1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 8 SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 9 OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 10 ITEM P5 ADMINISTRATION DEPUTY DIRECTOR'S REPORT 11 P5.1 FACILITIES UPDATE 12 P5.1.c UPDATE ON SAN DIEGO OFFICE 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Reported by: Juli Price Jackson 23 No. CSR 5214 24 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 Liz Houser Deputy Director 19 Administration 20 ---oOo--- 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 4 ---oOo--- 5 MS. HOUSER: Moving on to a better topic, my 6 last facility update is on our San Diego and San Marcos 7 office consolidations and move. 8 We're pleased to report that a lease has been 9 signed and the new location will be at 15015 Avenue of 10 the Science in San Diego. The building owner hopes to 11 complete the tenant improvements and move BOE into the 12 new facility in January of 2012. BOE plans to retain a 13 small presence in downtown San Diego. 14 We look forward to working with SEIU and 15 employees of the San Diego and San Marcos offices to 16 ensure a smooth transition. Since this lease is for a 17 facility within the Third District, conferring powers of 18 the Board require that the resulting lease be approved 19 by Ms. Steel only, rather than the full Board. 20 With me today is Mr. Andres Estrada, the 21 District Administrator from our San Diego office, who 22 would like to share a few details on our future 23 location. 24 Mr. Estrada. 25 MR. ESTRADA: Chairman -- 26 MR. HORTON: Welcome. 27 MR. ESTRADA: -- Board Members, good afternoon. 28 Andy Estrada, I'm the District Administrator for the 3 1 San Diego District. 2 And last April I had the privilege to share 3 with you my involvement in the planning of our office 4 and our efforts to locate a building. Today I am 5 delighted to return and share the good news on the 6 signing of our lease for our new District office and the 7 building location, features of the new office, and the 8 services and amenities in the area. 9 With the help of Miss Houser's staff, we 10 prepared an informational -- informational handout for 11 you. The new office is located at 15015 Avenue of 12 Science, San Diego, California. This location is 13 centrally located between our offices, it's approx -- 14 our two offices, it's approximately 20 miles from our 15 downtown office and 15 miles from our -- from the 16 San Marcos branch office. There is ample parking for 17 both taxpayers and employees. It is easily accessible 18 from both north and southbound lanes on Interstate 15 19 and it's located about two miles east of the freeway. 20 This area is serviced by the Metropolitan 21 Transit System and staff can utilize the MTS trip 22 planner to determine which bus routes to take to the 23 location. Carpool lanes are available and are free for 24 carpools and vanpools with two or more passengers. 25 Directly across the street from this location 26 there's over one million square feet of retail 27 amenities, which include several restaurants, fast food, 28 retail stores, such as Best Buy, Home Depot, Costco, 4 1 Sears -- and Sears. 2 Also within walking distance there are several 3 banks, credit unions, US Post Office and service 4 stations. The corporate neighbors include Hewlett 5 Packard, Northrop Grumman, Nokia and Sony. 6 Consistence -- consistent with the plans for 7 our high tech lobby, shared with you in April, the lobby 8 will provide taxpayer with choices to our service 9 through self-service kiosks or via a limited wi-fi for 10 their own equipment or through traditional person-- uh, 11 in person assistance. 12 There will also be BOE advertisements, spot -- 13 spot announcements, Board Member information, resources 14 available online and outreach events streamed on flat 15 screens in the lobby. 16 Staff reaction to the announcements thus far 17 has been all positive. And I have a sampling of the 18 comments from staff, which I -- for your reference, 19 which I -- were just handed to you. 20 And, Ms. Steel, on behalf of all of us in 21 San Diego, I thank you for your great concern for our 22 employees' health and safety and for your support over 23 this project because without it it wouldn't have been 24 possible. 25 You know, I hear the problems we have in 26 headquarters and the building and I have fear if we were 27 to, you know, investigate what's in that building in 28 San Diego. 5 1 And, Miss Houser, you know, your guidance and 2 your staff -- staff's diligent work on this project is 3 much appreciated. Thank you. 4 MS. STEEL: I think, Liz, you did it in 5 San Diego office, I think you can do this building too. 6 And thank you very much. Andy and Liz worked 7 very hard to change -- you know, move this building. 8 This is beautiful, new building. And there is free 9 parking. 10 And you didn't mention, we can even have 11 barbecues. The post office has barbecue -- annual 12 barbecue, actually side of the building that we can have 13 barbecue so, you know, can still keep that. 14 And, you know, I am so excited because when I 15 came to the Board in 2007, when I went down to my 16 District to meet all the staff and working there. And 17 one lady was pregnant heavily and she couldn't park. 18 So, she had to take, uh, public transportation to go to 19 the parking. Now all the parking is free for staff and 20 taxpayers. And it's much more convenient, it's not 21 congested. And it's great area and shopping center 22 nearby. And, you know, we went and checked and it's 23 really beautiful. I like private buildings, not DGS 24 handles, any buildings in California. 25 So, thank you very much working hard. And I 26 think it's much, much better for our staff and, you 27 know, healthier environment and happier and, you know, I 28 think our staff are going to do much better job in -- 6 1 and even they are doing great job in San Diego, but I 2 think they going to do much better job. 3 And I am very, very happy to report and, you 4 know, thank you, Liz, and thank you, Andy, and thank you 5 my chief of staff. And everybody put full effort in and 6 thank you. 7 MS. HOUSER: You're welcome. 8 MR. ESTADA: Thank you, Ms. Steel. 9 MS. HOUSER: Are there any further questions on 10 the facilities? 11 ---o0o--- 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 7 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE. 2 3 State of California ) 4 ) ss 5 County of Sacramento ) 6 7 I, JULI PRICE JACKSON, Hearing Reporter for the 8 California State Board of Equalization certify that on 9 SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 I recorded verbatim, in shorthand, to 10 the best of my ability, the proceedings in the 11 above-entitled hearing; that I transcribed the shorthand 12 writing into typewriting; and that the preceding pages 1 13 through 7 constitute a complete and accurate 14 transcription of the shorthand writing. 15 16 Dated: October 3, 2011 17 18 19 ____________________________ 20 JULI PRICE JACKSON 21 Hearing Reporter 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 8