1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 8 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 9 JANUARY 15, 2013 10 11 12 13 14 ITEM P 15 OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 16 ITEM P4 17 PROPERTY AND SPECIAL TAXES DEPUTY DIRECTOR'S REPORT 18 1. FIRE PREVENTION FEE PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 REPORTED BY: Kathleen Skidgel 28 CSR NO. 9039 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 Government Code 13 Section 7.9) 14 Joann Richmond 15 Chief Board Proceedings Division 16 17 Board of Equalization Staff: David Gau 18 Deputy Director Property and Special Taxes 19 Division 20 ---oOo--- 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 JANUARY 15, 2013 4 ---oOo--- 5 MR. HORTON: Ms. Richmond. 6 MS. RICHMOND: Our next item is P4, Property 7 and Special Taxes Deputy Director's Report; P4.1, Fire 8 Prevention Fee Program update. 9 MR. GAU: Good afternoon -- 10 MR. HORTON: Welcome. 11 MR. GAU: -- Chairman Horton and Members. 12 David Gau, Deputy Director of the Property and Special 13 Taxes Department. Along with me today is Liz Houser, 14 Deputy Director of the Administration Department. 15 Uh, quickly, by way of update, the Fire 16 Prevention Fee Program, a few numbers that your offices 17 should have received yesterday. And these are numbers 18 as of last Friday, uh, January 11th. Uh, the total 19 number of billings 753,250. Uh, we billed $88.3 20 million. And the total receipts net of refunds is $68 21 million at this point. 22 Uh, the appeals to date received are 69,832. 23 What I'd like to talk a little bit about are 24 some of the activities that, um, have been going on in 25 anticipation, also, of next year, uh, and what we are 26 planning to process improvements and some of the 27 workload issues that we have been discussing with you. 28 Uh, first of all, the, uh, Board staff and 3 1 CalFire have had two meetings -- they met on January 2 8th, and again on January 10th -- to discuss some of the 3 lessons learned from the '11-'12 billing cycle and to 4 resolve some of those outstanding issues. 5 Um, a few of the items discussed, we'd like to 6 improve the format of the text on the billing document 7 to, uh, next year, segregate and specify the location, 8 the assessor's parcel number, and, uh -- and/or the 9 county of the property being billed. 10 I'd like to discuss the process for mailing 11 addresses and change of contact for information filed. 12 We're setting up a contact listing for management staff 13 at the service center and BOE to better handle staff 14 referrals in complex cases. And also having discussions 15 regarding collection procedures pertaining to bankruptcy 16 and filing liens. 17 Staff is also, uh, in coordination with the 18 Legislative Division, uh, working on a legislative 19 package to be considered by interested parties. 20 Ms. Pielsticker will be, uh, coordinating that effort 21 through the Chairman, Mr. Horton's Legislative Committee 22 at the appropriate time. 23 Um, so that is, uh, some of the cleanup things 24 that may be thought of from our experience this past 25 year. 26 Then, also, staff met yesterday. And this is 27 Property and Special Taxes staff, the Administration 28 staff, and our Technology Services Department, uh, to go 4 1 over a few of the internal processing issues and the 2 improvements that we anticipate this next year. 3 Uh, at this point in time, staff is, um, not 4 anticipating the advanced notices for -- going out for 5 the '12-'13 fiscal year. Uh, the billings, we're 6 expecting a clean date of file from CalFire in March, 7 for the '12-'13 year. And the file will contain at that 8 time, uh, the counties through Orange County. And then 9 we'll get the next file, uh, subsequent to Orange County 10 at the end of April. 11 Uh, the billing notice, again, we're working on 12 redesigning it. And this is based on document -- uh, 13 feedback we've received from feepayers, your offices, 14 um, the nature of calls that staff's received as some 15 of -- as well as some of the processing issues. The new 16 design will more clearly display the property 17 information. 18 We'd really like to promote ePay in the 19 upcoming year, and possibly incorporate a payment 20 voucher as part of the billing, to improve our 21 processing functions. 22 And then informational stuffer in the billing, 23 staff's working with CalFire to determine the format and 24 content of the stuffer that will be sent in the '12-'13 25 year. 26 Um, on outgoing billings, um, we plan to start 27 setting next year's, '12-'13, in April. And it will be 28 along the same volumes as we did for the '11-'12 fiscal 5 1 year. 2 Administration is also talking with other 3 agencies as backup plan in case outsourcing is needed to 4 meet the BOE's, uh, print and mailing volumes since 5 Sales and Use Tax Department's -- they have two big 6 rushes, periods that fall during the end of April and at 7 the end of July. And so we need to make sure that we 8 have those workloads being considered. 9 As with -- with respect to in-coming mail, the 10 Administration is ramping up permanent intermittent 11 staff to work the fiscal year '12-'13. And they will be 12 hiring staff, and Ms. Houser can address that in more 13 detail if you would like. 14 Return mail, Administration has added 15 additional resources to address the backlog. Um, return 16 mail has been caught up now. Now, at that point, once 17 they've processed it, it moves to the Special Taxes 18 working team to -- then for us to catch up with that 19 workload; and we should have that done by the end of 20 February. 21 And then lastly, with respect to outreach, very 22 important element of all of this, is that we will be 23 working continually with our External Affairs Department 24 to make the changes to spotlight, for example, in the 25 banner section on the BOE's website, and also to include 26 information that will inform feepayers why they are 27 going to be receiving a second billing so soon. We know 28 that's going to be a -- a question. And, again, to also 6 1 to try to emphasize and encourage the use of ePay. 2 That concludes my report. Ms. Houser and I are 3 available to respond to any questions the Board may 4 have. 5 MR. HORTON: Discussion, Members? 6 Hearing none, we'll receive and file. 7 MR. GAU: Thank you very much. 8 ---oOo--- 9 10 11 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, KATHLEEN SKIDGEL, Hearing Reporter for the 8 California State Board of Equalization certify that on 9 January 15, 2013 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: February 20, 2013 17 18 19 ____________________________ 20 KATHLEEN SKIDGEL, CSR #9039 21 Hearing Reporter 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 8