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Board Action Certification

The board of the neighborhood council exercises all the governmental authority of the neighborhood council. That includes the authority to spend neighborhood council funds. For the City Clerk to direct those funds according to the board’s actions, they need documentation indicating what the board’s action was. This is provided by the Board Action Certification form (BAC).

A BAC can be requested by any city department as a testament to a neighborhood council board action, but it is most often required by the City Clerk’s office for actions regarding neighborhood council finances.

The City Clerk requires a BAC in order to:

  • approve monthly expenditure reports,1
  • send check payments to vendors,2
  • fund neighborhood purpose grants,3
  • fund community improvement projects,4
  • get access to the Neighborhood Council Funding System5,
  • update the budget6,
  • approve leases,7
  • approve contracts,8,
  • sponsor or co-sponsor an event,9
  • increase bank card limits,10
  • submit a Missing Receipt Affidavit11, or
  • ratify emergency spending12.

Completing a BAC

The City Clerk provides a blank BAC form on their website.

To complete the BAC form, you must fill in the following information:

Neighborhood Council

The BAC documents an official action taken by the neighborhood council so it must specify what neighborhood council took the action.

Date

The BAC documents an official action taken by the neighborhood council. Part of that is specifying when the neighborhood council took the action.

This should be the date when the board met and took the action.

Board Motion

The BAC documents that the neighborhood council took an official action, so it must specify what the action is.

The text of this section should be the exact text of the motion that the board passed at its meeting.13

Fiscal Year

The fiscal year of the City of Los Angeles starts on July 1 and ends on June 30.

The BAC should indicate what fiscal year the action pertains to.

City policy requires that all neighborhood council actions pertain only to the current fiscal year. So the fiscal year listed on the BAC should be the same as the fiscal year for the date of the action.

Votes

The BAC must have a list of all the board members with their position and their vote.

If a board member is absent, ineligible to vote on this action, recused from voting on this action, or abstains from voting, that must be indicated on the BAC.

Quorum

The BAC should say how many board members are needed to make a quorum of the board. This shows that the board was following the rules regarding quorum.

Quorum for the board is defined in the NC Bylaws in article V, section 2, and is usually more than half of the board seats.

Totals

The BAC should specify the total number of board members voting yes, voting no, abstaining, absent, ineligible, or recused.

Signing a BAC

Two people authorized to sign for the neighborhood council must sign the BAC before the City Clerk will accept and act on it. For financial matters, the only authorized signers are the treasurer and the second signers elected by the board.

When you sign a BAC, you are declaring that the information on the BAC is accurate and complete. You are also declaring that the action followed the rules regarding public meetings, the Brown Act, and quorum.

  1. Los Angeles, CA, Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, Policy 2.0 - Expenditures 14(c)(ii).

    See also Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, NC Funding System Guide, p 5 ↩

  2. Los Angeles, CA, Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, Policy 2.0 - Expenditures 4(b)(i)

    See also Policy 2.1 - Office/Operational Expenditures 1(a)(i), Policy 2.2 - Outreach Expenditures 3(a)(i)(2) and (ii)(2), and Policy 2.3 - Election Expenditures 2(a)(i). ↩

  3. Los Angeles, CA, Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, Policy 2.4 - Expenditures for Neighborhood Purposes Grants 1(g). See also 7(a)(i). ↩

  4. Los Angeles, CA, Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, Policy 2.4 - Expenditures of Community Improvement Projects 5(a)(i) ↩

  5. Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, NC Funding System Guide, p 2 ↩

  6. Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, NC Funding System Guide, p 7 ↩

  7. Los Angeles, CA, Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, Policy 4.0 - Contracts and Leases 2(d)(i). ↩

  8. Los Angeles, CA, Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, Policy 4.0 - Contracts and Leases 1(c)(i). ↩

  9. Los Angeles, CA, Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, Policy 2.2 - Outreach Expenditures 2(d)(ii). ↩

  10. Los Angeles, CA, Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, Policy 2.0 - Expenditures 6(a)(i). ↩

  11. Los Angeles, CA, Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, Policy 2.0 - Expenditures 7(c). ↩

  12. Los Angeles, CA, Office of the City Clerk, Administrative Services Division, Neighborhood Council Funding Program, Policy 5.0 - Expenditures of NC Funds in a Declared Emergencies 7(a). ↩

  13. If the board action was to approve a Community Impact Program (CIP) or a Neighborhood Purpose Grant (NPG) then instead of the board motion, the BAC could include the Public Benefit Statement from the CIP or NPG. ↩