State Will Take Complaints Via Web

With Gov. Pete Wilson’s signing of Assembly Bill 206 on Sunday, Californians can now avoid weeks of waiting on the phone or dealing with snail mail when they want to express their frustrations with state agencies.

The bill allows people to call up state Web sites and electronically file formal complaints or comments about particular state departments.

Constituents also may lodge complaints against state workers the same way.

“It can often be difficult for an individual to express his or her dissatisfaction with a state department’s performance or to obtain information on filing a complaint on a person licensed by the state,” said Assemblyman Robert M. Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), the bill’s sponsor.

“The goal of AB 206 is to make it easier for people to communicate with state departments and for those departments to, in turn, respond.”

Hertzberg’s office said the potential for eliminating paperwork and bureaucratic hurdles is vast.

For example, since the beginning of 1996, the Franchise Tax Board’s Internet site has been visited more than 4 million times.

Through that access, $70,000 in postage was saved when taxpayers downloaded and then filed their tax forms from their home computers.

“AB 206 simply extends this service to all state departments with Web sites,” Hertzberg said.