Audit Report on the Compliance of the New York City Department of Buildings with Local Law 30 Regarding Access to City Services for Residents with Limited English Proficiency

Executive Summary

In 2017, the New York City Council enacted Local Law 30, effective July 1, 2017, which requires City agencies that provide direct public services or emergency services to have a language access plan that allows residents meaningful access to City services regardless of their proficiency in English.  These translation services must be provided in the top 10 designated Citywide languages, which includes the top 6 limited English proficiency languages spoken by the population of New York City as determined by the Department of City Planning and the Mayor’s Office of Language Services Coordinator, based on U.S. census data, and the top 4 limited English proficiency languages spoken by the population served or likely to be served by the agencies of the City of New York, excluding the languages designated for translation based on U.S. census data.

This audit focuses on whether New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) complied with Local Law 30.  DOB’s mission is to ensure the safe and lawful use of more than 900,000 buildings and properties by enforcing the Building Code, Zoning Resolution, and other applicable laws.  Annually, DOB reviews over 60,000 construction plans, issues over 110,000 new and renewed permits, performs over 300,000 inspections, and issues 12 types of licenses, registrations, and certificates.  DOB architects and engineers evaluate construction plans, verifying that they meet Building Code and zoning requirements.  Inspectors monitor job sites to enforce Building Code and zoning regulations and issue violations when appropriate.  DOB issues a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), which documents the legal use or occupancy of a building when the required sign-offs are obtained.

Audit Findings and Conclusion

We found that DOB generally complied with Local Law 30.  Our review of DOB’s Language Access Plans dated 2009 and 2018 found that DOB has made continuous progress to provide meaningful language access to the agency’s services for Limited English Proficient (LEP) customers.  Its Language Access Plans describe the steps that DOB has taken to provide its services to the LEP population.

Overall, we found that DOB provides direct public services in the top 10 New York City LEP languages as required by Local Law 30.  Further, we found that through City-wide contracts with language vendors (Language Line Services LLC., and Geneva Worldwide Inc.), DOB has the ability to provide documentation, translation, and phone interpretation services in a minimum of 170 languages.  Appendices I and II contain details of the specific items we tested and the results of our tests.  Appendix III illustrates DOB’s efforts to ensure Local Law 30 compliance.

Agency Response

In its response, DOB agreed with the audit’s findings and recomm