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 November 2025
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This month we provide a look at two of our project teams, each comprised of professionals from the Political Reform Division (PRD), the Information Technology Division (ITD), and our vendors. The first is Team 4, working on Business Common Services and User Account Maintenance. The second is our Project Management Office, responsible for planning, monitoring, and control of the project. Both teams have a significant impact on the work of making the CAL-ACCESS Replacement System (CARS) a reality for the Secretary of State (SOS) and California’s campaign and lobbying community.
CARS Scrum Team 4 – Business Common Services/ User Account Maintenance
Scrum Team 4 has been hard at work developing features for system administrators to establish and configure various parameters to smoothly maintain the new CARS solution. Included in Team 4's work are configurations to administer and manage user accounts and permissions, public-facing parameters for notifications and correspondence, disclosure configurations with election and filing schedules, and other global system settings. System administrators will also have access to the system's enhanced workflows and business rules along with improved tracking for batch processes, jobs, and audit logs.
Team 4 Team Members
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Samantha Brown, Product Owner for System Administration, graduated from California State University, Sacramento and joined PRD in 2010. She is an Associate Governmental Program Analyst in the Training and Outreach unit.
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Troy Ramon, Product Owner for Business Common Services, is a PRD Program Analyst with the Training and Outreach Team, also serves as a Subject Matter Expert (SME), and has been with the Secretary of State’s Office since 2011. |
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Dinesh Kumar, Scrum Master, leads sprint planning, daily standup meetings, and retrospectives, skillfully serving as the bridge between stakeholders and development teams, ensuring work is executed in alignment with goals and constantly evolving through continuous improvement. He is a member of the Prime Vendor, CGI, team. |
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Wendy Brown, SME for Team 4, for Team 3, Third-Party Software Vendors, and Team 7, Financial Transactions, has 16 years of experience at the Department of Justice and a degree from Sacramento State University. Joining PRD in 2009, Wendy works on certification of software providers and vendors, fine waivers, and develops procedures and training. She keeps her focus on collaboration, continuous learning, and leading by example. |
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Hailey Coursey, SME, joined PRD on the Training and Outreach Team more than seven years ago. She is a graduate from William Jessup University. In her free time, she enjoys playing competitive pickleball.
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Joseph Chang, SME, is the Principal Solutions Architect for CARS. Joseph joined SOS after working at Kratos Defense Security Solutions on NeuralStar, their enterprise network management software used by Homeland Security agencies, defense companies and other companies such as Microsoft. Outside of work, Joseph enjoys unique hobbies such as collecting air guitars. |
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Mark Achziger, SME, is a Research Data Analyst II for the agency, and is responsible for creating internal and external reporting and streamlining processes. He previously worked at the Department of Healthcare Services helping counties define service rates for treatment of substance abuse disorders for a new treatment program. As an avid cyclist, he has mapped out multiple backroad biking routes in his area. |
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David Walker, SME, previously worked for the Employment Development Department, graduated from Sierra College, and joined PRD in 2015. He is an Associate Governmental Program Analyst focused on ballot measure contribution tracking and technical/data support. He lives on a small farm with chickens, goats, alpacas, and a pig, and enjoys time in nature. |
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Regina Geremia, SME, is a Program Specialist and has been with the Political Reform Division since 2006, amassing knowledge to share with the masses.
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Madison Thompson, Business Analyst (BA), facilitates BA/SME work group sessions to clarify and refine user story acceptance criteria, while supporting sprint planning and reviews to effectively bridge the gap between business needs and the technical solution. |
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Lejon Palmer, SME, brings to Team 4 her expertise in campaign finance and lobbying activities. She began her civil service career in PRD's Public Area in 2015 and is currently a member of the Training and Outreach Team.
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The team delivered functionality that filers will use to register in CARS, as well as the appearance and functionality of landing pages. Team 4 successfully developed the functions by which PRD will administer election cycles, filing periods, and establish other reference data. CARS will enable PRD staff to maintain and support all business activity—from public interaction with the system to tracking all actions related to system configuration.
Scrum Team 4 is delivering the configuration tools and functions to make CARS work.
Project Management Office (PMO)
This month we’re also spotlighting the great work being done by the CARS PMO. The PMO has the important job of keeping the CARS Project on track and on schedule. The team brings a diverse set of skills to the challenge of maintaining accountability and transparency as CARS progresses through the system development lifecycle.
The PMO is responsible for managing the lifecycle of the CARS project. As the central hub for project management, the PMO is charged with project governance, and executing several critical functions such as:
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Establishing and enforcing processes and standards.
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Monitoring progress and performance.
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Managing risks and issues.
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Controlling costs.
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Overseeing the contract with the Prime Vendor for developing the system.
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Administering contracts for other services.
The PMO is an essential player in bringing the CARS solution to the finish line.
PMO Team Members
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Keith Norris, State Project Manager, has been with the Secretary of State since 2015, starting in the Information Technology Division. He previously worked in the private sector for several broadband companies and software startups. He is also a graduate of California State University Sacramento (Stingers Up!). |
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Maylyn Tran, Cost Manager, specializes in budgets, contracts, and project management. She has served as PMO Portfolio Manager since 2023, actively supporting leadership and teams in various agencywide efforts. She previously worked for Franchise Tax Board and the Office of Systems Integration. A graduate of the University of Southern California, she makes a hobby of travel using miles and points. |
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Lisa Banh-Louie, CARS Change Control Manager/Contract Manager, joined the SOS Project Management Office in 2022 as an Information Technology Specialist II. |
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Lorna Semana, Business Analyst (Requirements), has contributed to several SOS divisions. Her background is in Computer Science with an MBA in Technology Management. She previously worked in the private sector including Philips Electronics, Oracle, and GAP. |
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Sri Rangarajan, Business Analyst, is a PMP-certified Project Manager working on ITD PMO projects and overall standardization efforts. Sri previously worked for LinkedIn as Senior Program Manager, taking care of New Technologies for the Global Operations. |
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Vanitha Saravana Vijayan, Quality Assurance (QA) Manager for the CARS project, provides strategic leadership for the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) process. Vanitha joined SOS PMO seven years ago and takes pride in having served as QA Manager for the California Business Connect (CBC) project, serving California business entities. |
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Danielle Billings, Cost Manager, is an Information Technology Specialist I with the PMO. Danielle works on the CARS Project, the Notary Automation Project, and with the Agency-Wide Governance Committee, as well as other efforts. She enjoys traveling and spending time with her family. |
The PMO serves a vital role in the success of the CARS project.
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CARS Monthly External Stakeholder Meetings – This meeting series occurs on the second Wednesday of each month, to keep stakeholders informed and answer questions about the CARS Project. The next meeting is on 11/12/2025, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. and includes a functionality preview.
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Third-Party Software Vendors – We are getting closer to certification of all vendors for CARS go-live. The next phases of preparation are:
Phase 1) October 6 – December 19, 2025: Pre-certification setup in the CARS certification environment
Phase 2) February 23 – June 24, 2026: Integration testing and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) using formal test cases
Phase 3) August 10 – October 16, 2026: Administrative certification prior to CARS go-live in November 2026
Our Prime Vendor team has now finished development of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) for 31 forms, with 21 of them ready for System Test.
We continue to meet with our third-party software vendors twice monthly, on the second and fourth Tuesday from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
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Program Increment (PI) Schedule – the CARS schedule consists of four Program Increments. PI-I is on track to be closed out by 12/17/25. Features released in PI-1 include registration and activity reporting for both campaign and lobbying filers.
Our work on PI-2 has already begun. Its initial features are due for deployment to our Staging Environment by 1/12/26. PI-2 includes end-to-end workstreams for all financial transactions, as well as many aspects of system administration and user account maintenance.
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How do I sign up to access CARS?
The ability to sign up to access CARS will be especially important for stakeholders participating in UAT. Registered users will be able to create/save searches for publicly available data and create filing entity accounts. Here’s a brief rundown of how signing up and logging into CARS will work:
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When first registering as a user of the system, the CARS Welcome Screen asks Don't have an account yet?
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Click the link to Register as a user, then click Sign up now in the next prompt. You’ll provide your chosen username, a password, your full name and phone number, and your email address (you may only use a single email address).
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In the next screen, you can choose a method for Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). This is a security mechanism to require a secondary verification method to access the system to help prevent unauthorized access. Setting up MFA is easy and the system will walk you through your three options:
- Send a text to your phone or receive a call with the verification code spoken by an automated voice.
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Receive the verification code by email.
- Use the Microsoft Authenticator app. The code will display in the app and you can enter it in the CARS prompt. If you want to use this option but don’t have the app on your phone, CARS will walk you through installing it.
MFA sounds complicated at first, but it is essential to protecting your data and the integrity of the system. After a few logins to the system, you will likely see the advantages and the ease of using it.
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The CARS project is a bold leap toward transparency, empowering Californians with clearer, faster access to campaign and lobbying data. The work of transforming a legacy system into a modern, data-driven platform is a reaffirmation of the State's commitment to open government and civic trust.
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What would you like to see included in the next CARS Stakeholder Bulletin issue? Email PRDCARS@SOS.CA.GOV to provide your ideas and feedback.
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The CARS Project Monthly External Stakeholder Meeting Series (MS Teams), PowerPoint Presentations, Q&As, FAQs and additional information may be found on the CARS Homepage.
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