OTC executive director trying to make things better for taxpayers, employees
Since coming on board in January 2022, Oklahoma Tax Commission Executive Director Doug Linehan has been trying to make things between OTC and taxpayers and employees a lot better.
“You tell your boss, ‘Give me 60 days, and I’ll tell you where we are as an organization and I’ll tell you where we need to go,’ Linehan said to members of the Poteau Kiwanis Club during the local organization’s meeting last Thursday afternoon at Western Sizzlin. “So, that’s exactly what I did. When I think of an organization, I think of people, processes and technology. Then, I put all that together and that creates culture. I’m not saying my approach is better, just different.”
As far as people goes, Linehan wants to see energetic and passionate workers but also workers who hold themselves accountable for your money.
“We have a lot of passionate people who are very passionate about what they do and want to improve upon what we do, but we’re not holding them accountable — where people agree that ‘This is what I expect from you,’” he said. “Then, we hold each other accountable so that we get things done. I also said our employees don’t feel empowered to drive results. I tell people this — it is our responsibility to be stewards of your capital, your money. It’s your money, not mine.”
The four key processes area in which Linehan wishes for OTC to excel are pay for performance, hasty decisions, focusing on the tax payers and employees and executing functions with discipline and urgency.
“If you bring more value, you should be paid more,” Linehan said. “Let’s not make decisions based on a phone call from a legislator who is angry. One call isn’t going to change the entire process. I want to have information to direct us to make the right decisions. Everything we do at the Oklahoma Tax Commission is truly taxpayer and employee focused — you all are our customers. Everything we do is geared toward improving the lives of our taxpayers and our employees. It means we will have deadlines, and we’ll be accountable for those deadlines.”
Linehan is trying to further OTC’s technology use.
“We just didn’t have a good process of how to manage our technology,” he said. “We weren’t disciplined about it. It wasn’t very visible. We’re wanting to make decisions about how to allocate resources, and I thought we needed a more disciplined approach. From a culture, there’s an opportunity to build transparency and trust between two different employees. You want to engage people, and when you want to engage people you have to build a relationship with those people.”
Some things Linehan said OTC is doing to help make things better are to make letters sent out more simplified and easier for taxpayers and employees to understand, holding people accountable on their expectations, getting enough resources together and how make sure those are levied properly and engagement strategies and plans.
“We’re getting better,” Linehan said. “We’re showing people we care and we’re getting more out of our people. We’re moving in the right direction. We’re engaging our people. We’re empowering our people.”
One thing that is helping accomplish the aforementioned goals is that the average wait time on calls has drastically improved — going from three hours in past years to 27 minutes last tax season to 17 minutes in January and 14 minutes last month.
Linehan said there are about 90 people out in the field for OTC and that OTC sees about $15 million coming in and that is allocated and distributed proportionately. He also said they will try to help you by telling you what things will look like in the short-term future.
“We will forecast revenue as far as 20 months out to help,” Linehan said.