Turning people away
The agency continues not to permit people to file complaints as-of-right as provided for in the statute.
Filed complaints a fraction of their historical level
Latest Mayor's Management Report shows that only 283 complaints were filed in all of Fiscal Year 2007.
What happened to all of the 311 complaints?
In just the first four months of Fiscal Year 2008, the 311 system agency received over 3,000 inquiries dealing with discrimination complaints. If you add together the complaints filed with what the agency calls "pre-complaint resolutions," CCHR accounts for only 182 people.
Probable cause findings are down
Now down to 2% of determinations (from a not-very-high 7% in Fiscal Year 2005).
Cases sent to be tried are down
In Fiscal Year 2007, only 14 cases were sent to an Administrative Law Judge for possible trial, down more than 50% from the 32 such cases in Fiscal Year 2005. In the first four months of Fiscal Year 2008, ZERO cases were sent to an Administrative Law Judge for possible trial. The agency, remarkably, still does not report on how many cases are actually tried.
Playing games with the relief provided to victims and to the City
The agency continues not to report the scope of the civil penalties it has collected from discriminators (pursuant to the Local Civil Rights Restoration Act of 2005, the maximum civil penalty in a case brought administratively is $250,000). The agency does report a misleading "average value of cash settlement." That average -- now down below $12,000 -- is actually overstated. It simply omits all the cases where the complainant got ZERO dollars, a remarkably dishonest way of cooking the books.
An agency allowed to wither
The number of City-funded positions at CCHR in the current fiscal year is down to 18. In Fiscal Year 1991, CCHR had 152 City-funded employees. In other words, City-funded positions have falled 88 percent, to a level lower than the lowest point during the Giuliani Administration.