PROGRAMMING TO LOCATE UNLICENSED BUSINESSES Tom Eyerman, City of Phoenix, AZ. ABSTRACT The author was motivated by the need to be more efficient in locating unlicensed businesses. A unique program was written using SAg software that has moved the City of Phoenix license inspection process from a strictly manual method to a combination of automated electronic data retrieval and manual inspections. This has been accomplished without an increase in personnel or cost to the City of Phoenix. The emphasis is now on the automated research and electronically produced reports rather than the inefficient and laborious manual inspection process. BACKGROUND The six License Inspectors of the Tax Enforcement Section are assigned an area of Phoenix to canvass annually. These geographical areas are defined by specific postal zip codes. The area is further subdivided into quarter sections. The Inspectors are evaluated annually on the number of quarter sections completed in the preceding 12 months and the number of new licenses issued through their canvassing efforts. The inspection method used by the City of Phoenix Treasury Department has not changed since the first inspection was performed. The Inspectors started the day by taking hard copy printouts of all City licensed businesses with them to the field. The listings were alphabetical by business name and numerical by license number. The listings were made up of four volumes of 12 inch thick green bar paper in binders. The Inspectors drove from their centrally located office to their assigned area of the City. This could be as far as 35 miles from their office. OLD PROCESS The Inspectors began the actual inspection by entering a business and visually deciding if their business activity was subject to the City's Tax Code. If the Inspectors believed the business activity was taxable the Inspectors would ask to see the City of Phoenix Privilege (Sales} Tax License for that business. If the business stated they had a license but could not produce the license, the inspectors would go to their vehicle and research the business name for a license number in their printouts. If a business could not produce a license and the Inspectors could not locate a record of a license, the Inspectors would then try to license the business. If the Inspectors were unable to license the business at the time of this inspection they would issue a Notice of Violation (NOV) for the business to obtain the required license. The Inspectors would also decide if a Regulatory License was needed for this type of business activity (i.e., Liquor license, Massage Establishment, Secondhand Dealer). If a Regulatory License was required and could not be produced, the Inspectors issued a NOV to the business to obtain the required Regulatory License. (The Inspectors did not have Regulatory License records with them in the field.) The Inspectors recorded the business name, address, and results of the inspection on their daily log. After the Inspectors completed the inspection, recording the results on their daily log, they went to the next business. The Inspectors repeated this process until it was time to return to the office. This was a haphazard procedure. The 1 83 WMSS95
Inspectors averaged about 40 business contacts daily. The Inspectors would expect to find one unlicensed business each day. This meant that of the 40 businesses contacted, 39 had an existing license. A common complaint from the business community during the inspection process, was, ''Why are you checking my license when your records show I have a license?" Originally, the only tools the inspectors had use of in the field were the hard copy printouts and any phone they were able to use. The Inspectors could call in to the office to verify if a license was applicable to a business, if they had the license number. In the early 1980's, the Inspectors were issued portable microfiche readers. This enabled the Inspectors to replace the cumbersome hard copy printouts with microfiche. However, these microfiche readers were difficult to use due to the size of their viewing screen (1 x% inch). In 1990, the City of Phoenix came on line with a new computer system. The City's Tax record base (TLR) was in the Tax and License Registration System (TLRS). This system later added the Regulatory License. (BLS) records. This data base was designed for the accounting of tax money, not for the locating of unlicensed taxable businesses. TLRS contains those businesses that are licensed by the City of Phoenix. The Inspectors now had a microfiche record of TLR and BLS licenses to take to the field. If the business representative stated they had a license, but could not produce it, the Inspectors would research the business name on the microfiche. If the Inspectors could not locate a license they would call their office. The office staff would search TLRS by business address, business name, or owner name. If the office staff located an account, they informed the Inspectors of the license number and status of the account ( i.e., current or canceled, if the Annual License Fee (ALF) had been paid or was still owed). If the office staff could not locate the account, they advised the Inspectors that a negative response was obtained. A BETTER IDEA A method was devised that reduced the need to visit the currently licensed businesses and allowed the Inspection Staff to concentrate on the unlicensed businesses. The inspectors became more productive. A recently retired License Inspector, Fred McCorkle, developed a method to use TLRS allowing the Inspectors to search the database by address before going to the field. This search showed the inspectors what addresses have a TLR and/or BLS License. The Tax Enforcement Staff used TLRS as an aid in the Inspection process. The Inspectors decided which quarter section they would be working, what streets comprised that quarter section and what address ranges would be needed. The Inspectors searched TLRS using these predefined parameters. The search would determine what businesses were located in the quarter section that were not canceled, their ALF status, overall delinquent status, and related: BLS. NEW PROCESS 1. The Inspectors started at the lowest address and walked the street using the Business Location Inquiry (BLOC) screen (i.e., 3100 West Buckeye Road through 3499 West Buckeye Road). This would retrieve the first business that was equal to or greater than 3100 West Buckeye Road and refill the screen until the last address (3499) was obtained. This screen will include any license issued for a particular address whether current or canceled. 2. As BLOC screens were retrieved the, Inspectors would do a screen print. 3. When the last BLOC screen print was printed the Inspectors brought up the Privilege License Maintenance (BPLM) screen and entered the Businesses Tax License Number of the first account needed. 4. The Inspectors scanned the screen. If the account was canceled, the Inspectors would ignore it and go to the next account 5. If the account was delinquent the Inspectors went to the Statement Balance Inquiry 2 M:!SS95 84
6. (UOWE) screen and determined if the delinquency was for the Annual License Fee. If the delinquency did not include Annual License Fees the Inspectors went to the next account 7. If ALF was delinquent the Inspectors would screen print the UOWE screen and leaf to the ALF Balance Inquiry (ALBL) screen. The Inspectors would screen print the ALBL screen showing the years and amounts owing. 8. When this process was completed, or, if no delinquency was noted on the BPLM screen the Inspectors repeated the process for the next account on the BLOC printout 9. This process was repeated for all businesses identified in the BLOC research process. 10. The Inspectors then had a printout of all licensed businesses in a particular quarter section. If the process had been completed properly, this report was in numerical order by street address. The Inspectors would take this printout visiting those businesses that show a delinquency in ALF or did not show up on the printout. This method, although a vast improvement over the original method did have some draw backs. The Inspectors would spend about 13.6% of their time doing clerical research instead of Field Inspections. This manually produced printout listed those businesses that had a TLR or BLS license. The list did not show the businesses that did not have a license. The list did not show the properties that were SOLUTION rental properties. SA,S8 software has allowed me to write a program that will do the above research task using a minimal amount of the Inspectors time, and providing. the Inspectors with more information to perform their canvassing duties more efficiently. ' WHAT THE PROGRAM DOES 1. By defining the parameters, SAse software 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. searches the TLRS database for TLR accounts within a quarter section that fall within the address ranges and zip codes that are not canceled. The SAse software searches the database for delinquent ALF and merges by license number to the accounts located by address. A report is generated that is paged by street name of the delinquent ALF accounts listing the license number, business name, business address, delinquent year(s), and delinquent amount(s). The SAse software then searches TLRS for BLS accounts within the desired zip code and address ranges that are not canceled. The resulting TLR and BLS are merged. The SAse software accesses the DB~ records of the City of Phoenix water accounts and retrieves those water accounts that are in the desired quarter section that may be required to have a TLR license. A report is generated listing the water accounts in the quarter section. The selected water account records are compared by address with the TLR records for matches. Only those water accounts that do not match will be merged with the previously merged TLR and BLS accounts. A report is produced with the merged data, paged by street and sorted by address. This gives the Inspectors a listing of all TlR, BLS, and water accounts with a potential taxable water user type that do not have a current City of Phoenix Privilege (Sales) Tax License. The SAS/FSP* FSLETIER procedure produces a letter that may be sent to the water account holder informing them of the possibility that they may need to obtain a City of Phoenix PrivUege (Sales) Tax License. At the time the water account is started, the water account holder must inform the City 3 85 \WSS95
Water Department if they are the renting this location. The sase software compares this information with the TLR records for commercial rental licenses by address. Those water accounts which do not have a corresponding tax license for commercial rental have a form letter produced through the SAS/FSpe FSLETTER procedure. This letter identifies the address of the water account. The Inspectors will research the owner of the property. The Inspectors will fill in the blanks and mail this letter to the owner. This letter will inform the property owner of the need for a City Privilege (Sales) Tax License for commercial rental. PROGRAM SETUP The SAse research system is composed of a JCL, 1,Bn macro files, the main program, and two SASIFSP'FSLETTER programs. The macro files pertain to each unique quarter section. The main program will use any of the macro files to obtain the desired quarter section report. The SASJFSpe FSLETTER files will produce letters for the unlicensed businesses and the unlicensed commercial rental properties. The actual report will produce a list of delinquent ALF, all pertinent water accounts, merged non-matched water accounts with nr and BLS accounts. There will also be a list of water accounts that may be sent a letter for licensing and a list of those water accounts that will be sent a letter for a commercial rental license. At the end of each separate listing there will be a tabulation by street of the number of accounts and totals. The Inspection Staff will have to determine the parameters needed to be researched for each of the 1,8n quarter sections. The Inspectors will complete a form that will list the quarter section number, all streets in the quarter section, address ranges, zip codes and street directions. The completed form will then be entered into a template file. This file will be a macro listing of the parameters needed to search that quarter section. The file name will begin with the letters 'QW and fouowed by quarter section number. (I.e., QW001$01). This file will contain 1 03 lines of macro variables. (I.e., %LET=). When the entire City of Phoenix has been setup, there will be 1,877 macro files. The Inspectors will be able to access these files as they are needed in the future. SAVINGS ANALYSIS This program will take about 15 seconds to initiate for the mainframe computer to process. This process will take a total of about 7.8 hours to execute all the quarter section reports the Inspectors will require in a year. There is approximately 1,Bn quarter sections in the City of Phoenix. It is estimated that 25% or 469 quarter sections do not contain businesses. These are either strictly residential or open uninhabited areas. This leave 1408 quarter sections with non-canceled licenses in the City of Phoenix. The remaining quarter sections may have as few as one or over 200 licensed businesses each. It will take the Inspectors approximately one to three minutes to manually research each account in a quarter section. Using an average of two minutes per account and 30 accounts per occupied quarter section, it will take the Inspectors one hour to manually research each occupied quarter section. This is an overall total of 1,408 hours of noninspection time. Each of the open quarter sections need to be researched. It will take the Inspectors an average of five minutes to research these open quarter sections for a total of 39 hours. The total research time comes to 1,447 hours per year. The use of the S~ program will result in a savings of approximately 1,439 hours. Manual research time 1,447 hours sase research time 8 hours Savings 1.339 hours This is the same as having an additional Inspector for about nine months out of a year. The time can now be used in the field doing inspections or other staff duties, such as follow-up to the field inspections for compliance. The 6 Inspectors work a total of 11,520 hours per year. This means that the Tax 4 WYSS95 86
Enforcement Staff will spend about 13.6% of their total working time performing clerical duties. The Inspectors currently spend about 35% of their time performing Field Inspections. This is a total of 4,032 hours or 672 hours per year per Inspector. By eliminating the manual research time, each Inspector will have an additional 240 hours to devote to Field Inspection. This raises their Field Inspection time to 47%. The Tax Enforcement Staff currently generates over $800 for every hour they perform Field Inspections. This figure multiplied by the annual time savings will result in an additional $1,151,200 in revenue to the City of Phoenix. If 50% of this extra time is spent doing Field Inspections an additional $575,600 will be realized by the City of Phoenix. The Inspectors will have at their fingertips a list of water accounts that show commercial rental, without a commercial rental license on TLRS. This is a lead that the Inspectors would not normally have. The Inspectors will research the ownership of the property through the City and County property records and mail out the form letter to the property owner. (Currently, these records cannot be accessed by~ software.) The letter will explain that a license is required for this activity and that the Inspectors are unable to locate a license in TLRS. It is projected that at least one new license will be obtained for commercial rental for each occupied quarter section in the City of Phoenix. Currently, each new license issued through the Inspection process generates over $1,000 per year. The issuance of these new commercial rental licenses should result in an additional $1,408,000 in revenue to the City of Phoenix annually. A summary of the additional revenue is: Increased Field Inspection Time (50%) $ 575,600 Additional Rental License Revenue 1 408.000 Total S 1.983.600 COST The program to research the quarter sections took about 80 hours to write. The Inspectors' time is valued at about $20 per hour. The cost to write the program was approximately $1,600. It will take the Inspectors approximately 15 minutes to record the variables for each quarter section. It will take about five minutes to input this data into the quarter section file. This means that it will take about 625 hours to set up these files. The cost to set up and enter this data will be a total of $12,500. These cost are: Program writing Setup & Input Total CONCLUSION $ 1,600 12.500 $14.100 The increase in revenues generated from the use of this procedure is estimated to be substantial compared to the cost. New Revenue $ 1,983,600 less Cost 14 100 Net increase $1.969.500 The additional revenues to be obtained will occur when this program is fully implemented. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS this program: The following have assisted me in writing Valley of the Sun SAS Users Group (VALSUG) The Tax Enforcement Staff, especially my current and former fellow License Inspectors: Don Anderson Judy Flaskerud Roxann Forrey Vince Hernandez Fred McCorkle (Ret.) Patti Rommel Tom Sleeper Michael L. Sperling, the ~ Consultant for the City of Phoenix. SAS, SASIFSP, and SAS/FSP FSLETTER are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. indicates USA registration. 082 is a register tradematk of International Business Machines Corporation. Other brand and product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies. 5 87 VN.SS95