Audit Report on the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services’ Compliance with Local Law 57 for Baseball Games and Practices Played at City Leased Baseball Fields

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Commotio cordis, a potentially lethal disruption of heart rhythm that occurs as a result of a blow to the area directly over the heart, is the second-highest cause of death in athletes younger than 14, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.  It typically involves young, predominantly male, athletes who experience sudden blunt trauma to the chest and often results in cardiac arrest and/or sudden death.  Baseball is the most common sport in which this condition occurs, and nearly all incidents are caused by direct baseball strikes to the left chest wall.  The American Academy of Pediatrics indicates that children 5 to 14 years old are vulnerable to this type of blunt chest impact because their chest walls are relatively elastic and easily compressed.  Early treatment CPR and the increased availability and use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) result in a decrease of fatalities.

In 2016, the City enacted Local Law 57 in an effort to make AEDs and adults trained to operate them available at all youth league baseball games and practices on City-owned baseball fields, to the extent allowed by the appropriation of sufficient City funds.

This audit was conducted to determine whether the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) is in compliance with Local Law 57 related to its responsibilities for the distribution of AED units to youth leagues playing at the ballfields that DCAS leases to the youth leagues and City-funded AED training courses, free of charge, to the designated youth league representatives.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

We found that DCAS generally complied with Local Law 57 in discharging its responsibilities for the distribution of AED units and providing training courses to the youth baseball leagues that play and practice on the baseball fields leased from DCAS at 11 sites.  However, our review indicated that the youth baseball league that uses the one remaining DCAS-managed site believed to be currently in use for youth baseball did not receive an AED device or training in its use from or through DCAS.

Audit Recommendations

The audit recommended that DCAS determine whether that league is utilizing one or more baseball fields leased from DCAS, and if DCAS determines that the league is, in fact, utilizing a DCAS-leased ballfield, DCAS should determine whether the league already has AEDs or whether City-owned AEDs should be supplied to it, and whether the league requires AED training to meet the league’s and DCAS’ obligations under Local Law 57.

Agency Response

In its response, dated June 13, 2108, DCAS stated, “South Shore Little League (SSLL) is using the baseball fields pursuant to a license agreement with the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) and not under a DCAS lease.”  DCAS further stated that it “is not obligated under Local Law 57 to provide AED training and AEDs to SSLL.  However, training and AEDs will be provided to SSLL and SSLL has been contacted in this regard.”

After failing to respond for many months to our multiple requests for information regarding the applicability of Local Law 57 to the site used by the South Shore Little League, DCAS first revealed critical new information—that another City agency not named in the statute licenses the site to the league—only after the audit was completed.  Moreover, DCAS now claims that, based on that new information, it has no obligation to take the steps required by Local Law 57 for the protection of the children who play baseball there, although, fortunately, it also reports, that those steps will be taken—apparently tardily, in that it also states that the league “is using” the field, i.e., currently.

DCAS was given ample opportunity throughout the 17-month period in which the audit was conducted to inform us of the relevant facts and provide supporting documentation, starting with the DYCD license agreement that DCAS now references but has not forwarded to us.  The site in question is listed in a City database as being under DCAS’ jurisdiction, and it appeared on a list of DCAS-leased ballfields that DCAS itself provided to us in January 2017.  It was then omitted—without explanation—from an updated list that DCAS provided about six months later.  Since then, despite our repeated inquiries during the intervening 11 months, DCAS provided no further information regarding the applicability of Local Law 57 to the site.