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MMR - FY20 - Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings

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  • Parent Document:: Mayor's Management Report - Fiscal Year 2020
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      • OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE
      • TRIALS AND HEARINGS
      • Joni Kletter, Commissioner and Chief Administrative Law Judge
      • OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE TRIALS AND HEARINGS | Page 105
      • WHAT WE DO
      • The Office of Administrative Trials
      • and Hearings (OATH) is the City’s
      • central, independent administrative
      • law court. OATH has two divisions
      • that are responsible for adjudicating
      • City matters: the OATH Trials Division
      • and the OATH Hearings Division.
      • The OATH Trials Division adjudicates
      • a wide range of issues that can be
      • referred by any City agency, board
      • or commission. Its caseload includes
      • employee discipline and disability
      • hearings for civil servants, Conflicts
      • of Interest Board cases, proceedings
      • related to the retention of seized
      • vehicles by the police, City-issued
      • license and regulatory enforcement,
      • real estate, zoning and loft law
      • violations, City contract disputes and
      • human rights violations under the
      • City Human Rights Law. OATH Trials
      • are conducted by Administrative Law
      • Judges (ALJs) who are appointed to
      • five-year terms. In the OATH Hearings
      • Division, hearings are conducted on
      • summonses issued by 25 different
      • City enforcement agencies for
      • alleged violations of law or City rules.
      • These summonses are issued by the
      • Departments of Buildings, Sanitation,
      • Environmental Protection, Consumer
      • and Worker Protection, Health and
      • Mental Hygiene, and the Taxi and
      • Limousine Commission, among
      • others. OATH also has jurisdiction
      • to hold hearings on summonses
      • from certain non-City entities such
      • as the Port Authority of New York
      • and New Jersey. OATH hearings
      • are conducted by Hearing Officers.
      • OATH also houses the Center for
      • Creative Conflict Resolution, which
      • provides mediation and restorative
      • justice support to City government
      • agencies, and the Administrative
      • Judicial Institute, a resource center
      • that provides training, continuing
      • education, research, and support
      • services for the various administrative
      • law judges and tribunals throughout
      • New York City.
      • FOCUS ON EQUITY
      • OATH’s mission is to provide fair and unbiased administrative trials and hearings
      • for the City’s residents, businesses and agencies. Key to achieving this mission
      • is addressing underlying societal inequities that can impact how accessible
      • and navigable the administrative justice process is to a respondent. OATH has
      • undertaken several changes to its operations in order to increase accessibility. Since
      • 2014, OATH has updated its Hearings Division rules, procedures and forms to make
      • the hearing process uniform and understandable to anyone who wants a hearing,
      • regardless of which City enforcement agency issued the summons - making the
      • process easier to navigate means that respondents do not need to hire a lawyer
      • or representative.
      • Additionally, Fiscal 2020 represents the third year of operation for OATH’s Help
      • Centers, which operate at Hearings Division locations throughout the five boroughs.
      • Help Centers are staffed by Procedural Justice Coordinators (PJCs) who help selfrepresented litigants navigate the hearing process, find legal resources and City
      • records, and understand OATH procedures. PJCs do not offer legal advice or act as
      • legal representatives to litigants. Since launching its Help Centers, OATH PJCs have
      • actively assisted more than 100,000 people. During the last four months of Fiscal
      • 2020 when the City was shut down due to the COVID-19 outbreak, OATH’s Help
      • Center went 100 percent remote and was able to conduct almost 5,000 remote
      • Help Sessions with respondents prior to their hearing. OATH also established a
      • small business unit inside its help center to assist small businesses with the OATH
      • Hearing Process and to connect small businesses to other City resources, in a
      • partnership with the Department of Small Business Services.
      • In Fiscal 2019, OATH established a Neighborhood Pop-Up Court initiative that
      • allows OATH to conduct hearings in communities across the five boroughs at
      • Community Boards, libraries, civic organizations, and other public spaces. The
      • initiative targets so-called “transportation deserts” to increase response rates to
      • City-issued summonses by making it more convenient for people to access their
      • hearing who live in places that do not have reliable public transportation. This
      • decreases the cost of having to travel to OATH in person if a respondent lives in
      • a transportation desert. By the end of Fiscal 2020, OATH had held 19 Pop-Up
      • Courts in different neighborhoods, across all five boroughs. Unfortunately, due
      • to the COVID-19 outbreak, OATH had to put its Pop-Up Court program on hold.
      • OUR SERVICES AND GOALS
      • SERVICE 1 Adjudicate alleged violations of State and City
      • administrative laws.
      • Goal 1a Hear cases promptly and issue timely and fair decisions at the OATH
      • Trials Division.
      • SERVICE 2 Adjudicate alleged violations of City administrative laws.
      • Goal 2a Hear cases promptly and issue timely and fair decisions at the OATH
      • Hearings Division.
      • Page 106 | MAYOR’S MANAGEMENT REPORT
      • HOW WE PERFORMED IN FISCAL 2020
      • SERVICE 1 Adjudicate alleged violations of State and City administrative laws.
      • Goal 1a Hear cases promptly and issue timely and fair decisions at the OATH Trials Division.
      • City agencies filed 2,245 cases at the OATH Trials Division in Fiscal 2020, a decrease of 17 percent from Fiscal 2019. The
      • decrease can be primarily attributed to a decline in personnel and vehicle forfeiture filings, potentially explained by the City
      • shutting down or limiting certain in-person office operations during the COVID-19 outbreak and reduced vehicle usage in
      • the last four months of the fiscal year.
      • The number of cases closed at the OATH Trial’s Division declined by 20 percent in Fiscal 2020 compared to the prior year.
      • Up to the end of March 2020, OATH was on track to close more cases than it had in Fiscal 2019, but COVID-19 restrictions
      • dramatically reduced OATH’s capacity to close cases because of the additional time required to hold conferences and trials
      • via remote appearance and the postponement of certain trials that had been scheduled to proceed in-person during the
      • last four months of the fiscal year. This also impacted the annual average number of cases processed per ALJ. OATH Trials’
      • settlement rate, facts and conclusion adopted by agencies and decisions issued within 45 business days in Fiscal 2020 were
      • all on par with the prior fiscal year.
      • Performance Indicators
      • Actual Target Trend
      • FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY20 FY21 5-Year
      • Desired
      • Direction
      • OATH Trials Division cases with decisions issued within 45 business days (%) 93% 93% 91% 90% 90% * * Neutral Up
      • « OATH Trials Division facts and conclusions adopted by agencies (%) 99% 99% 99% 100% 98% 96% 96% Neutral Up
      • OATH Trials Division settlement rate (%) 57% 59% 57% 54% 52% 55% 55% Down *
      • Cases filed at the OATH Trials Division (total) 2,553 2,661 2,836 2,691 2,245 * * Neutral *
      • Cases closed at the OATH Trials Division (total) 2,560 2,668 2,677 2,660 2,118 * * Down *
      • « Cases processed per ALJ (total) 188.6 189.6 202.0 206.8 186.2 ñ ñ Neutral Up
      • Average time for the OATH Trials Division to issue decisions after
      • records closed (business days) 5.4 5.2 4.0 4.2 5.5 15.0 15.0 Neutral Down
      • « Critical Indicator “NA” Not Available ñò Directional Target * None
      • SERVICE 2 Adjudicate alleged violations of City administrative laws.
      • Goal 2a Hear cases promptly and issue timely and fair decisions at the OATH Hearings Division.
      • Summonses received at the OATH Hearings Division from issuing agencies
      • declined substantially between Fiscal 2020 and Fiscal 2019, from 837,086
      • to 701,862 – this decline can almost be entirely accounted for by a dramatic
      • slowdown at issuing agencies from March to June. Summonses received through
      • February 2020 were fewer by only 1.6 percent compared to the same period in
      • the prior fiscal year; while summonses intake between March and June declined
      • by 45.7 percent compared to the same period in Fiscal 2019.
      • In Fiscal 2020, OATH held 263,699 hearings on summonses filed at its Hearings
      • Division, a decrease of 23 percent from Fiscal 2019. OATH quickly evolved its
      • operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding shut
      • down. From Mid-March through the end of Fiscal 2020, OATH did not penalize
      • respondents who did not appear for their hearings and instead, automatically
      • rescheduled thousands of cases so that respondents whose lives may have been
      • significantly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic were not adversely affected.
      • Hearings for summonses which could previously be contested by phone or by
      • submitting a defense using an online form, continued to be heard using these methods; however, OATH also significantly
      • expanded its Hearing by Phone options, making telephonic hearings available for all summonses filed at OATH, regardless
      • of which agency filed the summons or what was charged on the summons. In the last four months of Fiscal 2020, OATH
      • conducted more than 13,000 hearings by telephone.
        • Hearings Division hearings conducted
      • Average time from hearing to decision (days)
      • FY 16 FY 17 FY 18 FY 19 FY 20
      • Hearings Division hearings conducted vs.
      • hearing decision time (days)
      • 330,110 340,563
      • 271,920
      • 298,571
      • 7
      • 6
      • 4
      • 7
      • 263,699
      • 7
      • OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE TRIALS AND HEARINGS | Page 107
      • Because OATH was able to continue its operations at 100 percent remote capacity during the last four months of Fiscal
      • 2020, OATH conducted 18 percent more remote hearings in Fiscal 2020 than in Fiscal 2019.
      • Performance Indicators
      • Actual Target Trend
      • FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY20 FY21 5-Year
      • Desired
      • Direction
      • Total summonses received from the issuing agencies at the OATH
      • Hearings Division 826,714 846,999 879,096 837,778 701,862 * * Down *
      • Total hearings at the OATH Hearings Division 271,920 298,571 330,110 340,563 263,699 * * Neutral *
      • « Total number of pre-hearing activities at the OATH Hearings
      • Division 298,819 313,665 290,437 295,440 238,791 * * Down *
      • « Total summonses processed at the OATH Hearings Division 612,124 633,596 658,245 663,327 484,589 * * Down *
      • « Summonses with decision rendered at the OATH Hearings
      • Division 195,290 207,723 248,438 261,906 196,631 * * Up *
      • « Average time from OATH Hearings Division hearing assignment to decision rendered (days) 4 7 7 6 7 * * Up *
      • OATH hearings by mail (% of total remote hearings) 24.4% 32.3% 19.9% 14.3% 12.5% * * Down *
      • OATH hearings by phone (% of total remote hearings) 16.7% 15.5% 19.2% 18.4% 39.0% * * Up *
      • OATH one-click hearings (% of total remote hearings) 58.9% 52.2% 60.9% 67.3% 48.6% * * Neutral *
      • « Critical Indicator “NA” Not Available ñò Directional Target * None
      • AGENCY CUSTOMER SERVICE
      • Performance Indicators Actual Target Trend
      • Customer Experience FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY20 FY21 5-Year
      • Desired
      • Direction
      • Completed customer requests for interpretation 10,185 11,842 16,034 18,044 12,940 * * Up *
      • Letters responded to in 14 days (%) 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% * * Neutral Up
      • E-mails responded to in 14 days (%) 100% 100% 98.62% 99.94% 99.89% * * Neutral Up
      • CORE customer experience rating (0-100) 98 97 98 NA 100 * * NA Up
      • « Critical Indicator “NA” Not Available ñò Directional Target * None
      • AGENCY RESOURCES
      • Resource Indicators Actual¹ Plan²
      • FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY20 FY21 5yr Trend
      • Expenditures ($000,000)³ $36.3 $39.0 $44.4 $47.1 $46.0 $51.5 $50.8 Up
      • Revenues ($000,000) $155.2 $147.5 $157.8 $175.2 $145.0 $172.9 $151.3 Neutral
      • Personnel 360 380 393 409 365 495 498 Neutral
      • Overtime paid ($000) $50 $51 $68 $47 $50 $50 $50 Neutral
      • ¹Actual financial amounts for the current fiscal year are not yet final. Final fiscal year actuals, from the Comptroller’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, will be reported
      • in the next PMMR. Refer to the “Indicator Definitions” at nyc.gov/mmr for details. ²Authorized Budget Level ³Expenditures include all funds
      • “NA” - Not Available * None
      • Page 108 | MAYOR’S MANAGEMENT REPORT
      • SPENDING AND BUDGET INFORMATION
      • Where possible, the relationship between an agency’s goals and its expenditures and planned resources, by budgetary unit
      • of appropriation (UA), is shown in the ‘Applicable MMR Goals’ column. Each relationship is not necessarily exhaustive or
      • exclusive. Any one goal may be connected to multiple UAs, and any UA may be connected to multiple goals.
      • Unit of Appropriation
      • Expenditures
      • FY191
      • ($000,000)
      • Modified Budget
      • FY202
      • ($000,000) Applicable MMR Goals3
      • 001 - Personal Services $35.6 $34.8 All
      • 002 - Other Than Personal Services $11.5 $11.2 All
      • Agency Total $47.1 $46.0
      • 1
      • Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 2019. Includes all funds. 2
      • City of New York Adopted Budget for Fiscal 2020, as of June
        1. Includes all funds. 3Refer to agency goals listed at front of chapter. “NA” Not Available * None
      • NOTEWORTHY CHANGES, ADDITIONS OR DELETIONS !
      • • Tynia D. Richard served as the Acting Commissioner and Acting Chief Administrative Law Judge for the first eight
      • months of Fiscal 2020. On March 13, 2020 Joni Kletter was appointed Commissioner and Chief Administrative Law
      • Judge of OATH.
      • ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
      • For additional information, go to:
      • • OATH Trials Division data:
      • https://www1.nyc.gov/site/oath/about/trials-division-data.page
      • • OATH Hearings Division data:
      • http://www1.nyc.gov/site/oath/about/hearings-division-data.page
      • For more information on the agency, please visit: www.nyc.gov/oath.
MMR - FY20 - Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings