1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 7 JANUARY 29, 2019 8 9 10 11 ITEM K3.2, 12 CALIFORNIA ASSESSORS' ASSOCIATION 13 OVERVIEW 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 REPORTED BY: Jillian M. Sumner 28 CSR NO. 13619 1 1 P R E S E N T 2 3 For the Board of Honorable Malia S. Cohen Equalization: Chair 4 Honorable Antonio Vazquez 5 Vice Chair 6 Honorable Ted Gaines First District 7 Honorable Mike Schaefer 8 Fourth District 9 Yvette Stowers Appearing for Betty T. 10 Yee, State Controller (per Government Code 11 Section 7.9) 12 For the Board of 13 Equalization Staff: David Yeung Chief 14 County-Assessed Properties Division and Property Tax 15 Department 16 Toya Davis Board Proceedings Division 17 18 Additional speakers: Leslie Davis Calaveras County Assessor and 19 President of CAA 20 ---oOo--- 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 JANUARY 29, 2019 4 ---oOo--- 5 MS. DAVIS: K3, Item 2, California 6 Assessors' Association Overview with Mr. Yeung, as 7 well as Ms. Davis as the speaker. 8 Can you both come forward at this time. 9 They will provide an overview of this 10 organization and role as it relates to the Board of 11 Equalization and the taxpayers of California. 12 MS. COHEN: Mr. Yeung. 13 MR. YEUNG: Hello, Chairwoman Cohen and 14 Honorable Members of the Board. My name is David 15 Yeung. I'm the Chief of the County-Assessed 16 Properties Division and Property Tax Department. 17 With you today, I have Ms. Leslie Davis. 18 She is the Calaveras County Assessor and the 19 President of the California Assessors' Association. 20 She has a presentation for the Board today 21 on the role and the function of the CAA. 22 Thank you. 23 MS. COHEN: Thank you, Mr. Yeung. 24 MR. YEUNG: Ms. Davis. 25 MS. DAVIS: Thank you, Madam Chair and 26 Honorable Members of the Board. 27 I appreciate the opportunity to come talk to 28 you today. I have to tell you this is almost a first 3 1 for a Board to be so open to talking to assessors and 2 developing really good relations from the get-go. 3 Speaking of good relations, I'm certainly 4 pleased to see that you've appointed Ms. Fleming 5 Executive Director. We look forward to working with 6 her in the future. 7 I'm mindful of some of the comments that you 8 had made earlier about us all looking forward and not 9 backwards. 10 So with that, I'm going to start with 11 history. The California Assessors' Association was 12 founded in 1902. It is comprised of all 58 county 13 assessors who are members of the association. We 14 also have members of our staff who are associated 15 with us and perform various tasks. 16 There are three geographic regions in the 17 assessors association. The Northern California 18 assessors comprising some 25 counties, mostly on the 19 smaller side; the Bay Area Assessors Association 20 comprising 15 counties; and the Central Southern 21 California Assessors' Association comprising the 22 remaining 18 counties. 23 The purpose of the association, there are 24 six -- five or six different purposes -- six. 25 First, to promote cooperation in matters of 26 mutual interest and responsibility in the assessment 27 world. So we work together to develop collaborative 28 efforts, and to cooperate on issues that we are all 4 1 facing. 2 We work to promote improving assessment 3 procedures. So we do talk to one another about how 4 another county might be going at a specific question 5 or issue. 6 We promote improvement in assessment laws. 7 So we not only work among ourselves to develop 8 assessment -- I'm sorry -- legal proposals. Just 9 last week I proposed a change to Revenue and Taxation 10 Code Section 72, that the Assessors' Association 11 agreed to move forward with. 12 We also work with the Board of Equalization. 13 Early last year we started talking about some changes 14 to possessory interest low-value exemptions. And so 15 we continue to be talking about that. I'm sure David 16 thinks we forgot it. 17 The next purpose of the association is to 18 collaborate with both Board of Equalization and the 19 California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. 20 We had CDTFA added into our bylaws a couple of years 21 ago. 22 Although the state has now removed most of 23 that interaction with CDTFA, they continue to have 24 timber tax. And that is something that we deal with. 25 So CDTFA is called out in our bylaws as one of the 26 state organizations that we collaborate with. 27 We collaborate with the International 28 Association of Assessing Officers, CSAC. 5 1 I know that Member Cohen is a former 2 supervisor. So you would know what CSAC is. 3 And any other organizations that are 4 authorized by our Executive Committee. 5 And, finally, we facilitate the effective 6 operation of our affiliate organizations. The three 7 regions I mentioned are all three affiliate 8 organizations. I'll talk briefly about the other 9 five affiliate organizations that we have. 10 And I will tell you, I did hear a little 11 complaint while you were in closed session that some 12 of this is really small type, hard to read, and sort 13 of abbreviated. 14 Last week we went over almost all of this 15 with new assessors, and I created a binder with more 16 information that I'm actually going to share with you 17 today. I made a CD for each Board Member with all of 18 the information that's in the binder. 19 So today I'm just giving you a really fast 20 overview. I know you're hearing from a number of 21 people, so I don't want to hog the stage, if you 22 will. 23 What you see on the next screen is our 24 organization chart. So basically under the 25 organization, the Executive Committee, the standing 26 committees which are Standards, Legislation, 27 Education -- and, actually, I'll be going over 28 these -- then we have ad hoc and temporary 6 1 committees. 2 What are not showing on this screen now are 3 five new committees that we created last week. One I 4 see on your agenda today that Member Vazquez had 5 asked to talk about, strategic plan. 6 We have a committee also to talk about 7 strategic plan moving forward, and how we will now 8 communicate with your Board, given that you have four 9 new Members. 10 We also have a committee to deal with 11 rescissions, which is an issue that's going through 12 the interested parties process. 13 The next slide is just to give you a list of 14 who the officers are in case you have a need to 15 contact us. 16 I will tell you that once you are elected 17 secretary, which is where Carmen Chu, the San 18 Francisco County Assessor is, you move up through the 19 chairs, eventually becoming president. So with the 20 exception of a treasurer, what you're seeing is our 21 future officers and leaders for the California 22 Assessors' Association. 23 I would, again, welcome you to contact me 24 any time you have questions. I mentioned to a couple 25 of you, if I don't have the answer, I will find 26 someone who does have the answer. And we'll get back 27 to you with that. 28 So going through our committees very 7 1 quickly, the Executive Committee is our governing 2 board. They are the ones that really have the 3 responsibility to coordinate activities with BOE. 4 They consult and confer with BOE on any number of 5 issues that move forward. 6 They also review and approve any of our 7 legislative positions. So our Legislative Committee 8 may have a proposal that they recommend, but the 9 Executive Committee has the final right to approve 10 and have us take a position publicly. 11 That's not to say that individual assessors 12 won't have differing opinions. It is to say, 13 however, that when you're talking to me as the 14 president, I will be making every effort to express 15 an opinion that's been approved by the Executive 16 Committee, and not be expressing my personal opinion. 17 Or I will preface the comment with, "Well, 18 personally, I think," so that you know the 19 difference. I'd hate to mislead you or have you 20 believe that CAA's taken a position where they have 21 not. 22 Our Standards Committee is the committee 23 that we deal with with BOE perhaps the most. Their 24 responsibility is to promote uniformity and 25 procedures, and forms to formulate and standardized 26 assessment procedures across the state. 27 So they are the place where we begin to have 28 conversations about one county might be doing 8 1 something differently than another county. And we 2 attempt to resolve those differences. 3 They report to the Executive Committee for 4 any kind of official action. So if they have a 5 recommendation that we need to move forward on, they 6 would be making that recommendation. 7 And the Standards Committee is responsible 8 to represent the association at interested parties 9 meetings. There will be interested parties meetings 10 where the officers will be in attendance, or where we 11 might have a subcommittee chair in attendance. But 12 that is the overall responsibility of the Standards 13 Committee. 14 The Legislative Committee is responsible to 15 review and track legislation that might impact the 16 assessor's role. So there -- as you all know, there 17 are many legislative proposals in any given year. 18 The vast majority of those do not affect the 19 assessor, do not affect property tax administration, 20 and we do not take action on those. Nor do we take a 21 stand, necessarily. 22 They develop legislative proposals for our 23 review. And we -- they also go out and look for an 24 author who might carry the bill, or hopefully make it 25 part of the Committee Bill. And they will respond to 26 inquiries from Legislators, BOE Members, and staff. 27 So that's -- Leg. Committee has a lot of 28 work to do. And they tend to be the one that meets 9 1 the most often. 2 Our Education Committee has been taking a 3 more active role in recent years -- perhaps the last 4 eight or nine years -- as your Board staff has been 5 losing staff and losing the ability to provide some 6 of the educational opportunities that we came to rely 7 on. 8 We have been developing and administering 9 educational programs on our own. We have our own 10 WebEx account. We just -- Thursday morning one of 11 our affiliates will be presenting training on basic 12 joint tenancy. We have also done training on valuing 13 golf courses, valuing shopping centers, and valuing 14 gas stations. 15 They also have the assignment to function as 16 the Advisory Committee to the Board of Equalization 17 on those R&T code sections dealing with appraiser 18 certification and assessment analyst certification. 19 In practice, however, we have a specific 20 committee dealing with those certification issues and 21 working directly with Board staff. 22 Other committees that are needed for the 23 operation of the association, I'll just list them. 24 They're in more detail in the CD that I provided. 25 Our Finance Committee, Audit Committee, our 26 Information and Technology Committee. 27 We have a Conference Committee. I'll talk a 28 little bit about conferences at the end. 10 1 We have a Bylaws, Resolutions and Awards 2 Committee; History and Preservation; and Nominating 3 Committee. 4 And most of those, again, are needed for the 5 association to operate and function within the 6 confines of our 501(c)(6) IRS tax exempt status. 7 We have nine -- nine affiliates of the 8 association. Those are the three regions, plus other 9 organizations that are based on work assignments. 10 So each of those affiliates will report to a 11 standing committee or a subcommittee of a standing 12 committee beginning with the California Assessors' 13 Administrative Services Association. You'll hear us 14 refer to them as CASA. 15 They are our assessment experts who deal 16 with the joint tenancy issue. For example, 17 tomorrow's education program -- or Thursday's 18 education is being put on by CASA. 19 They are the ones who deal with changes of 20 ownership, rescission questions, new construction 21 questions, possessory interest, and the like. 22 The California Organization of Business 23 Chiefs is our affiliate that deals with those 24 business and personal property assessments. 25 So I heard Member Vazquez talk about his 26 love of small business. I agree. I happened to have 27 owned a small business for a few years. 28 This is the group who is responsible for 11 1 assessing those businesses and boats and planes. And 2 they meet twice a year to talk about areas of mutual 3 concern. 4 Our Information Technology affiliate is 5 relatively new to the association, probably about 10 6 years old. They have been sharing a lot of best 7 practices across the state for property tax 8 administration programs. 9 There are two main property tax programs in 10 the state, and then there are a number of programs 11 for being developed individually by counties. This 12 IT affiliate has been working with most of those 13 counties on some level with those questions and 14 issues. 15 Our California Cadastral Mapping Association 16 is our mappers. 17 By now you're probably getting a sense that 18 we do a lot of things you might not have known about. 19 And so I will offer as well to come back and talk to 20 you about what an assessor's office actually does. 21 From my experience, people think they know 22 what the assessor does. But rarely do they know all 23 of the things that we do, and all of the places we 24 have our fingers in -- in the pie. 25 I developed a fairly short training, maybe 26 about 20 minutes or so, with my Board of Supervisor 27 members where we go over what the -- what the office 28 actually does. And it's really not in a lot of 12 1 detail. It's a 30,000-foot overview that I'd be 2 willing to come back and talk to you about. 3 Our Organization of Chief Appraisers are our 4 upper management dealing with real property appraisal 5 questions. So they meet twice a year and talk about 6 any kind of issues dealing with real property. 7 Whether it's single family homes, golf courses, hotel 8 resorts, or office buildings, they would be talking 9 about those types of issues. 10 And, finally, our Petroleum Standards 11 Advisory Committee is the affiliate that deals with 12 the counties that have a lot of petroleum. 13 You might guess there are no petroleum wells 14 in Calaveras, but there are many in Kern County. So 15 those counties have that issue. They are generally a 16 member of that affiliate. 17 Along the way, we have a number of 18 subcommittees. And by no means did I list them all 19 on this next slide. I just listed the subcommittees 20 that have been dealing with BOE staff the most of 21 late. 22 So our Aircraft Advisory Committee has been 23 dealing with BOE on the representative period. An 24 issue I'm sure you will hear about. 25 Our Forms Committee, that just meets 26 tomorrow, works with BOE on the forms that your Board 27 prescribes to county assessors. And I'm sure that 28 we'll be talking more about forms as time goes on. 13 1 We have an Exemptions Committee when there 2 are exemption issues. 3 We have a Calamity Committee. Because, as 4 you all know, we have, unfortunately, across the 5 state, been experiencing a number of wildfires, 6 mudslides, and other types of calamities. And we are 7 working very hard to develop some best practices for 8 every county to -- to follow when we're facing those 9 types of -- of disasters. 10 I can tell you, having experienced one in 11 our county three-and-a-half years ago, when it hits, 12 that is not when you want to be learning this. So as 13 an association, we will try and be developing best 14 practices to help our members work through that 15 process. 16 We have a committee dealing with electronic 17 filing. Not only do we have a system for business 18 owners to log into and file -- particularly those 19 large business owners with businesses in many of the 20 counties across the state -- but also the smaller 21 business owners can log in and file their business 22 properties statement. We also have an electronic 23 filing system for forms. 24 We have a committee that works with the BOE 25 committee on the survey program. Which gave rise to 26 the legislative proposal on possessory interest, 27 because of how many times the BOE likes to tag us all 28 for having done something wrong with possessory 14 1 interests. 2 And we have an Appeals Subcommittee. 3 I can't help but notice my good friend 4 Mark Aprea in the audience. 5 Last year, the Appeal Subcommittee was very 6 busy with the rulemaking process on proposals to 7 change property tax rules as they relate to appeals. 8 We're hopeful that committee might get to calm down a 9 little bit this year. I'm not entirely sure that 10 they will. 11 As I mentioned, we do have five new 12 committees that were created last week. The two most 13 important in this regard are the Rescissions 14 Committee. Because we have an interested parties 15 process already taking place, and the other one 16 dealing with strategic planning and communications 17 with your Board and how we might more effectively 18 communicate with you. 19 I will tell you, as president of the 20 association, it is my plan to be in attendance at 21 your meetings this year. 22 I listen to you talking about your meeting 23 schedule. If I might make one little plea for you to 24 consider in the future; the 58 counties in 25 California, most of their Boards of Supervisors meet 26 on Tuesdays. We are department heads. 27 And quite often when we have business before 28 our boards, we need to be in our county on a Tuesday. 15 1 So to the extent that you're meeting on some 2 non-Tuesdays, I want to tell you that I really 3 appreciate it. 4 I know last year we were here for several 5 hours testifying on the rulemaking process on the day 6 that our county was adopting their final budget. And 7 that was a day that they rightfully had some 8 questions about what might be happening with the 9 assessment role. I was not there to talk to the 10 Board about it. 11 Our meetings this year, that I would like to 12 extend an invitation to you. It's not without cost, 13 by the way. Your registration as Board Members is 14 identical to our registration as elected assessors. 15 Likewise, if your staff comes or Board staff comes, 16 they pay the same registration that our staff will 17 pay. 18 And now that I have the e-mail addresses of 19 your chiefs of staff, I'll be sending out the 20 invitations for the two conferences that we have 21 invitations out on. 22 Last week we held our kick-off meetings and 23 our new assessor orientation where we went over an 24 introduction to the California Assessors' Association 25 and began our business meetings for the year. 26 In April, the week of April 15th -- always a 27 good day to talk taxes. But the week of April 15th 28 will be the Bay Area Assessors' Association 16 1 Conference, hosted by Contra Costa this year, will be 2 in Walnut Creek. 3 The week of August 5th, the Northern 4 California Assessors' Association is hosting a 5 conference that will be held at the Lake Tahoe Resort 6 in South Lake Tahoe. 7 In September, just a month later, our annual 8 conference will be held in San Diego. And that's the 9 week of September 16th. 10 And then, finally, our tentative date for 11 our year-end meeting is December 9th and 10th. And 12 this is a meeting -- the reason it's tentative is 13 because we tried to tag on to the recorders' and 14 registrar of voters' new law conference. We've 15 discovered that we have some conflicts with the 16 Secretary of State -- has some special meetings 17 scheduled with registrars of voters. 18 And as I think some of you might know, about 19 half of the assessors in the state are either 20 assessor/recorder or assessor/recorder-registrar of 21 voters. So I'm very sensitive to the fact that they 22 get pulled in many directions trying to do all of 23 those tasks they have assigned. And I'm looking for 24 a date for the year-end meeting where they are 25 already in Sacramento, but they are not being pulled 26 in a lot of other directions. 27 Lastly, as long as I'm talking about 28 meetings, one of the things that we work with your 17 1 staff on is scheduling what we call the joint 2 meeting. Your Board has the authority to -- isn't it 3 summons us, David? 4 MR. YEUNG: It is. 5 MS. DAVIS: But recently, in recent years, 6 your Board has been inviting us to a joint meeting. 7 And so we work with your Board staff to try and come 8 up with a date that might work both for assessors and 9 for your Board. 10 One of the things that has been done in the 11 past is to schedule that joint meeting during one of 12 our conferences. And I would certainly like to talk 13 about that with your staff. 14 But I would also tell you that the only 15 conference that I know we don't have a full agenda on 16 now is the annual conference that will be in San 17 Diego. So I can talk to the conference host if 18 that's where you think you would like to do that. I 19 will be connecting with Ms. Fleming and with 20 Mr. Yeung to try and come up with a date that will 21 work for all of you. 22 I really appreciate your attention. You 23 really didn't need to take me first. I'm going to be 24 here for the rest of the evening. But if you have 25 questions, I'd be happy to answer them. 26 MS. COHEN: Thank you. 27 Colleagues, any questions? 28 From this side? 18 1 MR. SCHAEFER: I have a whole bunch. 2 MR. GAINES: Thank you. 3 MS. COHEN: You have a whole bunch? Please. 4 MR. GAINES: Thank you. I appreciate it. 5 MS. COHEN: Thank you. 6 MR. GAINES: It's very helpful. 7 MS. COHEN: Mr. -- 8 MR. SCHAEFER: Ms. Davis, it's music to my 9 ears that you're going to have a conference in San 10 Diego. I am in Coronado across the ridge, so I'll be 11 there. 12 MS. DAVIS: Okay. 13 MR. SCHAEFER: Also, we've changed the 14 date -- the time of our meetings from 10:30 to 10:00. 15 I would not be unhappy if our Chairman would change 16 our Tuesday historic meeting date to be a Wednesday 17 historic meeting date. There's nothing sacred about 18 Tuesday. 19 And when you tell me that the assessors of 20 our world -- or the county boards are all doing 21 business on Tuesday, I don't know why we're meeting 22 on Tuesday. Because we are of the same faith. And, 23 you know, we need to save some time so that we can 24 meet more often. It's very counterproductive to have 25 us all doing business on Tuesdays. 26 So I would suggest that as an item for maybe 27 our meeting next month we consider becoming the 28 Wednesday club instead of the Tuesday club. 19 1 Also, what is the size of our counties from 2 the smallest to the largest? The largest would be 3 L.A., of course. 4 MS. DAVIS: Largest is Los Angeles. And I 5 think they win in the United States, if not the 6 world. The smallest is Alpine County. 7 MR. SCHAEFER: And what's the population of 8 Alpine? 9 MS. DAVIS: Oh, good question. I don't 10 know. Do you know? 11 MR. YEUNG: About 2,000. 12 MS. DAVIS: About 2,000 people. 13 MR. YEUNG: Yes. 14 MR. SCHAEFER: And what's the population of 15 L.A.? 16 MS. DAVIS: Member Vazquez, do you know? 17 MR. VAZQUEZ: I want to say it's right 18 around three million. 19 MS. DAVIS: Okay. 20 MR. SCHAEFER: Well, I think this is -- 21 MR. VAZQUEZ: Census is coming up, so it's 22 probably grown some. But I would say right around 23 three million. 24 MR. GAINES: For -- for the city? 25 MR. VAZQUEZ: For the county. 26 MS. DAVIS: And it's an interesting point 27 that you bring up asking that question, because in 28 the Assessors' Association, all assessors are equal. 20 1 So Jeff Prang in Los Angeles County does not have 2 more votes than Donald O'Connor in Alpine County. 3 MR. SCHAEFER: Well, I did a lot of business 4 for many years with Esmeralda County over in Nevada, 5 and they have 1,100 souls. And I had a piece of 6 property that was worth $3 million based on what it 7 cost to build and depreciation. And the county would 8 not budge from the valuation, even though I bought it 9 for 500,000. 10 And, you know, I was just talking to a wall 11 when I would talk to the county. And I had to end up 12 going to the BOE, thank God. And they would, of 13 course, realize the obsolescence of the issues and 14 went down to 500,000, which was fair market value. 15 My concern of large counties versus small 16 counties is I don't think that Member Vazquez knows 17 people in his county. You know, maybe a few 18 thousand. But I'll bet you the assessor in Alpine 19 County knows everybody. He probably has lunch with 20 them. 21 So, you know, there's a certain difficulty 22 in finding real independence in finding out what 23 people's property values. You all want to keep your 24 friends and neighbors taxes low. 25 And I can see the pressures on the Alpine 26 person, you know, that Mr. Vazquez does not have. 27 Because he's more of a impersonal executive, you 28 know. But I'm fascinated with the whole process that 21 1 I'm coming to. 2 I'd like to ask you one question. We're in 3 the news all the time, even today, about horrible 4 billion-dollar fire losses. And those are, you 5 know -- whether Pacific G&E started it or not -- and 6 those are the stories this week. Are assessors able 7 to grant relief to all of the victims of fire damage? 8 That's your organization before it is us, 9 you know. And I would imagine that you would find 10 happiness among every fire victim. 11 Could you address that a little bit? 12 MS. DAVIS: Well, I can tell you that when 13 we had the Butte Fire -- and it's always interesting 14 to me how they name these. Butte Fire isn't in Butte 15 County. It was in Calaveras County. And it started 16 in Amador, so I consider it their fault. 17 We were ill prepared to deal with a disaster 18 of that magnitude. Again, 70,000 acres; 2,579 19 parcels destroyed. Just under 900 single family 20 homes. So 900 families displaced as a result of 21 that. 22 At the time, we were the third largest 23 wildfire in California. It doesn't make me happy to 24 tell you we've dropped off that list. 25 It is extremely trying on assessors' 26 offices. What is also trying is the fact that when 27 that fire hit, 50 percent of my staff was under 28 mandatory evacuation. And half of those people lost 22 1 everything they had. 2 So when property owners -- and I call them 3 fire survivors -- when fire survivors come into the 4 office, and they're naturally upset, it's upsetting 5 even more to hear that we don't know what they're 6 experiencing. Because we experienced with those -- 7 with those residents. 8 And, in fact, I can tell you that, in 9 general, the folks who go through that type of 10 disaster do not necessarily stay around. And so 11 following a disaster of that magnitude, now you have 12 staff turnover, you lose organizational memory. 13 What we were fortunate to do is work with 14 the Board of Equalization. And I can look to my left 15 and talk about Terry and how fast she responded. 16 The State Board of Equalization helped 17 backstop my staff while they were going out in the 18 field providing relief to property owners. Because I 19 felt our No. 1 task was to provide relief to those 20 property owners under the law. And I can say proudly 21 that all of my fellow assessors, my colleagues in 22 this business, also agree that their No. 1 task is to 23 provide relief in the wake of a disaster of that 24 sort. 25 If I might just quickly argue with you, 26 Member Schaefer. There are always political 27 pressures that we feel in this office. We are 28 elected to represent every taxpayer, whether they are 23 1 a friend, or as I affectionately refer to them, a 2 member of the fan club, it does not matter. It will 3 all get treated the same by us. 4 MR. SCHAEFER: I appreciate that. 5 And you have no problem with economic or 6 fire obsolescence? There's no law saying you've got 7 to place a value that's replacement value less 8 depreciation? You have more discretion on the -- 9 MS. DAVIS: It's -- it's market value. So 10 we will always look to how the market responded at 11 any given time. 12 MR. SCHAEFER: I have only five counties in 13 my district. And so it's easy for me to stay in 14 contact with my assessors. It's more difficult for 15 some of my colleagues who have a couple dozen 16 counties. 17 I had a nice visit and tour of the office of 18 Orange County last week with Bob Parrish. He took me 19 to lunch. He could only spend up to $5 under Orange 20 County ordinances, so we ate at Starbucks. 21 But we had a nice visit. And he's a very 22 experienced individual who, of course you know, spent 23 time on this Board. 24 So we have some of our most informed, most 25 confident citizens in California serving in 26 assessment. And I'm pleased that you're the 27 Chairman. 28 MS. DAVIS: Thank you. 24 1 MS. COHEN: Thank you for your 2 presentation. 3 MR. VAZQUEZ: Just -- I misspoke actually. 4 It's -- the County of L.A. is closer -- it's a little 5 over 10 million, actually. When I was referring to 6 three million -- actually 3.7 million is the city of 7 L.A. So the county. Which I represent most of the 8 County of L.A.. 9 MS. COHEN: Thank you for the clarification. 10 So, again, thank you for your patience. I 11 do have a couple of questions as it relates to 12 strengthening the relationship between the State 13 Board of Equalization as well as with the county 14 assessors. Curious to get some of your ideas. 15 What kind of opportunities exist for us to 16 work together? 17 MS. DAVIS: Well, the main opportunity for 18 us to network and get to know each other in a more 19 collegial environment would be if you attended our 20 conferences and our meetings. So that you can see 21 how we conduct business, how seriously we take the 22 responsibility to treat all taxpayers fairly and 23 equitably, and to ensure that those assessments are 24 done without any -- any kind of undue pressure. 25 Additionally, Chair Cohen, it is my 26 intention to be here for every one of your meetings 27 this year. Last year our CAA President Chuck 28 Leonhardt from Plumas County was at your meetings 25 1 every month. And seems to me that we had many, many 2 extra meetings outside of those. 3 I have already had an opportunity to meet 4 with Member Vazquez. I have an appointment already 5 with Mr. Gaines. 6 I'm happy to meet with your Board preferably 7 when you're in Sacramento. 8 Because I'm not in San Diego that often, 9 Mr. Schaefer. 10 But I am happy to come up and meet with you 11 individually. 12 I'd invite you to reach out and talk to the 13 assessors in your districts. But I would also invite 14 you to not restrict yourself to just those assessors. 15 On the CD that has the information in the binder is a 16 list of all assessors and their e-mail addresses. 17 Feel free to reach out to any assessor in this state 18 if you have questions, and not just those that you 19 necessarily represent. 20 You will find that we are a great group of 21 people who are willing to share information that we 22 have and thoughts that we have. We'd be happy to 23 help you as you start to get your bearings. 24 We know this is a new and different world at 25 the Board level. Thanks to the Legislature and the 26 Governor's Office becoming involved in some of your 27 day-to-day operations. 28 Our job has not changed, however. We are 26 1 still boots on the ground in each county 2 administering property tax law. And we're happy to 3 share that with you. 4 MS. COHEN: That being said, how can we 5 better support county assessors in their roles? 6 MS. DAVIS: We tend to bring those -- those 7 issues up at our committee meetings. 8 So, for example, at the Survey Committee -- 9 and I'm not throwing anyone under the bus. 10 You've certainly heard this before, David. 11 One of the things that we experience is 12 exactly what I heard Director Fleming talking about 13 earlier. We have budgetary problems; we have 14 difficulty recruiting. 15 I can tell you I've been recruiting for 16 appraisers since July 1st. And I only now have 17 enough qualified applicants to be able to interview 18 in the next couple of weeks. That is a long time for 19 positions to go vacant, and for us to not be able to 20 fill. 21 It has a domino effect, then. We have a 22 huge backlog in our county. Some of it is because 23 the work we did as a result of the fire and trying to 24 help those property owners with the relief that they 25 deserved. But also it's because of that recruitment 26 and retention problem that we're having. 27 We don't see in our survey reports adequate 28 verbiage being put out there that, "Gee, maybe the 27 1 assessor is not getting some of this work done 2 because they are having trouble recruiting and 3 retaining employees." 4 So as we see those issues, we are bringing 5 them up to staff. And hopefully staff is moving them 6 forward. We believe they are, because I've talked to 7 almost every director you've had for the last decade. 8 And they're fully aware of that problem that we have. 9 MR. SCHAEFER: Madam Chair. 10 MS. COHEN: Mr. Schaefer. 11 MR. SCHAEFER: I'd like to ask, do the 12 community colleges or the universities -- what 13 institutions in our state give any education on 14 assessment or land assessment? Are there any courses 15 that you're aware of? 16 MS. DAVIS: David. 17 MR. YEUNG. I can answer that. 18 We actually partner with a junior college 19 here in Sacramento, Los Rios Community College. We 20 offer two classes on assessments there; one on 21 auditing, and one on appraisal. 22 We also offer a course through the Sac -- 23 through Sac State. And they actually host a course 24 for us. It's a completely, 100 percent online 25 course. And that is also an appraisal course. 26 So those are the three courses that we offer 27 through the community colleges and through the state 28 college system. 28 1 MR. SCHAEFER: And there's 49 other 2 jurisdictions in the United States, and they all have 3 assessment issues. 4 Do we have literature or a journal of 5 assessment executives that we keep up with some of 6 the issues around the United States? Do we go to a 7 national convention? Is there something fascinating 8 about Illinois, or maybe New Orleans with the 9 under-the-water issue? 10 Some of the stuff that maybe doesn't apply 11 to us, but I can see a lot of vesting issues in 12 assessment. And if I were in your shoes, I would 13 want to know about all of them. 14 MR. YEUNG: We actually do have involvement 15 with the International Association of Assessing 16 Officers -- association. We -- we -- we deal with 17 them also. We have courses that we actually take 18 through the appraisal institute that our staff will 19 take periodic through that. 20 So we do try to keep abreast of assessment 21 as it relates to the rest of the U.S. 22 MS. DAVIS: And if I could just add to that, 23 the California Assessors' Association, through 24 Jesse Salinas, who is the Yolo County Assessor/ 25 Recorder-Registrar of Voters, has reached out to 26 U.C. Davis to reincarnate, if you will, what we used 27 to have called a leadership academy. So we're 28 looking to partner with U.C. Davis, or another 29 1 institution of higher learning. 2 The last time we did it was with University 3 of Pacific in Stockton. The time before that was 4 Stanford University to develop a leadership academy 5 to begin to help certainly our staff and your staff 6 have an opportunity for some higher education. 7 Additionally, I can tell you I used to teach 8 at the community college level, and I taught 9 appraisal. Certainly anyone who is teaching that at 10 community college should be spending some time 11 talking about the assessment of property since 12 there's a direct cause and effect in some people's 13 eye about property taxes versus what they're willing 14 to pay for a piece of property. 15 MR. SCHAEFER: And I suspect that our 16 assessors, the 58 of them, they write articles now 17 that get published on assessment, maybe for their 18 local newspaper, maybe for an assessment journal. 19 You know, it's a human interest article. And the 20 more publicity given on the world of assessment, the 21 better. 22 MS. DAVIS: We've been known to do a press 23 release or two. 24 MR. SCHAEFER: Thank you. 25 MS. COHEN: Thank you. Are there any 26 other -- 27 Yes, Mr. Vazquez. 28 MR. VAZQUEZ: Yeah. I just wanted to thank 30 1 you for coming out and sharing this with us. 2 And, you know, we had an opportunity to talk 3 about much that you're doing in the state. And I'll 4 do my best to try to attend at least one of your 5 conferences this coming year. 6 MS. DAVIS: Thank you. 7 MR. VAZQUEZ: And hopefully Members will do 8 the same. Just so we can begin to have that stronger 9 dialogue and communication. 10 MS. DAVIS: And, again, let -- let me really 11 thank you all for inviting me here today, for 12 listening so attentively. I know it's not the most 13 exciting information in the western world, but it's 14 certainly what we do every day, and it's exciting to 15 us. So thank you so much for your time and 16 attention. 17 MS. COHEN: Thank you for your presentation. 18 ---o0o--- 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 2 3 State of California ) 4 ) ss 5 County of Sacramento ) 6 7 I, Jillian Sumner, Hearing Reporter for 8 the California State Board of Equalization, certify 9 that on January 29, 2019 I recorded verbatim, in 10 shorthand, to the best of my ability, the 11 proceedings in the above-entitled hearing; that I 12 transcribed the shorthand writing into typewriting; 13 and that the preceding pages 1 through 31 14 constitute a complete and accurate transcription of 15 the shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: February 22, 2019 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 JILLIAN SUMNER, CSR #13619 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 32