1 BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION 2 450 N STREET 3 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 4 5 6 REPORTER'S TRANSCRIPT 7 OCTOBER 22, 2019 8 9 10 11 ITEM L 12 BOARD MEMBER REQUESTED MATTERS; 13 ITEM L1 14 BOARD MEMBER STRATEGIC PLANNING DISCUSSION 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: Henry Nanjo Chief Counsel 14 Legal Department 15 Brenda Fleming Executive Director 16 Toya Davis 17 Clerk Board Proceedings 18 19 ---oOo--- 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2 1 450 N STREET 2 SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA 3 OCTOBER 22, 2019 4 ---oOo--- 5 MS. DAVIS: Our next item is L1, Board 6 Member Strategic Planning Discussion, and possible 7 action on the date of the initial session. 8 Member Vazquez will lead the discussion. 9 MS. COHEN: Member Vazquez, you're up. 10 MR. VAZQUEZ: Thank you. 11 Looks like we're finally going to have this 12 coming up now in November. And I just wanted to 13 thank the staff and my fellow colleagues here, 14 particularly the Chair, in working with me on this. 15 And basically I just took the orders and the 16 motion that we had from the Board, and we should have 17 also received the memorandum of June 25th this year, 18 where we basically just took -- worked off of that 19 memo. 20 And working with the -- specifically with 21 the Executive Director, we were able to get a 22 contract signed with the Leading Resources, Inc. And 23 the facilitator will be Mr. Eric Douglas, which 24 staff, myself ,and the Chair have met with already. 25 And he's been great to work with. And he's moving 26 forward. 27 We've had an opportunity to have some real 28 good discussion with him to kind of prep him based on 3 1 the priorities that we've kind of set out in this 2 memo back in June. 3 And as you'll see when you get a copy of the 4 actual contract for the facilitation, you'll see that 5 it pretty much spells it out. 6 We are looking forward for this to take 7 place on Wednesday, November the 20th. 8 And originally, back in January, I was kind 9 of envisioning this strategic plan to really be over 10 like a two-day session. But I'm confident under this 11 one-day session proposal that you have before you 12 that we'll be able to complete this strategic plan. 13 But I'm hoping in the event that at the end 14 of this session that if -- depending on discussion 15 and obviously the participation of the Members -- 16 that it feels like we came up short, or we need to 17 continue it, that the Members would be open to 18 possibly adding a second day or another session down 19 the road. 20 But right now we're envisioning that we will 21 be able to complete this hopefully in this one-day 22 session on the 20th. 23 And as you look at your handout, you'll see 24 that we're basically targeting the three goals that 25 we kind of laid out in that memo in June. 26 Starting with the first one, which is to 27 ensure the Board's constitutional mandates are being 28 performed in the most cost-effective and efficient 4 1 manner with the 58 elected assessors and the 2 California taxpayers. Looking forward to their 3 participation in this strategic plan. 4 The second goal would be to establish and 5 meet the workload priorities, and provide direction 6 for the Members to achieve statewide objectives and 7 workload in a manner that ensures maximum 8 transparency and an opportunity for an open 9 discussion. 10 And then the third one would be to develop 11 an educational and outreach plan. 12 Now, as we discuss this and we move forward, 13 we're hoping that, one, we come up with a consensus, 14 at least from the Board, on these three strategic 15 goals. And when we get to the outreach and the 16 educational plan, that we start looking at action, 17 like an action plan that we can carry this thing out 18 with. 19 So I'm hoping in the discussion, once we 20 come up with our consensus, we can kind of put 21 together a game plan. 22 And this would primarily just be the Board. 23 We will have staff also participate and be in the 24 room with us. And of course this is open to the 25 public. And we hope to have some dialogue and 26 discussion with the assessors and other stakeholders 27 during this strategic plan in November. 28 And with that, I'd like to just open it up 5 1 for any comments or suggestions the Board Members 2 might have. 3 MS. COHEN: I'd like to offer a few of my 4 initial comments. 5 First, you've put a lot of work into this. 6 Congratulations. You and your staff members. And 7 it's been really nice to have a discussion with you. 8 I appreciate more now, ten months into the 9 job, than when we were starting and having this 10 conversation in February of this month. I think 11 actually having almost a year under our belt would 12 help inform the discussion a little bit more as we 13 come together as a group to talk about Board 14 dynamics, to talk about our goals, and how we plan to 15 accomplish them. 16 It looks fairly ambitious, our agenda and 17 what we've got laid out to talk about. So one of the 18 things I was thinking about was possibly going back 19 to your original plan. If -- well, I guess your 20 original plan was to have a two-day session. We're 21 probably not able to do a two-day session. 22 But maybe if this body has an appetite, we 23 can possibly do a follow-up session. And that is 24 only contingent on, as we go through the day -- as we 25 go through the day and we go through the exercise, if 26 we need one, I'd like to have that option. 27 Thank you. 28 That option to have a second follow up to 6 1 really tie the concepts, the objectives, the 2 outcomes, tie them and flesh them out in a very nice 3 and neat, tight way so that we would be able to 4 execute. And what I'm envisioning, an execution 5 would probably be going into 2020. 6 So I -- do we need to vote on that, or is 7 that just something I just -- 8 MS. FLEMING: No. 9 MS. COHEN: No vote needed. Okay. 10 But need to just to talk about, just given 11 how our Board works, how it operates, how an idea 12 flows into another into another. 13 So I will yield to your -- to your vision. 14 But I support -- I can support a second opportunity 15 to meet with the facilitator to tie up any loose ends 16 should there be any. 17 MR. VAZQUEZ: I appreciate it. 18 And actually in my conversation with the 19 facilitator yesterday, he feels pretty confident and 20 comfortable with the half-day session in terms of 21 getting through at least the first part of it. 22 (Whereupon Mr. Gaines was present in the 23 room.) 24 MR. VAZQUEZ: But he also understands that, 25 you know, depending on the discussion and the flow 26 and the interaction with the Members, that obviously 27 sometimes you can't control that, because you want 28 everybody to participate. So he kind of envisions 7 1 there could be a need for a follow-up. 2 So I appreciate the suggestion, or the -- 3 MS. COHEN: Okay. 4 MR. VAZQUEZ: -- option that you're allowing 5 that to potentially happen down the road. Because I 6 think it may be necessary. 7 MS. COHEN: Okay. Excellent. Okay. 8 Ms. Stowers, do you have any thoughts? 9 MS. STOWERS: I'm just curious; is the first 10 meeting on the 20th? 11 MR. VAZQUEZ: Yes. 12 MS. STOWERS: Is it all day, or is it -- 13 because you just said half day. 14 MR. VAZQUEZ: It's a half day. 15 Originally, I was envisioning this thing to 16 be a two-day session. But after sitting with the 17 facilitator and then working with staff on the 18 contract, we realized that we only got approved for 19 so much. We had a cap on the amount. 20 And I think given that, and the time, and 21 the prep work that we've already called -- for 22 example, we've met with the facilitator twice -- or I 23 have personally. And I know staff has met with the 24 facilitator. So we're racking up a little bit of our 25 cost already. 26 MS. STOWERS: Oh, okay. 27 MR. VAZQUEZ: So because of that, we've 28 narrowed it down to stay within the budget. So it's 8 1 going to be a half day starting on November 20th. 2 MS. STOWERS: Okay. Okay. 3 MR. VAZQUEZ: Now that half day, he seems to 4 be pretty flexible. You know, right now we're 5 looking at this going four to six hours. So that's a 6 little over -- especially if it goes to six hours, 7 it's a little over half. But he seems to be okay 8 with staying within our budget. 9 MS. STOWERS: Okay. Okay. 10 MR. VAZQUEZ: Yeah. 11 MS. STOWERS: Perfect. Thank you. 12 MS. COHEN: So let me see here on my left, 13 we were just talking about the Board Meeting agenda 14 Item L1, the Board Member Strategic Plan. The items 15 are in your budget. This is the contract for the 16 facilitator who has an established relationship with 17 working with the State Board of Equalization. 18 MR. GAINES: Thank you. 19 MS. COHEN: And, yes, I don't know if you 20 guys have any initial thoughts, Mr. Schaefer or 21 Mr. Gaines. If not, we can move on. 22 MR. SCHAEFER: I have nothing. 23 MS. COHEN: Thank you, sir. 24 MR. GAINES: No, I'm fine. 25 MS. COHEN: Okay. All right. 26 MS. DAVIS: Don't they need to vote on the 27 date? 28 MR. VAZQUEZ: We don't need an official 9 1 vote, do we, or anything? 2 MR. NANJO: You should take a vote just to 3 confirm that it's going to be the second day of the 4 Board Meeting. Because that wasn't originally 5 scheduled part of the workload plan. 6 MS. COHEN: All right. Thank you. 7 So a motion to schedule the Strategic 8 Planning Session for October 23rd -- 9 MR. NANJO: November 20th. 10 MS. COHEN: Excuse me -- November -- 11 MR. NANJO: Twentieth. 12 MS. COHEN: November 20th. 13 MS. STOWERS: Second. 14 MS. COHEN: Thank you. 15 Can we take that without objection, 16 gentlemen? 17 All right. Without objection, this motion 18 passes. 19 MR. NANJO: Thank you. 20 MR. VAZQUEZ: Thank you. 21 MS. COHEN: Thank you. 22 ---o0o--- 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, Jillian Sumner, Hearing Reporter for 8 the California State Board of Equalization, certify 9 that on October 22, 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 10 14 constitute a complete and accurate transcription of 15 the shorthand writing. 16 17 Dated: November 7, 2019 18 19 20 ____________________________ 21 JILLIAN SUMNER, CSR #13619 22 Hearing Reporter 23 24 25 26 27 28 11