A Study on the Compliance of New York City Agencies with Executive Order 120 and Recommendations for Enhancing Citywide Language Access

Audit Report In Brief

With more than 3 million foreign-born residents from more than 200 countries, New York City is home to one of the most diverse populations in the world.  New Yorkers come from every corner of the globe and speak over 200 different languages.  Nearly half of all New Yorkers speak a language other than English, and almost 25%, or 1.8 million, have limited proficiency in English.  For these New Yorkers, interacting with City government can often be a challenge.  As a strong proponent of civil rights, the Office of the New York City Comptroller is committed to non-discrimination and ensuring equal access to public services.

In 2003, a set of Council Members, including Comptroller Liu, who represented District 20 at the time, passed New York City Local Law 73 requiring social service agencies to accommodate customers with limited English proficiency (LEP).  In 2008, Mayor Bloomberg established Executive Order 120 (EO 120), New York’s “Citywide Policy on Language Access to Ensure Effective Delivery of City Services.”

EO 120 requires all City agencies providing direct customer services to undertake a series of initiatives to ensure that LEP customers have meaningful access to City services.  In doing so, EO 120 stipulates that each public-facing agency:

• Designate a Language Access Coordinator and develop and implement a Language Access Policy and Implementation Plan to accommodate LEP people.
• Conduct a population needs assessment.
• Train front-line staff.
• Establish a monitoring and measurement system.
• Conduct public outreach.
• Provide free language assistance based on at least the top six LEP languages ¹ spoken in the City, including the identification and translation of essential public documents, telephonic and on-site interpretation services, and posting signage notifying the public of free language assistance.

Purpose of the Study

This study serves two primary purposes:

• The first is to summarize the results of the five audits of City agencies’ adherence to EO 120 conducted by the Comptroller’s Office and to highlight the recommendations for improvement identified in those audits.
• The second is to expand on the audit recommendations as a compilation of best practices, that if implemented, we believe will enhance direct access to services for LEP customers citywide.  These enhancements include the best practices ² we identified in our review of the Language Access Plans of the 38 New York City public-facing agencies (including the five we audited) as well as of other municipalities with language access policies.

Summary of Audit Results

Our Office has audited five of the 38 public-facing City agencies to determine whether these agencies were in compliance with EO 120. Specifically, we selected five agencies with diverse public service provision and impact:

• The New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB).
• The New York City Commission on Human Rights (CCHR).
• The New York City Department of City Planning (DCP).
• The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT).
• The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC).

We found that these agencies were generally in compliance with EO 120 and have taken reasonable measures to promote compliance and to expand language access to LEP customers.  However, we found some agencies provided interpretation services, posted signage, and distributed translated essential documents inconsistently at various office locations.  Public outreach could also be improved at some agencies and language access training could be formalized at others.

As the Executive Order calls for the Mayor’s Offices of Operations (Operations) and Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) to play a leadership role overseeing agencies’ language access initiatives, we also included a review of the Mayor’s Offices’ oversight efforts in our audit scope. We found that the Mayor’s Offices have taken substantial measures to promote compliance and expand language access. At the same time, we identified several areas where Mayoral oversight and analysis can be strengthened.

Best Practices to Enhance Citywide Access for LEP Customers

We reviewed the LEP Plans of all 38 public-facing City agencies to identify tools and strategies practiced that could address the challenges identified in our audit of five agencies.  In conducting our research, we also performed a comparative analysis of legislation in other municipal and local governments to assess how other cities and/or counties are approaching language access. We extended this research to include best practices we found upon reviewing other municipalities’ language access plans and policies. These include:

• Washington, DC.
• Philadelphia.
• Town of Mattawa, Wash.
• City and County of San Francisco.
• City of Oakland, Calif.

The practices identified through the best practice research and comparative analysis are intended for all agencies to consider as they continue to implement their language access programs. We hope they will improve access to direct services for New York’s LEP customers citywide.

Areas of agency compliance that we observed that could be strengthened and have been included in our research on best practices are:

• Delivery of Direct Public Service and Language Access Coordination.
• Population Needs Assessment and the Four-Factor Analysis.
• Direct Service Provision:  Translation and Essential Documents.
• Direct Service Provision: Interpretation and Signage.
• Training.
• Public Awareness.
• Monitoring.

There were also several areas in which Mayoral oversight and analysis can be strengthened to help improve agency services to LEP customers. Enhancements include:

• Creating standards for translating documents and assessing the quality of vendors.
• Issuing guidance and conducting research on the use of automated online translation programs.
• Strengthening the monitoring of direct service provision by reinstating the original CORE program 3 and developing self-assessment tools.
• Extending oversight beyond the current practice of reviewing short-term milestones by conducting more robust and long-term oversight of agencies’ language access policies and procedures.
• Requiring agencies to develop an annual report of past accomplishments and future goals, including an evaluation of current practices.
• Enhancing citywide data analysis by expanding indicators included in the Mayor’s Management Report.

Important Note

The practices highlighted from agencies outside of the five we included in our audits represent our interpretation of best practices and should be considered neither an evaluation nor necessarily a reflection of those agencies’ compliance with or implementation of the programs, services, and initiatives discussed, nor are they all encompassing.

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