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Enforcement unit reports steady closures, longer AG timelines for formal disciplinary cases
Summary
The board’s enforcement manager presented monthly and multi-year statistics showing an increase in complaints and a high closure rate; staff said a small number of cases sent for formal disciplinary action to the Attorney General's office account for increases in elapsed time to final decisions.
Brooke Grabowski, the board’s enforcement program manager, walked the board through the enforcement statistics in the meeting materials, beginning with the number of complaint investigations opened and completed for each month of the last fiscal year and multi-year totals. “The first page on page 21, this shows the number of complaint investigations that were opened and completed for each of the last 12 months of the fiscal year,” Grabowski said.
Grabowski pointed the board to tables showing pending investigations, average days from opening to completion, age distributions of pending cases, and outcomes for completed investigations (citations, formal disciplinary action, or closures without discipline). The packet also included tables on citations and formal disciplinary actions, with timelines from opening to final action.
Board members praised the unit’s closure rate while asking why the average days from referral for formal disciplinary action to final decision had increased. Grabowski said a small number of cases sent to the Attorney General took much longer to resolve and that those outliers—combined with the relatively small number of formal disciplinary referrals—drive up the average. She clarified that the statistics on these administrative formal actions do not include cases that are in outside courts or at the Supreme Court level.
Several board members noted the increase in the number of complaints, and staff said easier online filing through the Connect complaint form, introduced in 2020, has reduced friction for complainants and likely contributed to higher complaint volumes. Board members also asked whether the increase in citations reflected a change in enforcement threshold; staff said both the absolute number of complaints and the citation percentage increased, and that staff did not have a definitive explanation beyond more complaints and case-level variations.
Why it matters: The enforcement statistics shape the board’s resource needs and budget forecasting and inform questions about whether additional staffing or procedural changes are required to process more complaints or to manage cases that require Attorney General involvement.
Ending: Staff will continue to monitor timelines for AG referrals and return with updates. No formal board policy change was adopted at this meeting.
