Subd. 1. The Mayor and City Treasurer are hereby authorized to request a depository of city funds to honor an order for payment when the instrument bears a facsimile of his or her signature and to charge the same to the account designated thereon or upon which it is drawn, as effectively as though it were his or her manually written signature.
Subd. 2. The authority is granted only for the purpose of permitting the officers an economy of time and effort.
(`80 Code, § 2.04)