1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 5901 GREEN VALLEY CIRCLE 3 CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 7 8 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 9 NOVEMBER 17, 2015 10 11 12 13 14 ITEM P 15 OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 16 ITEM P1 17 EXECUTIVE 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 Jerome E. Horton of Equalization: Chairman 4 5 Sen. George Runner (Ret.) Vice Chair 6 7 Fiona Ma, CPA Member 8 9 Diane L. Harkey Member 10 11 Yvette Stowers Appearing for Betty T. 12 Yee, State Controller (per Government Code 13 Section 7.9) 14 Joann Richmond 15 Chief, Board Proceedings Division 16 17 For Staff: David Gau Chief Deputy Director 18 19 ---oOo--- 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 5901 GREEN VALLEY CIRCLE 2 CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA 3 NOVEMBER 17, 2015 4 ---oOo--- 5 MS. RICHMOND: Our next item is Item P, 6 Other Administrative Matters. Item P1 is the 7 Executive Director's Report. Item P1.1, CROS 8 Project Update and Actions. 9 MR. HORTON: Thank you very much. Welcome 10 to the Board, Mr. Gau. 11 MR. GAU: Good afternoon, Chairman and 12 Members. David Gau, Chief Deputy Director, 13 providing you with the CROS Project update this 14 month. 15 CROS staff continues to evaluate the -- 16 review the final proposals that we received back in 17 October from the bidders, and the review is 18 progressing on schedule. 19 This is that touchy time that we have to be 20 careful, the blackout period, to ensure that there's 21 a full, fair and impartial consideration of all 22 proposals. 23 The project team has made some progress on 24 a number of initiatives that I'd like to highlight 25 here: 26 The IRIS data dictionary, which will be 27 used to ensure that the data transfer will go 28 quickly and easily is under way; 3 1 Analysis and streamlining of the 2500 2 forums within the scope of CROS; 3 Development of a process to conduct a BOE 4 skills and implementation readiness assessment prior 5 to contract the work; 6 And then also working on identification of 7 the BOE employees who will be conducting an 8 assessment of BOE's readiness for change. 9 In late October, I'd like to highlight, 10 that Carlos Ramos, the Director of the California 11 Department of Technology, sent Chairman Horton and 12 also copied the Board Members in a letter which 13 said: 14 "We, at the Department of Technology, 15 greatly appreciate the collaborative 16 approach you and other members of the Board 17 of Equalization's senior management team 18 took to understand and address the risks we 19 raised concerning the need for additional 20 organizational planning for CROS and that 21 through our recent work the BOE is better 22 positioned for success." 23 As far as some of the expenditures on the 24 project at this point -- this is through 25 September -- in September the actual expenditures 26 were 739,260. And on our year-to-date is 27 $2,260,000. The project to date is $26 million. 28 We're going -- we will continue to keep the 4 1 Board informed of any significant changes to the 2 procurement, any impacts to schedule, and any 3 possible risks to the implementation. 4 And at this time that concludes my 5 report. 6 MR. HORTON: Thank you. 7 Further discussion, Members? 8 Hearing none -- 9 Just, can you elaborate on the blackout 10 period for us, please? 11 MR. GAU: This is the time where we have 12 staff basically sequestered and they are a team of 13 experts around the Department who are evaluating the 14 proposals that we received. 15 So they are -- it's very -- it's 16 coordinated by the Department of General Services 17 Procurement Officer who oversees their activities. 18 And they are doing this all in a very closed 19 environment. 20 MR. HORTON: Thank you. 21 Thank you very much. The Board will 22 receive and file. Appreciate your report. 23 ---oOo--- 24 25 26 27 28 5 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 November 17, 2015 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 5 constitute 14 a complete and accurate transcription of the 15 shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: January 21, 2016 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 KATHLEEN SKIDGEL, CSR #9039 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 6