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 APRIL 26, 2016 10 11 12 13 14 ITEM P 15 OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 16 ITEM P 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 Equalization Staff: Brenda Fleming 16 Chief Information Officer Technology Services 17 Department 18 ---oOo--- 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 5901 GREEN VALLEY CIRCLE 2 CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA 3 APRIL 26, 2016 4 ---oOo--- 5 MS. MA: Ms. Richmond, next item? 6 MS. RICHMOND: Our next item is P7 7 Technology Deputy Director's Report. Item P7.1 CROS 8 Project Update and Actions. 9 MS. MA: Welcome, Ms. Fleming. Please 10 present yourself for the record. 11 MS. FLEMING: Thank you. Good afternoon, 12 Chairwoman Ma and Honorable Members. I'm Brenda 13 Fleming, Chief Information Officer. Thank you for 14 this opportunity to be before you. I know it's the 15 end of the day and you're exhausted, so I'm excited 16 to be here with this exciting report for you. 17 MR. RUNNER: We're ready for you. 18 MS. FLEMING: Go CROS team. 19 The project continues to make good 20 progress. Some of the accomplishments for this past 21 period, this past month, about five or six of them: 22 Mr. Chris Caietti started with us on April 23 11th, and he's coming up to speed on the project and 24 all aspects of our agency. He's doing a great job, 25 and we're very, very happy to have him on board; 26 The negotiation process -- as you know, 27 we're still in procurement -- has started, and 28 confidential discussions with the bidders are 3 1 scheduled; 2 The estimated timeline for the negotiation 3 phase is through July, and we expect the contractor 4 to be on board by the end of the year; 5 The implementation of a new system will 6 introduce many opportunities for improvements to our 7 processes as you all know; those improvements will 8 enhance our efficiencies and productivity. The 9 Organizational Change Management Team is working 10 with the district and HQ staff to develop some plans 11 and activities to give us a kind of a jumpstart on 12 improving those processes; 13 Of course we're continuing to do the plans 14 for the Fit and Ready campaign; that's in process. 15 And we're starting off there with just some 16 readiness assessments for both the CROS and the IT 17 staff, at least initially. So we'll be the guinea 18 pigs first; 19 The first in a series of sponsored videos 20 was recently released. Our first video highlighted 21 our Executive Director, Mr. David Gau. And we 22 continue to make great progress on the data 23 readiness and the interfaces; 24 And then finally, a bit of good news, since 25 the project's inception, we have oversight from the 26 California Department of Technology. And they 27 produce a monthly oversight report. And we've had a 28 history of having -- in their dashboard, red, 4 1 yellow, green; red not being something that's 2 desirable. And in our April meeting they reported 3 that the first time in this project we have no reds. 4 Still a couple yellows, but we're working on them, 5 they're manageable. So kudos to the team and 6 everyone who's contributing to making that progress. 7 It's very exciting news for us. 8 Some of the activities planned for this 9 next period is refining our governance process; 10 that's the decision-making process, and we need to 11 refresh it so that we have the new members and 12 really make sure that we're able to make decisions 13 effectively and timely for moving through these 14 deliverables for the vendor and that we really have 15 the appropriate levels of decision-making so we can 16 escalate the right things up through the process, 17 including to you. 18 We want to continue to improve our 19 enterprise planning and resource management process. 20 As you know, the project is going to need all hands 21 on deck, and we really need to make sure we can 22 balance workload and make sure the right resources 23 are available. 24 And additionally -- and this is the fun 25 part for me -- I'd like to request to have you, our 26 wonderful Board Members, participate with us in the 27 Fit and Ready and the Outreach campaigns and 28 activities. And I'd like to approach each of you, 5 1 if you would be so kind, to agree to doing some 2 videos for us, perhaps, and sending some messages 3 both to the BOE at large and then certainly to the 4 staff in your Equalization Districts; that would be 5 fantastic. 6 There's going to be a significant amount of 7 work, and a lot of the work will be done -- a lot of 8 the heavy lifting will be done by the project team 9 in the program area certainly. And there will be a 10 lot of real, you know, grinding out of the staff 11 from a bottom-up perspective. But it's very 12 important that we have the executive leadership from 13 your offices also from a top-down perspective and 14 just really setting the tone. Because change is 15 hard, especially for a system that we've been using 16 now for about 20 years. So we really, really would 17 appreciate your engagement. 18 And, finally, our budget status is green. 19 There's no new issues or risks at those times and 20 those are the kinds of things we do want to keep in 21 front of everyone. If there's any risk or issues or 22 anything that gets us off course, we'll continue to 23 keep you noted on that. 24 And then my -- my real concentration at 25 this point is just working with the executive team, 26 the managers and the control agencies, to make sure 27 that we can balance our workload. If CROS is going 28 to be our priority, we really do need, as I stated 6 1 before, all hands on deck. 2 And so we're going to need to find a way to 3 balance, not just the operational workload, which we 4 have to do to keep money moving each day and handle 5 our taxpayers, but we also need to perhaps look at 6 how are we going to manage the workload from the 7 legislation. It's mandated, etcetera, but we're 8 making a lot of changes through the legislation to 9 the legacy system. And so at some point we'll need 10 to have some discussions about how you'd like to 11 proceed with -- with giving us a little bit of 12 breathing room on that legacy system. And we'll 13 keep you informed about anything new that comes up 14 on the project. 15 That concludes my report for this month. 16 Any questions? 17 MS. MA: Any questions, Members? 18 MR. HORTON: Madam Chair? 19 MS. MA: Yes, Mr. Horton. 20 MR. HORTON: Thank you very much, Ms. 21 Fleming. I appreciate the -- your talent, as well 22 your as your work on this. 23 Quick question. Do you see any 24 opportunities for career development for our current 25 staff in the district? 26 MS. FLEMING: Yes, absolutely. And a very 27 good question, sir; I appreciate that. A number of 28 people are concerned about the new system and 7 1 whether or not they'll still have jobs, etcetera. 2 Their jobs definitely will be different, 3 but the system and a lot of the processes that we're 4 currently using are based upon the technology that's 5 about 20 years old. 6 MR. HORTON: Mm-hmm. 7 MS. FLEMING: And so not just from an IT 8 perspective, but to the extent that for -- you know, 9 for our program area staff and subject matter 10 experts, as we move forward into more contemporary 11 software, it absolutely will drive us to more, for 12 lack of a better way of saying it, contemporary ways 13 of doing things. 14 And so there will be new technology, 15 certainly new processes, etcetera. So it definitely 16 will give us an opportunity to say, What can you do 17 next? Because they'll be focusing on a different 18 aspect of work and, for another lack of a better 19 way, more mature ways of approaching things. And so 20 that will exercise some more contemporary -- not so 21 much knowledge and skills, because we are experts in 22 that, but certainly new opportunities to develop. 23 MR. HORTON: Do you see -- do you see any 24 new positions? 25 MS. FLEMING: I'm not sure that I can -- 26 well, certainly through the BCP process we would be 27 asking for additional positions for the project. 28 And then certainly for the first few years of the 8 1 project we will be running parallel systems. So 2 we're going to need new positions and a lot of new 3 focus in quite a lot of areas. Because just 4 sustaining two systems running a parallel is -- is a 5 lot of work. 6 MR. HORTON: In the district? 7 MS. FLEMING: Yes. Yeah, the processes, 8 because almost everything we do for a season, and we 9 haven't nailed down exactly what yet, but to the 10 extent we have two systems and work has to be, in 11 terms of how we're administering taxation through 12 two systems reaches everyone in the agency. Yes, 13 sir. 14 MR. HORTON: Is it possible that we can 15 entertain a internship, mentorship program that 16 allows for the meticulation of these new activities 17 and so forth? 18 MS. FLEMING: Yes, sir. In fact, as a part 19 of the project, there's a lot of mentorship and 20 knowledge transfer, etcetera, that comes with the 21 project. But certainly we can entertain and work 22 with HRD to look for other opportunities to continue 23 that. 24 MR. HORTON: I'd like to begin -- I would 25 encourage that we begin working with our staff in 26 the district as soon as possible to alleviate their 27 concerns and provide them -- and provide -- 28 Boy, now I sound like Prince. I tell you. 9 1 -- and provide them opportunities. 2 MS. FLEMING: Yes, sir. Duly noted. 3 MR. HORTON: Thank you, Madam Chair. 4 MS. MA: Thank you. 5 Okay, thank you -- 6 MS. FLEMING: Thank you, I appreciate it. 7 MS. MA: -- Ms. Fleming. 8 ---oOo--- 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 10 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 April 26, 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 10 constitute 14 a complete and accurate transcription of the 15 shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: May 20, 2016 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 KATHLEEN SKIDGEL, CSR #9039 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 11