How it works

What is a Council file, and how do City contracts get approved?

A Council file is the City Clerk's public record of an item before the City Council; most contracts are approved by the department or board that makes them, under competitive-bidding rules in the Charter, and go to the Council when they run longer than three years.

Checked against official sources · As of Oct 1, 2026

What a Council file is

The City Clerk's Council File Management System is an index of all legislation considered or acted on by the City Council: motions, reports, Council votes and scanned documents, with files online back to 1979. Anyone can search it and subscribe to a file for email or RSS notices when something happens.

Each file has a number and an activity log. The FY2026-27 budget, for example, is Council File 26-0600, which records each committee hearing and Council vote. Related reports are often filed under the same number with a suffix: the CAO's FY2025-26 Financial Status Reports were filed as 25-0600-S126, -S129, -S133 and -S138.

How a contract is approved

Most contracts are approved by the department, board or officer that makes them, under rules in the City Charter and the Administrative Code:

  • Competition. The City is not bound by a contract unless the competitive bidding or proposal procedure was followed, and bids go to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, or by competitive sealed proposals under rules set by ordinance. The Charter lists exceptions, including contracts below a value set by ordinance, professional or expert services where bidding is not practicable, emergencies, and purchases through other governments' contracts.
  • Who signs. For the departments the Charter itself creates, such as Police, Fire, Public Works, Library, and Recreation and Parks along with the three proprietary departments, a contract longer than one year or worth more than $25,000 must be approved by the head of the department by order or resolution; the boards of Airports, Harbor, and Water and Power may let their general managers approve smaller contracts. Contracts worth more than $25,000 must be in writing, and most must be approved as to form by the City Attorney.
  • Council approval. A contract that obligates the City for more than three years must first be approved by the Council, which has 60 days after the City Clerk receives it; if the Council does not disapprove it in that time, it is deemed approved. The Council cannot amend such a contract, only return it. The rule does not apply to contracts with other governments, to purchases of supplies and equipment by the City's Purchasing Agent, or to Public Works construction contracts of five years or less, among other exceptions. The Charter sets the requirement in Section 373 and leaves the period to ordinance.

Where contracts are recorded

The City Clerk's contracts search finds contracts by their “C-” number; for contracts attested on or after January 8, 2025, it directs users to RAMP, the Regional Alliance Marketplace for Procurement, where City departments and regional partners post bid opportunities. RAMP's contract awards are published as open data.

On LA Receipts, the City's biggest contracts groups checkbook payments by purchase order. Each order's page shows the council file or contract number its records cite and, where one matches, the award on file in RAMP. Amounts there are payments made, not the value of the contract.

Sources

  1. Office of the City Clerk, LACityClerk Connect: Council File Management System help. Checked Oct 1, 2026.
  2. Office of the City Clerk, Council File 26-0600: Budget Proposal Fiscal Year 2026-27. Checked Oct 1, 2026.
  3. City Administrative Officer, Financial Status Reports. Checked Oct 1, 2026.
  4. Los Angeles City Charter, Secs. 371–373: competitive bidding, competitive proposals, long-term contracts. Checked Oct 1, 2026.
  5. Los Angeles City Charter, Sec. 500: creation and management of departments. Checked Oct 1, 2026.
  6. Los Angeles Administrative Code, Secs. 10.1.1–10.2: departments' authorization of contracts; formalities and approval. Checked Oct 1, 2026.
  7. Los Angeles Administrative Code, Sec. 10.5: limitation and power to make contracts (Council approval over three years). Checked Oct 1, 2026.
  8. Office of the City Clerk, LACityClerk Connect: contracts search. Checked Oct 1, 2026.
  9. City of Los Angeles, Regional Alliance Marketplace for Procurement (RAMP). Checked Oct 1, 2026.
  10. City of Los Angeles open data, RAMP Opportunity Awards (dataset). Checked Oct 1, 2026.

The Charter and City codes are published by American Legal Publishing; its site notes that recently enacted legislation can take up to three months to appear. This note describes how things work as of Oct 1, 2026 and does not assess any official or policy.