Rules Committee approves ordinance requiring deposit for Assessment Appeals Board written findings

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Rules Committee on Nov. 15, 2017 approved an ordinance amending the administrative code to require parties to pay a refundable deposit when requesting written findings from the Assessment Appeals Board.

Lee Hepner, legislative aide to Supervisor Peskin, told the committee the amendment would codify Assessment Appeals Board procedures into Chapter 2B, citing "California revenue and taxation code section 16 11.5" and property tax rules "3 0 8" and "3 25." He said the change was urged by the Assessment Appeals Board to fill a gap in state law.

"There is a $215 deposit to cover the first hour of preparation of those findings," Hepner said. He added that the requesting party would ultimately "be billed $215 per hour for preparation of those findings up to 30 hours." Hepner also described procedures for abandonment: if the deposit is not paid before the conclusion of the hearing, the requesting party fails to pay the total assessed amount, or the party explicitly or through neglect abandons their request, the request is deemed abandoned.

Dawn Duran, administrator for the Assessment Appeals Board, explained operational details: requests for findings of fact "must be made prior to the commencement of the hearing," the deposit is due before or at the conclusion of the hearing, and if the board issues a decision prior to issuing findings the requesting party is given 10 business days to confirm whether they still want the findings. "If at the end of 10 business days we do not get a response from them, the board deems that request abandoned and it will process a refund for the $215 deposit to the original requesting party," Duran said. She said the other party then has 10 business days to re-request findings and submit the required $215 deposit.

Supervisor Norman Yee moved to amend the ordinance's language on page 2, line 4 so it reads "finding fees shall be waived." After brief discussion of a separate grammatical phrasing the chair ruled the amendment adopted "without objection." Supervisor Yee then moved to approve the item "as amended," and the committee approved it "as amended, without objection," sending the ordinance as a positive recommendation to the full Board of Supervisors.

The ordinance sets a fee and billing framework and formalizes notice, abandonment and refund procedures for written findings requested before assessment hearings. The committee record shows the policy was described as codifying current Assessment Appeals Board practices; the transcript cites the statutory and rule references above as provided by the presenter.