The Equal Employment Practices Commission (EEPC) is an independent, non-mayoral oversight entity tasked with auditing, reviewing, and monitoring the equal employment practices of the City of New York.
Early Years
Created by a 1989 amendment to the New York City Charter, the EEPC is empowered to audit and evaluate, at least once every four years, the employment practices and programs of municipal entities and their efforts to ensure equal employment opportunity (EEO) for women and people of color employed by, or seeking a position with, the City. The City Charter authorizes the EEPC to make a determination that any municipal entity’s plans, programs, or procedures do not provide equal employment opportunity, require appropriate corrective action, and monitor the implementation of the corrective action prescribed.
Milestones
Change is the lifeblood of New York City. The ability to adjust to new circumstances, confront new challenges, and reform the way New Yorkers do business has been essential to the health and vitality of the nation’s largest city.
Over the past years, New York has experienced diverse population growth and robust revitalization in neighborhoods across the five boroughs, along with a historic reduction in crime. But there has also been an explosion of homelessness, deterioration of our subway infrastructure, persistent inequality in public schools, and a continuing disappearance of affordable housing. Meeting all of these challenges in the 21st century would require new ideas and bold reforms to City policy, including to the City Charter.
For much of the city’s history, changes to the Charter were rare events that occurred about once every generation, with gaps often spanning some thirty years between commissions. Between 1898 and 1901, the City as we know it came into being through the adoption of a Charter that demarcated the City’s boundaries, in addition to creating and dividing power between the Mayor, the Board of Estimate, the Borough Presidents, and the Municipal Assembly. Almost 30 years later, in 1936, the Charter was reformed to create a City Council with proportional representation and a City Planning Commission. And again, three decades later, in 1963, the Charter was reformed to make important changes to the City budget process
On November 7, 1989, the residents of New York City voted to adopt a new city charter. Under the new Charter, the Board of Estimate was abolished while the City Council was expanded and given wider powers. This was a significant overhaul of the City Charter transferring many powers over land use, contracts, and the budget to an expanded City Council and the Office of the Mayor.
The 1989 Charter amendment, with its Chapter 36 with sections 830, 831 laid the base for establishment of the Equal Employment Practices Commission and defined Duties and powers of the EEPC. Section 832 defines the Compliance Procedure for agencies to follow. Since than EEPC went through broad transformations in search of excellence to improve its organization, practices, procedures and human resources to help New York City achieve its vision for equal employment practices in all NYC agencies. The City’s employment practices are defined in a detailed way in Chapter 35. And The EEPC is tasked to conduct such study or investigations and hold such hearings as may be necessary to determine whether agencies are in compliance with the equal employment opportunity requirements of chapter 36 and chapter thirty-five.
EEPC Today
The EEPC’s mandate is to ensure the City’s employment policies and practices comply with Federal, State, and City EEO requirements and industry best practices. Programmatic changes resulting from the EEPC’s audits assist City entities in preventing employment discrimination and avoiding costly litigation.