Orange County Grand Jury
• 2023-2024
• Agency Response
Response to:
Orange County Service Planning Areas (SPAs)
Claude Parrish Orange County Assessor June 24, 2025 Honorable Maria D. Hernandez Presiding Judge Orange County Superior*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 7 findings
F1
Instead of being able to submit forms to the Assessor electronically and accessing relevant information online as available in a number of other California counties, Orange County residents and businesses are inconvenienced by inadequate online services. Finding Response: The respondent agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
The Assessor's Office should implement the necessary IT upgrades and policy changes to allow customers online access to submit and/or acquire forms, parcel information, and maps by June 30, 2025. Recommendation Response: The recommendation has been implemented in part. We have a contract in place with the vendor ParcelQuest to provide their online services for our county property details and parcel maps. We have also implemented an assessment value search on our website. Assessments can be searched by Parcel Number. With respect to online filing of forms, we have added e-mails on our website to allow submissions of certain commonly used forms. However, due to security concerns with storing online Personal Identifiable Information, we are not accepting those forms online that contain social security numbers.
F2
Orange County residents who need to visit the Assessor's Office in person are not provided parking validation or free 30-minute parking and are forced to pay higher parking rates than visitors to the Orange County Civic Center. Finding Response: The respondent agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
The Assessor's Office should provide 30 minutes of parking validation to Orange County residents/visitors by September 30, 2024. Recommendation Response: The recommendation has been implemented. Beginning July 1, 2024, visitors to our public service counter receive parking validation for the first 30 minutes. SOUTH MAIN STREET, SUITE 103, ORANGE, CA 92868 TELEPHONE: (714) 834-2734 • FAX: (714) 558-6827 • WWW.OCASSESSOR.GOV Follow-up Response to 2023-24 Grand Jury Report June 24, 2025
F3
Assessor's Office staff use work processes that are not organized as efficiently as those at the Orange County Service Center, hindering the efficient delivery of Assessor services to the public. Finding Response: The respondent disagrees with the finding in part. SOUTH MAIN STREET, SUITE 103, ORANGE, CA 92868 TELEPHONE: (714) 834-2734 • FAX: (714) 558-6827 • WWW.OCASSESSOR.GOV Response to 2023-24 Grand Jury Report July 12, 2024 The Assessor Public Service Counter and the County Service Center are very differently situated, and served different customers with different needs. The Assessor Public Service Counter serves an average of 37 customers a day, which equates to four customers an hour. The County Service Center serves approximately 400 visitors a day and provides services related to four separate County Departments. In light of these distinctions, the Assessor does not agree that the County Service Center is organized more efficiently, to the extent such a characterization implies that the Assessor Public Service Counter should adopt policies that are similar to the County Service Center and operate in a manner that is more similar to the County Service Center. Again, the County Service Center serves a much larger number of customers, and customers with very different needs. The Assessor does not believe it would be an efficient use of County resources to operate the Assessor Public Service Counter in the same manner as the County Service Center, and does not believe that doing so would improve Assessor customer experiences. That said, the Assessor agrees that the Assessor Public Service Counter is not organized as efficiently as it could be, and that steps can, should, and will be taken to improve the efficient delivery of Assessor services to the public, as is described in response to Recommendation Number 3.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
The computer system in the Assessor's service center should be upgraded, and clear, straightforward procedures for service provision to walk-in clients should be implemented by June 30, 2025. Recommendation Response: The recommendation has been implemented We have installed a ticketing system so that customers visiting our Public Service Counter (PSC) can be served in order of the ticket pulled by them. In addition, we have placed a chime at the entrance to alert our staff when a visitor enters the PSC. With regards to improving the search capability at our PSC self-help terminals, the search by site address is working and visitors at the PSC should be able to search using the address of the property.
F4
The Assessor's Office uses computers to prepare "OC Expediter" requisition forms and then manually routes hard copies for processing, creating extra work for staff and negatively impacting overall efficiency. Finding Response: The respondent agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
The Assessor's Office should abandon the use of manual processing of requisition requests and instead utilize the County's "OC Expediter" program to be consistent with other County departments by September 30, 2024. Recommendation Response: The recommendation has been implemented. All office purchases are initiated using the County's OC Expediter software.
F5
Not all employees in the Assessor's Office have access to County email, necessitating the wasteful and inefficient manual distribution of printed resources. Additionally, the inability of these employees to communicate online impedes the flow of information within the Assessor's Office and with other County agencies. Finding Response: The respondent agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
The Assessor's Office should provide County email accounts to all its employees, and the ability to access email from their regular workstations by September 30, 2024. Recommendation Response: The recommendation has been implemented. All Assessor employees have County e-mail accounts, except for certain Assessor trainees have temporary e-mail as they are new employees that are being trained. Upon completion of their training, all remaining employees are provided with County e-mail accounts.
F6
Employees of the Assessor's Office do not have the onsite access to a Human Resources representative that is available to many other County employees. As a result, they are unable to quickly receive assistance with personnel matters. Finding Response: The respondent agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
The Assessor's Office should have its Central Human Resources representative return to being onsite to provide more direct interaction with Assessor employees and observe daily operations to better meet the needs of the office by September 30, 2024. Recommendation Response: The recommendation has been implemented. Effective September 29, 2024, we have an onsite Human Resources (HR) representative to serve the HR needs of Assessor employees.
F7
The Assessor has returned significant amounts of money to the general fund in the last seven years, yet the technologies used to provide online and in-person services to Orange County residents are outdated. Finding Response: The respondent agrees with the finding. Response to 2023-24 Grand Jury Report July 12, 2024 Our response to each Recommendation is listed below:
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
Instead of returning unspent funds to the County's general fund, the Assessor's Office should ensure that sufficient funds are allocated to upgrade and maintain modern technologies to better assist Orange County residents and/or business customers seeking services, both remotely and in-person, by June 30, 2025. Recommendation Response: The recommendation has been implemented. We continue to spend sufficient funds on technology products to improve the taxpayers' online and in-office experience. Follow-up Response to 2023-24 Grand Jury Report CLAUDE PARRISH ORANGE COUNTY ASSESSOR July 12, 2024 Honorable Maria D. Hernandez Presiding Judge Orange County Superior Court 700 Civic Center Drive West Santa Ana, CA 92701 Re: Response to 2023-24 Grand Jury Report, "Review of the Assessor's Office" Dear Presiding Judge Hernandez: This is in response to the 2023-24 Orange County Grand Jury report entitled Review of the Assessor's Office (Report). The Report outlined Commendations, Findings and Recommendations for my office. In accordance with the California Penal Code sections 933 and 933.05, the Grand Jury has requested that the Assessor respond to the Finding and Recommendations made in the Report. The Assessor's Office is committed to providing fair and accurate assessments of all taxable properties in Orange County. We appreciate the Report's Commendation regarding my office having the only full- time Taxpayer Advocate in the assessor's office in the state. The Taxpayer Advocate provides important service of answering questions and assisting over a thousand taxpayers each year with property valuation issues. Our response to each Finding is listed below:
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.