An Authorized Official (AO) is the highest level user within the municipality or organization. The AO is responsible for certifying that the application submissions by the organization are as accurate as they can be and have been approved by him/her prior to being submitted to CDFA. The AO can perform all applicant organization related functions.
The AO may not necessarily be the person that performs the most work on the grant-related items in the system. The AO can assign an employee of their organization or an independent grant writer to complete the application, however, only the AO has the ability to authorize the submission of grant applications.