BASSC 3L - State Certification Letter

B ASSC-3(L)

(10-2015)

<Date>

The Honorable <Insert Name>

<Job Title>

<Mailing Address>

<City, ST, Zip+4>

Dear Governor:

The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) every year to update legal boundaries, names, and statuses of all governmental units stored in the Census Bureau’s database. The boundaries that the local entities provide to us are used to report data in various surveys, estimates, censuses, programs, compilations, and publications. These operations include, but are not limited to, the decennial census, the American Community Survey, and the Population Estimates Program.

As part of the BAS State Certification Program, we will compile listings of all local governments in your state that reported boundary and status changes to the annual BAS. We will mail the listings to the governor-appointed State Certifying Official (SCO) as a record of what the local governments reported as part of the BAS. If local governments are required by your state law to report boundary updates to the state, the SCO will be responsible for reviewing the listings and certifying that the information on those listings is correct. This program is important to us since it ensures that the Census Bureau’s inventory of local governmental entities is accurate, and that the boundary changes reported to the BAS were accomplished in accordance with your state laws.

We request that you provide us the name and contact information of the person you wish to appoint as the SCO for the state of [insert State]. We would appreciate receiving the enclosed form by March 1st, 2016, in order for us to proceed with this program. If you do not respond by this date, we will ship materials to the previous SCO listed on the attached form. Please fax the form to 1-800-972-5652 or email to [email protected].

We plan to mail the listings to the SCO in spring 2016.

If you have any questions or require additional information on this subject, please have a member of your staff contact Ms. Madeline Sovich, or Mr. Nathan Jones, by email at [email protected] or by telephone at 301-763-1099.

Sincerely,

John H. Thompson

Director

Enclosure