1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 5901 GREEN VALLEY CIRCLE 3 CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 8 JUNE 23, 2011 9 10 ---o0o--- 11 PUBLIC COMMENT 12 WILLIAM CONNELL 13 ---o0o--- 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Reported by: Juli Price Jackson 24 No. CSR 5214 25 26 27 28 1 1 P R E S E N T 2 3 For the Board Jerome E. Horton of Equalization: Chairman 4 5 Michelle Steel Vice-Chairwoman 6 7 Betty T. Yee Member 8 9 George Runner Member 10 11 Marcy Jo Mandel Appearing for John 12 Chiang, State Controller (per 13 Government Code Section 7.9) 14 15 Diane G. Olson Chief, Board 16 Proceedings Division 17 18 19 ---oOo--- 20 Speaker: William Connell 21 22 ---o0o--- 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 5901 GREEN VALLEY CIRCLE 2 CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA 3 JUNE 23, 2011 4 ---oOo--- 5 MR. HORTON: Ms. Olson, what is our next 6 matter? 7 MS. OLSON: Our first item is a public comment. 8 Mr. William Connell, please come forward. 9 MR. HORTON: Good morning, Mr. Connell, how are 10 you? 11 ---o0o--- 12 WILLIAM CONNELL 13 ---o0o-- 14 MR. CONNELL: I'm fine. I survived the 15 highway trip down here. 16 I had some very few comments. You have three 17 pieces of every paper in front of you, I believe. 18 MR. HORTON: Mr. Connell, please introduce 19 yourself for the record. 20 MR. CONNELL: I'm sorry. William Connell out 21 of Santa Barbara County. I'm the Veterans' Coordinating 22 Member at Large for the County of Santa Barbara, as well 23 as members of various veterans' groups, too many to 24 mention. 25 It's a veterans' issue I've been pursuing for 26 quite sometime. I submitted to you -- I am trying to 27 keep the paperwork down -- three pieces of paper -- one 28 from a lawyer's office stating that I filed the request 3 1 for dismissal of my lawsuit against you guys prior to 2 performance of the terms of the settlement agreement 3 and, thus, abandoning that agreement. So, I have no 4 agreement with the State Board of Equalization. 5 Second letter was to Miss Betty Yee from the 6 County of Santa Barbara. Miss Yee, when you get back 7 into Sacramento you'll have some more letters 8 specifically from the Veterans United for Truth, pretty 9 much echoing what I'm going to discuss here right now, 10 which will be brief. 11 The last page, and most telling, is a check for 12 $12,500 received by me. That's not the important part, 13 the important part is in the upper left-hand corner, 14 "William M. Connell, sales tax refund." Doesn't say 15 "settlement check," says, "sales tax refund." It's 16 about $25,000 short. I'm certain we'll take care I'm 17 that when the time comes. 18 I wish to talk about the transcript of 19 December 17th. It's a rulemaking transcript where then 20 Chairman Yee put it on the Attorney General to give her 21 the complete history of the law, the law of 1872 was 22 mentioned, 1893, that was mentioned on page 5, page 8, 23 page 9, page 16. 24 The California Department of Veterans' Affairs 25 was to be contacted. The history of the letter law was 26 to be put forth by the Supreme Court. That's the 27 Gilstrap case, the Brooks case, the amendment owned by 28 him was to be put forth. The Attorney General was 4 1 intentionally deceitful in writing that opinion. 2 I believe it is to be completely disregarded 3 and a fresh re-visiting of that slanted opinion should 4 take place. Our newly-seated Attorney General has in 5 front of her right now a request to do so. In other 6 words, you got lied to. 7 Miss Yee, you asked them specifically on 8 multiple times for the dates of 1872 and 1893, they 9 played you. 10 MR. HORTON: My apologies, Mr. Connell, but I 11 would ask you direct your comments to the entire Board. 12 MR. CONNELL: Okay, fine. 13 What I would like to do here is also make sure 14 that the Senate Resolution 1364 of October 22nd or 2009 15 is included. Also Senate Bill 809, which is now law, be 16 included -- never mentioned. Nor the Mount Joy Assembly 17 Bill in 2003, nor the Walters Assembly bill in 2006, 18 specifically No. 2 under purpose. 19 You try and get a straight answer from people. 20 You try and be as honest as you can with them. Very 21 simple, there were mistakes made. You own up to the 22 mistake, "We read the law wrong." And you work from 23 there. 24 Now it's myself and, at last count, I have 30 25 other veterans that are waiting for their tax return 26 money. Now I held off on a class action lawsuit. I 27 don't want to sue you. I just want to get my money 28 back, all of it. 5 1 You made me go into the Assembly. You made me 2 go into the Senate. I met every Senator -- State 3 Senator and every Assembly Member for the last four 4 sessions. I'm going back up in July once again. This 5 is going to get cleared up exactly as I want it to be 6 cleared up. 7 MS. OLSON: Time has expired. 8 MR. CONNELL: I appreciate your time. If there 9 is any questions here, I can answer them. I'm about the 10 only man on the planet that can answer whatever you have 11 to put forth. You know I've been living and breathing 12 this now it's going on twenty years. I want you to, 13 please, one last thing, is to re-visit the Attorney 14 General's opinion that was not anything what you 15 requested them to do -- nothing. They went off on their 16 own. They're lawyers, they can't help themselves. 17 MR. HORTON: Thank you very much for your 18 presentation. 19 Discussion or questions, Members? 20 MS. YEE: Let me just make a brief comment, 21 Mr. Chairman, if I could? 22 MR. HORTON: Yes. 23 MS. YEE: Mr. Connell, thank you for coming 24 before us again. And, as you know, I share your 25 frustrations with respect to the situation that you're 26 in. 27 One thing that I'm going to suggest, I will -- 28 I am happy to come down and meet with the veterans' 6 1 organizations about where I believe we stand on the 2 issue today. And I will consider asking the new, now 3 current -- currently serving Attorney General to 4 potentially take a look at the issue. 5 But Before I do that, I want to be sure that 6 we're all clear about where we are to date relative to 7 the differences that I believe still exist with regard 8 to what the law provides for. 9 We did, I think, meet and understood and dealt 10 with this issue for itinerant vendors going forward. 11 And all of you are looking at, you know, 12 obviously, what's happened up until that point around 13 which I think there is still a great amount of 14 disagreement. 15 And -- but I will commit to you that I will be 16 in your area to meet with the veterans's groups to at 17 least begin this next stage of our discussions with a 18 common foundation about where we are relative to the 19 law. 20 MR. CONNELL: I appreciate that very much. 21 And I'd like to thank this group for -- now 22 it's Senate Bill 805 that is now removing the sunset 23 clause. It's already flown through the Senate, no 24 opposition. And it's well on its way into the Assembly 25 and, I believe, on the consent calendar there. If they 26 need me up in Sacramento to smile in front of anybody 27 else, I'm certain I can do that. 28 But I appreciate all the help and the deep 7 1 understanding you have for the American veterans. 2 I think one last closing statement, 25 percent 3 of the homeless in Santa Barbara County are veterans; 4 32 percent of the underemployed and unemployed 5 individuals are veterans. It's a national disgrace. 6 This can address it a little bit. 7 So, we have to keep working for our veterans. 8 And I appreciate your time here. I spent enough of it. 9 You guys have a busy day. I have to get back on that 10 road. 11 MR. HORTON: Well, you're always welcome. And 12 we thank you for your championing this issue as well 13 and, look forward to a legislative change that sort of 14 addresses the issue, not only prospectively, but also 15 retroactively. 16 Thank you again for coming before us. 17 MR. CONNELL: Well, the retroactively would be 18 much appreciate, especially in my case as I know -- 19 MS. STEEL: I think the optimum word was a this 20 legislative change that will accommodate this. And, so, 21 we're there. We're supportive and we look forward to 22 directions from the legislature and the AG's office. 23 Thank you again for coming. 24 MR. CONNELL: Thank you so very much. 25 MS. YEE: Thank you, Mr. Connell. 26 ---o0o--- 27 28 8 1 . 2 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 3 4 State of California ) 5 ) ss 6 County of Sacramento ) 7 8 I, JULI PRICE JACKSON, Hearing Reporter for the 9 California State Board of Equalization certify that on 10 JUNE 23, 2011 I recorded verbatim, in shorthand, to the 11 best of my ability, the proceedings in the 12 above-entitled hearing; that I transcribed the shorthand 13 writing into typewriting; and that the preceding pages 1 14 through 8 constitute a complete and accurate 15 transcription of the shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: July 11, 2011 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 JULI PRICE JACKSON 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 9