New Executive Director
On July 28, 2008, Suzanne Beddoe was welcomed as ECB's Executive Director. As an attorney and manager, Sue has a diverse background in the private and public sectors, including positions with Merrill Lynch, Davis Polk & Wardwell, and the City's Corporation Counsel's Office. Sue brings to the ECB management team extensive experience working with caseload administration involving large groups of attorneys and staff. She recognizes the importance of effective internal communications, team-building and data reporting. She will join the rest of ECB's leadership to make ECB a model City tribunal.

Local Legislation
On Wednesday, July 23, 2008, the City Council passed legislation transferring the overall administration of ECB from DEP to OATH, and on August 12, 2008 Mayor Bloomberg signed the legislation into law. The law will become effective on or about November 23, 2008. The legislation also directs that several operational changes be made at ECB.
Link to legislation

ECB and OATH will maintain their separate jurisdictions over different areas of the law, and ECB will preserve its own rules and more informal approach to handling cases. ECB will continue to operate from five branch offices, employing the same judicial, administrative and support staffs.

Here's an overview of what the new law will do:

• If an appeal hasn't been decided in 180 days, a respondent will have the right to challenge the ALJ's decision in State Supreme Court in an Article 78 proceeding, without waiting for review by the full Environmental Control Board.  A respondent must first give ECB 45 days notice of their intention to file an Article 78 petition.
• The City Charter authorizes an ALJ to sanction a party for failing to provide ordered discovery in a case in which that's required. This authority is also provided in ECB's Rules of Procedure, § 31-37(c).
• In the coming months, ECB will be adopting new rules to ensure that language assistance services (like Language Line, which we're already using) are widely available for respondents who don't speak English.
• Additionally, ECB will be adopting rules that will limit the inconvenience to respondents from adjournments granted to City agencies issuing NOVs.  Under the new rules, if a respondent appears at ECB as required on an NOV, the ALJ cannot adjourn the hearing unless the respondent agrees, a representative of the issuing agency is present, or the representative's absence is due to extraordinary circumstances.
• ECB will also be adopting rules providing that if the first scheduled hearing date is properly adjourned for the issuing officer to appear, and if the respondent appears as required, the hearing cannot be adjourned if the officer does not appear, unless the respondent consents or there are extraordinary circumstances.
• Before the end of this year, ECB will be reporting back to the Council about progress toward implementing its electronic case management system.