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Employment Department: A Big Job and a Big Budget

The California Department of Employment Development has an annual budget of more than $14 billion, with about $103 million coming from the General Fund. Overall, more than $262 million has been allocated to the EDD’s IT department.

Editor’s note: Following is one in an ongoing series of profiles of the largest California state government agencies.

The California Department of Employment Development has an annual budget of more than $14 billion, with about $103 million coming from the General Fund. Overall, more than $262 million has been allocated to the EDD’s IT department.

The stated vision and mission of the Employment Development Department is to strengthen the economic vitality of Californians and their communities and to enhance California’s economic growth and prosperity by delivering valuable and innovative services to meet the evolving needs of employers, workers and job seekers. 

The EDD has developed a set of values:

  • Service
  • Adaptability
  • People
  • Care and Respect
  • Communication
  • Leadership
  • Teamwork
  • Accountability
  • Citizenship
As the EDD moves forward, the agency has outlined its priorities:

Fiscal Stewardship — Responsibly manage our public resources and align investments with strategic goals.

Skilled Workforce — Build a highly skilled and responsive workforce with clear roles and responsibilities.

Sustainable Operations — Align system operations, administration, resources and business processes with strategic priorities and budgetary parameters.

Enabling Innovation — Invest in the future by supporting appropriate business and technology solutions.

Responsible Service — Negotiate clear commitments with stakeholders and focus on priorities.

The agency’s technology investments are intended to be focused to ensure that its services are supported by cost-effective, innovative, reliable and secure technology. The EDD’s technology investment decisions are meant to be based on rational business economics (business case, return on investment, organizational capacity, cash flow, etc.)

Assembly Bill 1245 requires employers to report and pay taxes to the EDD by electronic means. The EDD’s project is the implementation of its two primary systems — Federal State Employment Taxes (FSET) for large employers, and eServices for Business for small and medium employers and agents. These systems are being implemented over a two-year period, which started in the 2015-16 fiscal year and the intended finish date being the 2017-18 fiscal year. This timeframe will allow the EDD to appropriately conduct a comprehensive education and outreach campaign to assist employers and their representatives. The duration is expected to be three years, and an estimated cost was not disclosed. 

The EDD proposed a Benefit Overpayment Collection Automation (BOCA) system that will replace the existing system by adding functionality to the current Automated Collection Enhancement System (ACES), which is in production at the EDD. ACES currently provides liability collection functions for the EDD’s tax collections. The proposed solution is to expand ACES, so that it also collects Unemployment Insurance and Disability Insurance benefit overpayments. The BOCA is projected to finish in the 2019/20 fiscal year with a duration of four years and an estimated cost of over $11 million. 

The Disability Insurance Call Center Upgrade project and the Tax Branch Call Center Upgrade project were completed in 2015, but many improvements remain to be made. The next enhancement for each system is the Virtual Hold, which will enable callers to save their place in a call queue and be called back when it’s their turn. The second is the Schedule Call Back, which will provide the customer an option to make an appointment to speak with a representative later the same day. These projects do not yet have budgets or projected start and finish dates. 

Additionally the EDD is working with IT and Sacramento’s Office of Innovation to develop a “working group” for ongoing collaboration. 

The EDD currently has no open bids. 

Leadership 

Director: Patrick Henning Jr. was named EDD director in 2014. He served as chief deputy appointments secretary for Gov. Jerry Brown from 2011 to 2014. He was the legislative advocate at the California Council of Laborers from 2004 to 2011, and before that was the assistant secretary for legislation and intergovernmental affairs in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency from 2003 to 2004.

            Contact Info: patrick.henning@edd.ca.gov

                                    (916) 654-6165

Chief Deputy Director: Sharon Hilliard was appointed in January 2013. She has been working in the EDD in many positions for almost 35 years, including as deputy director of the tax branch, chief of the field audit and compliance division, chief of the tax processing and accounting division, and chief of field audit and compliance division — Central Operations and Underground Economy.

            Contact Info: sharon.hilliard@edd.ca.gov

                                    (916) 653-1457

Chief Information Officer: Gail Overhouse was appointed as CIO in August 2012. She has worked for over 30 years in state information technology in many executive positions. Before working in EDD, Overhouse served as the project director of the California Child Support Automation System. She also spent several years as deputy director of Statewide Telecommunications in the Office of Technology Services. In this position, she was responsible for implementing the state’s telecommunication strategy and vision.

            Contact Info: gail.overhouse@edd.ca.gov

                                    (916) 653-8546