Digital Library
Recommendations to Improve DC’s Office of Administrative Hearings
A Report of the Office of the District of Columbia Auditor
Kathleen Patterson, District of Columbia Auditor
The District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings (“OAH”) was established in 2001 to “provide a fair, efficient and effective forum to manage and resolve administrative disputes.” Over the past 12 years since its implementation, OAH has provided tens of thousands of District of Columbia residents and businesses with a neutral setting in which to appeal DC agency decisions or hold evidentiary or administrative hearings on enforcement or other issues.
After more than a decade of experience with this central hearings panel, the DC Auditor determined that a comprehensive analysis was needed of whether OAH had met its reform objectives and whether additional improvements could be made. The DC Auditor engaged the Council for Court Excellence to conduct this analysis.
In 2015, the Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC) chose CCE to collaborate on a project to survey District residents about public safety and community-police relations. In June 2016, CPDC released the report detailing CCE’s findings and recommendations.
In 2015, the Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC) chose CCE to collaborate on a project to survey District residents about public safety and community-police relations. In June 2016, CPDC released the report detailing CCE’s findings and recommendations.
For the past 12 months, a Committee of the Council for Court Excellence (CCE or The Council) has undertaken to re-examine the jury system in the District of Columbia, as a follow up to CCE’s initial study of jury service in 1998. We have been pleased to co-chair this recent effort, and we are delighted to share the results in this report: Jury Service Revisited: Upgrades for the 21st Century. Building on the seminal CCE study, our devoted Committee—comprised of judges, court officials, trial attorneys, bar leaders, policy experts, and former jurors—spent many hours researching various aspects of jury service in the District, debating potential proposals, and drafting the recommendations that appear in this report, which we hope will be useful both to the officials in our community who bear the responsibility of administering this critical institution and to the citizens who devote their time and attention to the important work of serving as jurors.
CCE's Post-Arrest Report: describes for the first time DC 's post-arrest process; recommends a legislative proposal and updated instructions to the public about post-arrest options; and identifies additional issues for possible consideration.
CCE's Pedestrian Safety Committee releases report endorsing significant fines for traffic violations and expanded, active, high visibility enforcement.
CCE has released the first major study to document the enormous obstacles to employment facing Washington, DC residents with a criminal record.