Letter Report On The Compliance Of The New York City Department Of Consumer Affairs With Local Law 65 Of 2015 Regarding Translation Of The Business Owner’s Bill Of Rights As It Relates To Agency Inspections
Executive Summary
This Letter Report concerns the New York City Comptroller’s audit of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs’ (DCA’s) compliance with Local Law 65 of 2015, which governs the translation of the Business Owner’s Bill of Rights as it relates to inspections by New York City agencies. The objective of this audit was to determine whether DCA is complying with Local Law 65, which is intended to make City agencies’ business-inspection protocols and interactions accessible to immigrants and non-English speakers. Our audit of DCA is one in a series of audits we are conducting of the City’s compliance with Local Law 65.
Audit Findings and Conclusions
Our audit found that DCA generally complied with Local Law 65. Our review of DCA’s Language Access Plan dated 2018, which, as required by Local Law 30 of 2017, documents DCA’s steps to provide services to the LEP populations it serves, found that DCA had made continuous efforts to provide meaningful language access during inspections for LEP customers. Its Language Access Plan describes the steps that DCA had taken to provide its services to the LEP population.
During our site visits to DCA’s Manhattan location at 42 Broadway, where inspectors are located, we found that the Business Owner’s Bill of Rights is posted in the office areas. The Business Owner’s Bill of Rights notifies individuals of their right to consistent enforcement of agency rules; compliment or complain about an inspector or inspectors; contest a notice of violation before the relevant local tribunal; an inspector who behaves in a professional and courteous manner; an inspector that can answer reasonable questions relating to the inspection; an inspector with a sound knowledge of the applicable laws, rules and regulations; access information in languages other than English; and request language interpretation services for agency inspections of the business.
Furthermore, the Business Owner’s Bill of Rights was fully translated into each of the 10 designated Citywide languages of LEP residents in New York City. Additionally, posted on DCA’s website is its Visiting Inspection Program, where DCA informs its customers that they have the right to ask for an inspection in their LEP language. Also, DCA’s website provides a link to the Mayor’s Office of Operations’ website, where its Business Owner Bill of Rights can be viewed and downloaded in the top 10 designated Citywide languages. We reviewed the Business Owner’s Bill of Rights and found that it notifies owners of their rights as follows:
1. Courteous and professional treatment by employees
2. Inspectors who are polite, professionally dressed, and properly identified
3. Information about how long inspections will take and the cost of all related fees
4. Knowledgeable inspectors who enforce agency rules uniformly
5. Receive information about agency rules from inspectors or other employees
6. Contest a violation through a hearing, trial or other relevant process
7. Request a review of inspection results or re-inspection as soon as possible
8. Receive explanation from inspectors on violation details and instructions for viewing inspection results
9. Access information in languages other than English and request language interpretation services for inspections
10. Comment, anonymously and without fear of retribution, on the performance or conduct of our employees
We also found that DCA trains its inspectors on the agency’s policies and procedures pertaining to providing language access services to business owners during inspections. In June 2018, DCA updated its inspectors’ training manual to reflect the training requirements of Local Law 65 of 2015 and Local Law 30 of 2017. The training material describes DCA’s language access policies and procedures and includes the standardized service training curriculum that was developed by the Mayor’s Office of Operations for the Citywide Interagency Language Access Protocol. Additionally, in 2017, DCA introduced its Visiting Inspector Program (VIP). VIP helps business owners understand the relevant laws pertaining to their businesses and also provides them with a free, educational compliance inspection. During such an inspection, inspectors advise the business owner on compliance with laws and regulations and how to avoid violations. Moreover, through the program, business owners are notified of their ability to request inspections in languages other than English.
Correspondingly, DCA provides business owners with a Language Preference form that includes the top 10 designated Citywide languages, allowing the owners to indicate a language preference other than English for agency inspections. Inspectors are also equipped with an Interpretation Service Available sheet, informing LEP individuals of their right to free language assistance services during agency inspections. We found that inspectors had been given training on the use of the telephonic interpretation services through Language Line Services, LLC and were able to communicate in languages other than English with the LEP clients during agency inspections. This communication was accomplished by requiring the inspectors to provide information in a LEP language.
In addition, when we communicated with inspectors in languages other than English we found that they were able to assist us. The inspectors asked us to indicate on the “I speak card” what language we spoke and then took us to the language access phones to answer our questions or call the language access line so that we could speak to an operator to translate our questions.
Audit Recommendations
The audit recommended that DCA continue to maintain its compliance with Local Law 65 to ensure it effectively meets the needs of individuals with limited English proficiency when interacting with city inspectors.
Agency Response
In its response, DCA agreed with the recommendation and stated that it would “continue to comply with Local Law 65 to effectively meet the needs of New Yorkers with limited English proficiency when interacting with DCA’s inspectors.”