1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 7 MARCH 27, 2019 8 9 10 11 ITEM L3 12 PROPOSAL TO MODIFY THE 13 PUBLIC AGENDA NOTICE TEMPLATE 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 Henry Nanjo 13 Equalization Staff: Chief Counsel Board Proceedings 14 Brenda Flemings 15 Executive Director 16 ---oOo--- 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 MARCH 27, 2019 4 ---oOo--- 5 MS. DAVIS: Our next item is Item L3, a 6 proposal to modify the Public Agenda Template. 7 MS. COHEN: All right. I appreciate that. 8 Thank you. 9 So this is actually pretty simple and 10 straightforward. I just want to direct the staff to 11 modify the template that allows a statement that 12 clearly says, "We will take public comment, two 13 minutes, for agendized and un-agendized items." 14 This is something that I made an 15 announcement early in the meeting. I tried to get it 16 in writing on the agenda, but there's actually a 17 constraint on the template that currently exists. 18 And so I'd like to -- I'm sorry -- for correction, is 19 this an action item? 20 MR. NANJO: What it is, if I can explain, 21 Member Cohen. 22 MS. COHEN: Oh, please. 23 MR. NANJO: So because the -- basically 24 because the Board doesn't set the agenda -- the Chair 25 doesn't -- basically what happens is this comes up 26 through work that the agency puts on the agenda, 27 unless it's a Board-requested item or what have you. 28 The process that was created was that there 3 1 is a template, and those -- that template is approved 2 by staff through direction from the Executive 3 Director. 4 To change that template to add as a 5 permanent addition, public matters -- public comment 6 on matters not on the agenda requires a change to 7 that template. 8 What the action would be, would be the Chair 9 directing, with the consensus of the Board, the 10 Executive Director to start the process to make that 11 change. 12 It will happen by the next meeting. 13 MS. STOWERS: Madam Chair. 14 MS. COHEN: Yes, ma'am. 15 Thank you. 16 Member Stowers. 17 MS. STOWERS: He just gave a great 18 explanation on what you're trying to do here. I am 19 in support of that. 20 MS. COHEN: Thank you. 21 MS. STOWERS: The public always has an 22 opportunity to speak. I just have two comments. 23 MS. COHEN: Uh-oh. 24 MS. STOWERS: One, I think they should 25 have three minutes. Experience has told me that when 26 they're speaking, two minutes is not enough. 27 Another board, the Franchise Tax Board, does 28 the same thing. They -- we start with three minutes, 4 1 and then, at the Chair discretion, will allow 2 additional minutes if the time is needed. 3 MS. COHEN: Okay. 4 MS. STOWERS: The second item is if they 5 want to make public comments, do they have to be here 6 to make the comments, or will we be reading in 7 statements for reasonable accommodations? 8 MS. COHEN: We will -- we will be doing 9 both. If people want to submit their comment in 10 writing, and they request that someone read it, it 11 would be read into the record. 12 But also if they submit their comment, and 13 it is not read into the record, it still will be 14 placed in the record. 15 Or a person can show up. This is all in an 16 effort to -- in an interest of openness and 17 transparency. 18 And I believe that what we could do is we -- 19 there probably should be some flexibility. If we 20 have a very congested agenda item, then we should be 21 able to have that discretion to make the decision 22 between -- 23 MR. VAZQUEZ: How much time -- 24 MS. COHEN: -- the time allotment. 25 MS. STOWERS: Well, I'm definitely in 26 support. 27 I'm going to comment one -- I said two, but 28 I meant three. 5 1 I might want to bring up to you guys also 2 Item M, Public Policy Hearings. 3 MS. COHEN: Mm-hm. 4 MS. STOWERS: Where the public could write 5 to the Board and present an item. And then it would 6 be placed on the agenda with the Chair's approval. 7 And then we would have a public discussion. 8 And this is an item that came up yesterday 9 at the Cal Tax breakfast where Mr. Chris O'Neall 10 asked about it; how could they get before this body 11 without waiting to do an IP meeting -- 12 MS. COHEN: Mm-hm. 13 MS. STOWERS: -- or a petition for a 14 regulation, or reminding them about this process. 15 MS. COHEN: That's a great suggestion. 16 Thank you. 17 Ms. Fleming. 18 MS. FLEMING: I just want to say thank you 19 for that comment. Stole my thunder there. But thank 20 you for that. It was well-stated. 21 Just to remind the Members that in addition 22 to the L Item that has previous Board adoption in 23 terms of the rules of peer-to-peer discussion, the 24 M Item that was just stated, I just want to draw your 25 attention to that. 26 And we can certainly provide more 27 information on it to make sure that you fully 28 understand what can be done there. But I would 6 1 encourage you to do that as an item. Especially 2 inviting external stakeholders. I think that would 3 be an appropriate use of that -- that agenda area. 4 MR. NANJO: And the other thing, I'm saying 5 more for the public who could be listening than 6 anything else, is part of your role as elected Board 7 Members is obviously they can always contact their 8 District Member and raise issues through you, and you 9 can bring it to the Board through an L Item or 10 wherever it's appropriate. 11 MS. COHEN: All right. I appreciate that. 12 So let me just read into the record the proposed 13 language for consideration. 14 To ensure that the public has a maximum 15 opportunity for comment, I suggest the following 16 language be included to frame the parameters of the 17 BOE's new public comment agenda item: 18 Persons -- quote, "Persons who wish to 19 address the Board of Equalization regarding items not 20 on the agenda may do so during public comment. 21 Public comment will be limited to two or 22 three minutes per speaker. The minute time is up to 23 the discretion of the Chair. And that will be based 24 on the density of the agenda. 25 The Board Chair may reduce the amount of 26 time allotted per speaker at the beginning of the 27 public comment period, depending on the number of 28 speakers and the business of the day. 7 1 Your patience is appreciated." End quote. 2 And I also would like to take Ms. Stowers' 3 suggestion and implement that an Item M be put on the 4 agenda as well, policy -- Public Policy Hearings. 5 So since we are changing the template, maybe 6 this is an additional template. 7 MS. FLEMING: The M Item is currently -- 8 it's already on there. It's part of the template. 9 MS. COHEN: Okay. I appreciate that. I was 10 unaware of that. 11 MS. FLEMING: We established it under the 12 last Board. 13 MS. COHEN: Okay. Madam, is this an action 14 item that we need to take? 15 MR. NANJO: It's just providing direction to 16 the Executive Director. 17 MS. FLEMING: Duly noted. 18 MS. COHEN: All right. Do you feel like you 19 have the direction that you need? 20 All right. Thank you. 21 Is there any other discussion? 22 Okay. 23 Thank you. 24 Let's keep moving. 25 ---o0o--- 26 27 28 8 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 March 27, 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 8 14 constitute a complete and accurate transcription of 15 the shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: April 9, 2019 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 JILLIAN SUMNER, CSR #13619 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 9