, town or district, and a certification by said clerk that the person whose signature appears upon the note as treasurer was the duly authorized treasurer of the city, town or district when such signature was made, and that the persons whose countersignatures appear upon the note were duly qualified as such when such countersignatures were made; and the treasurer of such city, town or district shall furnish such other information as the director may require to enable the director properly to certify the note. If upon examination the note appears to the director to have been duly issued in accordance with law and the vote of the city, town, or district authorizing it, or in accordance with an act of the general court, and to have been signed by the duly qualified officials of such city, town or district, he shall so certify and shall thereupon return the note by registered mail to the treasurer of such city, town or district or shall deliver it in hand to such treasurer or to his duly authorized agent; but, under such regulations as he may prescribe, if so authorized by the signers of the note, the director may deliver a certified note to the payee thereof or deliver it to a bank or trust company to be credited to the account of such city, town or district. He may certify to the issue of a note on any date not earlier than five days prior to the date of issue appearing on the note, if the other conditions of this chapter have been complied with. He shall not certify a note payable on demand, nor shall he certify any note unless the laws relating to municipal indebtedness have been complied with, or if it appears that the proceeds of the note are not to be used for the purpose specified in the vote authorizing the loan for which the note is issued. The director may use a facsimile signature machine or stamp for the purpose of certifying notes under this section and such facsimile shall have the same legal effect as the director's manual signature.

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