Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) State Certification, State Certifying Official and Discrepancy Correspondence and Respondent Materials

OMB Non-Substantive Change Request

Department: Commerce

Agency: U.S. Census Bureau

Title: Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) State Certification, State Certifying Official and Discrepancy Correspondence and Respondent Materials

OMB Control Number: 0607-0151

Expiration Date: 3/31/2019

Request: The U.S. Census Bureau (Census Bureau) requests to change the distribution and accessibility of the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) State Certification respondent materials and correspondence from physical to electronic mail (email) delivery with downloadable files accessible through the BAS website. This includes the State Certifying Official (SCO) Letter (BASSC-4L), BAS State Certification Listings, and Discrepancy Letters (BASSC-1L and BASSC-2L), as referenced in the Background section of this document.

Background: The BAS State Certification program invites Governor-appointed SCOs from 49 of the 50 states (Hawaii is not included¹) to review legal boundary changes submitted to the annual BAS. The Census Bureau’s Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) System and Geographic Change Catalog System (GCAT) capture these updates each year. The MAF/TIGER System houses all of the Census Bureau’s spatial, geographic, and residential address data needed for census and survey data collection and tabulation. The BAS State Certification Program serves as a component to ensuring that the MAF/TIGER System and GCAT are accurate and complete.

The BAS SCO letter (BASSC-4L), delivered as part of the SCO respondent materials package, announces the start of the program and initiates the SCO’s review of the BAS State Certification materials. In this package, the Census Bureau provides the SCO with a Compact Disc (CD) containing a respondent guide, Read Me file, and one to four Excel spreadsheets. The Excel spreadsheets, referred to as “listings,” display the legal boundary changes, name changes, and government functional status changes from the previous BAS cycle added to the MAF/TIGER System and GCAT. The SCO reviews the legal boundary changes to ensure their submittal is in accordance with state law. Further, the SCO certifies changes as correct, or requests their removal from the Census Bureau’s MAF/TIGER system and GCAT if not in accordance with state law. In addition, the Census Bureau invites the SCO to add legal boundary changes not reported during the previous BAS cycle.

Once the SCO submits their additions and/or removals to the Census Bureau, the Census Bureau informs the BAS contacts of local governments that had records marked for addition or removal by distributing Discrepancy Letters (BASSC-1L/BASSC-2L) to the affected entities.

Currently, the Census Bureau sends the BAS SCO letter (BASSC-4L) and respondent materials, including the CD containing the listings for review, to the SCO by physical mail delivery. The Census Bureau intends to make the listings and respondent materials available electronically for download on the BAS website, beginning in November 2017. The Census Bureau also intends to distribute the SCO letter, which will include instructions and the website address to access the listings, by email in November 2017. The Census Bureau intends to provide the SCO letter (BASSC-4L) as a PDF attachment to a generic email body. The Census Bureau also distributes the Discrepancy Letters (BASSC-1L/BASSC-2L) by physical mail delivery at this time and plans to deliver the Discrepancy Letters in February 2018 for the 2017 BAS State Certification cycle. The Census Bureau intends to begin distributing this notification by email in February 2018. The Census Bureau intends to provide the Discrepancy Letters (BASSC-1L/BASSC-2L) as a PDF attachment to a generic email body.

Timeline: The Census Bureau conducts the BAS State Certification Program annually.

• October 2017: Letter to Governor to appoint SCO (BASSC-3L) distributed by physical mail.

• November 2017: Distribution of the SCO letter (BASSC-4L) for the next program cycle by email.

• November 2017: BAS State Certification Listings available for download on the BAS State Certification webpage.

• February 2018: 2017 BAS State Certification Discrepancy Letters (BASSC-1L/BASSC-2L) will be distributed by email.

Method: Currently, the BAS State Certification Program outreach consists of four separate mailings.

• October: A letter to the Governor to appoint an SCO (BASSC-3L) will remain as a physical mail delivery.

• November: A respondent package to the SCO containing the SCO letter (BASSC-4L) and the BAS State Certification respondent materials which include the BAS State Certification Respondent Guide and the BAS State Certification listings.

• February (2018): A letter to the government where a legal boundary change was marked for removal by the SCO (BASSC-1L).

• February (2018): A letter to the government where a legal boundary change was added by the SCO (BASSC-2L).

With the first mailing, the Census Bureau requests each Governor to appoint an SCO for their state. The Census Bureau will continue to send this letter by physical mail delivery.

The second mailing notifies the SCO of their appointment by the Governor and provides the SCO with the respondent materials, including the BAS State Certification Respondent Guide and listings for review to complete the BAS State Certification. This correspondence will be distributed by email beginning in November 2017. Respondent materials, including the listings, will be accessible for download through the BAS State Certification webpage, which is located on the BAS website.

The third and fourth mailings are sent at the same time to the affected local government BAS contacts. The BASSC-1L letter informs the BAS contact that a legal boundary change was not reported in accordance to their state’s law and to resolve these discrepancies with their SCO. The BASSC-2L letter informs the BAS contact that they did not submit changes to the BAS and requests that they do so in the following BAS cycle. These letters will be distributed by email in February 2018.

A majority of the BAS materials are delivered by email and are available for download from the BAS website, therefore the BAS and SCO contacts are experienced with BAS email correspondence.

All SCOs currently have active email addresses and access to the internet. If delivery to an email address fails, the Census Bureau will work directly with the SCO or BAS contact to revise the contact information and email address on file. In the case that the email failure cannot be resolved, the Census Bureau will distribute the physical letter to that individual SCO or BAS contact by FedEx or USPS. In the case that an SCO or BAS contact does not have an email address or access to the internet, the Census Bureau will distribute the physical letter to that individual SCO by FedEx or USPS.

Use Incentives: None.

Burden: There is no change in burden of hours with the BAS and BAS State Certification programs. There is no additional request for information. Further, the frequency in which governments are contacted is unchanged.

Attachments:

Attachment A.1: Email body text for the SCO letter attachment.

Attachment A.2: Letter to the SCO (BASSC-4L) (Sample letter is for Arizona; SCO letter will vary based on state of SCO).

Attachment B.1: Email body text for the BASSC-1L letter attachment.

Attachment B.2: Letter to the government where a legal boundary change was marked for removal by the SCO (BASSC-1L).

Attachment C.1: Email body text for the BASSC-2L letter attachment.

Attachment C.2: Letter to the government where a legal boundary change was added by the SCO (BASSC-2L).

Contact Information:

Please contact the following individuals for further information about this request:

Michael Clements Supervisory Geographer, Spatial Data Collection and Products Branch U.S. Census Bureau Washington, D.C. 20233 (301) 763-9124 [email protected]

Nathan Jones Supervisory Geographer, Partnership Communication and Outreach Branch Geography Division U.S. Census Bureau Washington, D.C 20233 (301) 763-9095 [email protected]

Allison Shafer Geographer, Partnership Communication and Outreach Branch, Geography Division U.S. Census Bureau Washington, D.C. 20233 (301) 763-1850 [email protected]

Attachment A.1 – Email body text for email containing SCO letter (BASSC-3L) attachment

Attachment A.2 – Letter to the State Certifying Official (BASSC-4L)

Attachment B.1 - Email body text for email containing Discrepancy Letter (BASSC-1L) attachment

Attachment B.2 – Letter to BAS contact regarding removal of records (BASSC-1L) – Removals

Attachment C.1 – Email body text for email containing Discrepancy Letter (BASSC-2L) attachment - Adds

Attachment C.2 - Letter to BAS contact regarding missing records (BASSC-2L) – Adds

1 Hawaii does not have any functioning incorporated place level governments and does not participate in the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) for the government levels reviewed during BAS State Certification program.