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OCC reports fewer backlogged cases, lays out outreach push and intake limits
Summary
The Office of Citizen Complaints told the commission it opened 474 cases and closed 459 so far this year, highlighted outreach gains and mediations, and said intake must remain with trained investigators even as it pilots intake facilitation with community partners and audits multilingual phone access.
The Office of Citizen Complaints reported improvements in caseload management and presented a strategic outreach plan that aims to increase accessibility and cultural competence for complainants.
Director Hicks told the commission that from Jan. 1 to the meeting date the OCC had opened 474 cases and closed 459, with 20 sustained findings and 407 pending cases overall. "We've been more effective this year in managing our aging cases," Hicks said, citing use of an aging-case report and database tools.
Inez Vargas Frankel, OCC chief trial attorney, presented the outreach plan and 2008 accomplishments: outreach contacts increased from 47 to 120, website additions rose, mediations increased substantially and the office is developing multilingual public‑service announcements. Frankel said the OCC is pursuing an online complaint form and targeted cultural‑competency training for investigators and community partners.
Commissioners asked whether community-based organizations could assume intake functions to ease investigator workload. Frankel and Hicks said intake interviews are an investigative function that require trained staff and legal/operational safeguards; however, they described pilot efforts to meet complainants at partner sites to facilitate intake and to use a 24‑hour answering service with language access.
Commissioners recommended additional outreach to groups serving LEP (limited English proficiency) populations and LGBTQ youth services; OCC said it will examine language‑menu design on its phone line so callers see language options within the first few seconds. OCC also identified resource constraints: most of the OCC's budget is investigator salaries and the office depends on staff to handle intake and investigations.
The commission took no formal policy action but thanked OCC staff for the report and asked for follow-up on the phone‑line audit and the feasibility of expanded intake facilitation.
