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Alameda County reparations commissioners approve form to speed routine expense approvals
Summary
The commission voted to create a categorical expense-approval form and delegate routine sign-off to an administrative committee, with larger reallocations routed to library/county fiscal staff for final processing.
Commissioner Shanita Herskin moved and the commission approved a new form to authorize spending from budget line items already allocated to the Alameda County Reparations Commission.
"I want to make a motion for us to create a form that authorizes the utilization of funds that have already been allocated categorically in the budget for easier processing and approval to go to the administrative committee to sign off," said Commissioner Shanita Herskin during the meeting. A second commissioner supported the motion and the commission proceeded to a roll-call vote.
On the record, Commissioners Gardner, Herskin, Knowles, McLendon and Sass recorded “Aye.” Several commissioners were excused from the vote. Chair Deborah Gore declared the motion passed and described the workflow: the administrative committee will vet routine expenditures and the library/county process will remain the final fiscal backstop.
The change is intended to allow the commission to pay for recurring items tied to specific workstreams—listening sessions, outreach/pop-ups, data collection and report writing—without requiring a full commission vote for every small transaction. Commissioners and staff discussed example thresholds and safeguards during the meeting, including pre-approved categories, a committee sign-off process, vendor setup (W-9s), and uploading receipts to SharePoint for transparency.
Next steps: the motion directs staff to build the form and route routine approvals through a designated administrative committee; any reallocation outside the established categories will be returned to the full commission for action and then sent through the library/county fiscal process for payment.
