Report 2019-121 Recommendation 5 Responses

Report 2019-121: California Department of Food and Agriculture: Poor Management Threatens the Success of the Pet Lover's Specialized License Plate Program (Release Date: March 2020)

Recommendation #5 To: Food and Agriculture, Department of

To ensure that the Pet Lover's program remains viable, Food and Agriculture should immediately begin using marketing and promotional strategies similar to those used by other specialized license plate programs to encourage vehicle owners to purchase the Pet Lover's plate, and should continue to ensure that the Pet Lover's plate remains on DMV flyers.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022

CDFA previously indicated that this recommendation had not been fully implemented as the DMV temporarily halted the purchase of specialized plates due to impacts of COVID-19. While the DMV has resumed accepting orders for personalized plates there have been substantial delays in delivery of new plates that have minimized the reasonableness of aggressive promotion of the plate. Nonetheless CDFA has promoted the plate through the DMV flyer, a blog post on the CDFA website, developing a QR Code for use by recipients at Pet Lover's funded spay/neuter events and developing an Instagram account to promote the plate. Copies of either the DMV insert or the STD -067 for the upcoming DMV insert, printouts of the blog post, QR code, and Instagram posts have been provided via email to the California State Auditor

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

Food and Agriculture provided evidence that it began using marketing and promotional strategies similar to those used by other specialized license plate programs to encourage vehicle owners to purchase the Pet Lover's plate and that it is continuing to ensure that the Pet Lover's plate remains on DMV flyers.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2021

In the one-year agency response submitted to the California State Auditor on March 19, 2021, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) indicated that this recommendation had not been fully implemented as the DMV temporarily halted the purchase of specialized plates due to impacts of COVID-19. As the DMV has resumed accepting orders for personalized plates CDFA will continue to promote the plate. Ongoing efforts to promote the plate include the following: DMV flyer; the 2021 Pet Lover's Request for Proposals encouraged participants to promote the purchase and renewal of the personalized plate; the 2020 Pet Lover's final report requests that grant recipients share images or links of project successes that CDFA can share through social media to promote the plate in the future; and all press releases related to the grant program (at least three annually) provide information for readers interested in purchasing the plate.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Food and Agriculture did not provide evidence that it has begun using marketing and promotional strategies similar to those used by other specialized license plate programs to encourage vehicle owners to purchase the Pet Lover's plate, or that it has continued to ensure that the Pet Lover's plate remains on DMV flyers.

1-Year Agency Response

Due to impacts of COVID-19, the DMV temporarily halted the purchase of specialized plates. During that period of time, the Pet Lover's plate remained on the DMV flyer. However, promotional efforts were otherwise halted as members of the public could not purchase new plates. The DMV recently resumed accepting orders for personalized plates and CDFA will continue to promote the plate. Ongoing and future efforts to promote the plate include the following: DMV flyer; the 2021 Pet Lover's Request for Proposals encouraged participants to promote the purchase and renewal of the personalized plate; the 2020 Pet Lover's final report requests that grant recipients share images or links of project successes that CDFA can share through social media to promote the plate in the future; and all press releases related to the grant program (at least three annually) provide information for readers interested in purchasing the plate.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

6-Month Agency Response

The Pet Lover's plate will remain on the DMV flyer for the current fiscal year and CDFA anticipates this process will continue in future years. COVID-19 impacts have affected implementation of additional marketing and promotional activities; however, CDFA is developing additional strategies for marketing and promotion of the Pet Lover's license plate, both internally and as part of the 2021 Pet Lover's Solicitation. These strategies include but are not limited to highlighting Pet Lover's program success stories on the CDFA Spay/Neuter website; sharing success stories on CDFA's social media platforms; and including promotion of the Pet Lover's license plate as a requirement for 2021 Pet Lover's grant program recipients.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

The department indicated it will respond at the six month mark.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2019-121

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.