1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 8 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 9 MAY 25, 2016 10 11 12 13 14 ITEM P 15 OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 16 ITEM P7 17 TECHNOLOGY DEPUTY DIRECTOR'S REPORT 18 1. CROS PROJECT UPDATE AND ACTIONS 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 of Equalization: Fiona Ma, CPA 4 Chairwoman 5 Diane L. Harkey Vice Chair 6 Jerome E. Horton 7 Member 8 Sen. George Runner (Ret.) Member 9 Yvette Stowers 10 Appearing for Betty T. Yee, State Controller 11 (per Government Code Section 7.9) 12 Joann Richmond 13 Chief Board Proceedings 14 Division 15 For Board of 16 Equalization Staff: Brenda Fleming Deputy Director 17 Technology Services 18 Chris Caietti Director 19 CROS Project 20 Trista Gonzalez Business Project Manager 21 CROS Project 22 23 ---oOo--- 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 MAY 25, 2016 4 ---oOo--- 5 MS. MA: Ms. Richmond, next item? 6 MS. RICHMOND: Our next item is P7 7 Technology Deputy Director's Report; P7.1 CROS 8 Project Update and Actions. 9 MS. MA: Okay. Ms. Fleming, welcome. 10 MS. FLEMING: Thank you. 11 So it looks like I, too, have a few people 12 missing today. So I'm going to punt. 13 MR. RUNNER: Forgot they were meeting 14 today. 15 MS. FLEMING: Thank you. 16 MS. HARKEY: Just tell us the good news. 17 MS. MA: Yeah. 18 MS. FLEMING: We're all green. 19 Good afternoon Honorable Members, Madam 20 Chair and Honorable Members. I'm Brenda Fleming, of 21 course, the Chief Information Officer and Deputy 22 Director for the Technology Services Department. 23 I would say with me today are Chris Caietti 24 and Trista Gonzalez. They may be stuck in the 25 elevator, on their way. 26 The progress at this point is still green. 27 We're making good progress on all of the key 28 activities within the project as noted. Good 3 1 progress with negotiations are continuing. We'll 2 resume more of those negotiating starting next week. 3 No issues or risks and concerns at this time. 4 We're moving forward, as we've talked about 5 before, with our Fit and Ready campaign; we're 6 excited about that. So still cooking it a little 7 bit, so we'll continue to bring some information for 8 it, too, as that gets ready. And we'll be soon in 9 contact with you for a specific time frame and 10 scripts for the videos that we'll have you 11 participate in. The next one up for the sponsored 12 videos is going to be Mr. Wayne Mashihara. 13 MS. MA: And here are your team members. 14 Please join us. 15 MS. FLEMING: Hey guys. 16 MS. MA: And introduce yourself for the 17 record. 18 MS. FLEMING: Thank you. 19 MS. GONZALEZ: Hi. I'm Trista Gonzalez, 20 CROS Business Project Manager. 21 MR. CAIETTI: Hi. I'm Chris Caietti, 22 Project Director for CROS. 23 MS. MA: Welcome to your first meeting. 24 MR. CAIETTI: Thank you. Glad to be 25 here. 26 MR. HORTON: Oh, this is the first meeting? 27 MR. CAIETTI: Yes, it is. 28 MS. MA: You know what we do in the 4 1 Legislature. 2 MS. FLEMING: Hot seat. 3 MS. MA: First bill. 4 MS. FLEMING: Are you guys going to give 5 him the orientation -- 6 MS. HARKEY: Yes. 7 MS. FLEMING: -- and initiation? 8 MS. MA: We have a lot of questions. 9 MR. HORTON: Yeah. 10 MR. CAIETTI: Okay. 11 MR. HORTON: I would defer to Madam 12 Chair. 13 MS. FLEMING: I was just finishing up, if I 14 may. And excuse us for a little bit of a change in 15 process here today. 16 So I just kind of finished Ms. Gonzalez's 17 comments. And I can turn it over to Mr. Caietti. 18 MR. CAIETTI: Thanks, Brenda. 19 So from the project side on CROS, we've -- 20 improvements have been initiated for the enterprise 21 planning and resource management processes to ensure 22 availability of staff resources for CROS BOE-wide. 23 The team also continues to refine our CROS 24 Project Governance Plan to support effective and 25 timely decision-making for the project at the 26 appropriate levels. 27 The special project report was approved by 28 the Department of Technology. Yay. Big milestone 5 1 to reflect our schedule changes. And its approval 2 allows the project to move into the next phase of 3 the project. So we're very excited about that big 4 milestone for the project team. 5 The fiscal year '16-'17 Spring Finance 6 Letter is pending approval by the Legislature. And 7 our dated readiness tasks and work on interfaces is 8 progressing as planned. 9 Some of the activities we have planned for 10 the upcoming month including: 11 Beginning a skills and knowledge readiness 12 assessment of all project and BOE staff so we can 13 provide tools and training to staff before the 14 member arrives; this is a key piece of our 15 readiness, to make sure that staff is ready when the 16 member comes into work side-by-side with them; 17 Continue to collaborate with our project 18 oversight stakeholders at the Department of 19 Technology and the Department of Finance; 20 Continue our enterprise planning and 21 resource management process improvement efforts; 22 Continue to develop our project 23 communications and messages for staff to address 24 feedback expressed as part of the team's 25 organizational change management outreach and 26 readiness assessment efforts. 27 And then our budget status remains green 28 and we have no major issues or risks to report at 6 1 this time. 2 The organization is very excited about the 3 activities that lie ahead because after five years 4 of patiently waiting, the wait is almost over and 5 the transformation efforts will really begin soon. 6 MS. FLEMING: Thank you for that, Chris. 7 Members, just to keep you informed -- 8 MR. HORTON: One second. 9 MS. FLEMING: I'm sorry. 10 MR. HORTON: Chris -- 11 MS. MA: Questions, Mr. Horton? 12 MR. HORTON: Thank you, Madam Chair. 13 You used this term "yay." What does 14 that -- 15 MR. CAIETTI: Yay. 16 MR. HORTON: That means? 17 MR. CAIETTI: We're excited. 18 MR. HORTON: Oh, got it. 19 MR. RUNNER: Technical term. 20 MR. CAIETTI: My apologies. 21 MR. HORTON: What is -- what does the first 22 S in CROS stand for? 23 Oh, let me move on. 24 MS. HARKEY: This is a quiz. 25 MR. HORTON: Why are we issuing -- 26 MS. HARKEY: Welcome aboard. 27 MR. HORTON: -- Spring Finance Letters in 28 the summer? 7 1 MR. CAIETTI: Because that's the way the 2 Legislature's processes work. 3 MR. HORTON: Thank you, Madam Chair. 4 MS. HARKEY: They run behind. 5 MS. MA: Okay. Ms. Fleming, please 6 continue. 7 MS. FLEMING: Thank you, Members. To keep 8 you informed, introductory meetings with the Senate 9 Subcommittee 4 staff are in progress. These 10 meetings are in response to feedback from the 11 members of the committee themselves, of the 12 subcommittee. With their -- and their intent of it 13 is to improve the communications and transparency 14 information with the Legislature as we've been 15 talking about on a number of other items also. 16 A series of quarterly meetings has been 17 suggested to facilitate those communications, and 18 they've invited the Department of Technology and the 19 Department of Finance to participate with us. 20 So we'll start to organize for those, 21 present that to you first so you know what our game 22 plan is. But it really is to shake hands. They 23 just want to make sure that they're fully involved. 24 They are concerned also about ensuring that 25 Department of Finance and the Department of 26 Technology are strongly engaged in that oversight. 27 So we'll do our best to make sure that those 28 relationships are intact and we continue to have the 8 1 support of the -- of the Legislature. 2 MS. MA: Have they hired a new Director of 3 Technology over there? 4 MS. FLEMING: Not yet. 5 MS. MA: Okay. 6 MS. STOWERS: Chairwoman? 7 MS. MA: Ms. Stowers. 8 MS. STOWERS: Just one question. You say 9 that the budget status remains green. What's the 10 cost year-to-date on the project? 11 MR. CAIETTI: I don't have that right in 12 front of me. 13 MS. FLEMING: We'll get the information for 14 you. 15 MR. CAIETTI: We'll get that for you. 16 MS. FLEMING: We're spending -- and I don't 17 have the numbers. I have from last month's, but 18 we'll send that information, too, as soon as we've 19 got the current one. 20 The last report we had in April, so we're a 21 little -- or mid-March, so we want to get that 22 updated information for you. 23 MS. STOWERS: Okay. 24 MS. FLEMING: I'm sorry I don't have the 25 numbers in front of me. And I've been running the 26 numbers down the street, on some of the numbers. I 27 apologize. 28 MS. MA: Yeah. So that would be good, if 9 1 you can just report. 2 MS. FLEMING: Yeah, we'll make sure. 3 MS. MA: Yeah. 4 MS. FLEMING: And it's typically a part of 5 our notes. 6 MS. MA: Okay. 7 Any other questions? 8 No? Okay. 9 MR. HORTON: Why are you up here? Pardon? 10 MS. GONZALEZ: Why am I up here? 11 MR. HORTON: Yes. 12 MS. GONZALEZ: I'm representing the 13 business side of the CROS Project. 14 MR. HORTON: You want to tell us something 15 about that? 16 MS. GONZALEZ: Things are progressing very 17 well. We've been doing a lot of work and really 18 engaging our district offices and headquarters 19 sections from the business side in the project. 20 MR. HORTON: Thank you. Well done by 21 way. 22 MS. GONZALEZ: Thank you. 23 MR. HORTON: Appreciate it. 24 MS. MA: Okay. Thank you very much. This 25 is an informational item, so no vote needed. 26 Thank you all for your update and we look 27 forward to actually starting this project. 28 MS. FLEMING: Yes, indeed. 10 1 MR. CAIETTI: Yes. 2 MS. FLEMING: We appreciate your support. 3 Thank you. 4 MS. MA: Thank you. 5 MS. GONZALEZ: Thank you. 6 ---oOo--- 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 11 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 2 3 State of California ) 4 ) ss 5 County of Sacramento ) 6 7 I, Kathleen Skidgel, Hearing Reporter for 8 the California State Board of Equalization certify 9 that on May 25, 2016 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 11 constitute 14 a complete and accurate transcription of the 15 shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: July 8, 2016 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 KATHLEEN SKIDGEL, CSR #9039 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 12