California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board reports backlog decline, names Andrea Miles supervising ALJ; CAMS upgrades continue

SACRAMENTO — At a regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 16, 2024, the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board reported a substantial reduction in its backlog of appeals, announced the appointment of Andrea Miles as supervising administrative law judge for the Sacramento Office of Appeals, and described ongoing updates to the board’s CAMS case‑management system.

Vice Chair Kent Monning said the board closed 588 cases since the last meeting, noting ‘‘551 of those were in the CAMS system, our new system, and 37 in the legacy system.’’ He told members the board’s open caseload has dropped from about 96,500 in January to roughly 66,680, calling that ‘‘a significant impact on the backlog that we have.’’

Chief ALJ Mike Koutre told the board that field offices issued nearly 24,000 decisions in September, about 21,800 of them in unemployment insurance (UI) and pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) programs, which contributed to a reduction of more than 4,000 open cases for the month. Koutre also reported that average case age decreased from 68 days to 66 days and that the agency’s national comparison remained favorable: ‘‘The last national reported case age average was 205 days,’’ he said.

Within his report, Koutre announced the appointment of Andrea Miles as the new supervising ALJ for the Sacramento Office of Appeals. Koutre summarized Miles’s background, saying she joined the agency in 2019 after earlier work at the Sacramento County Public Defender’s Office, the Office of Administrative Hearings and the Board of Parole Hearings.

Rebecca Bach, supervising ALJ for Appellate Operations, told the board the office met or exceeded several U.S. Department of Labor benchmarks in September: 90.3 percent of second‑level cases were closed within 45 days in that month (year‑to‑date 71 percent), and 98.4 percent were closed within 75 days (year‑to‑date 94.1 percent). Bach said the board’s average case aging stood at about 34.4 days, below the Department of Labor target of 40 days.

Jefferson Willoughby, the board’s chief information officer, briefed members on CAMS development. He said the program has five major releases planned, two of which are complete, and that the team is conducting parallel testing streams for delegated‑access functionality to support many‑to‑many relationships (for example, employer representatives and EDD agents). Willoughby said teams are remediating identified bugs and that forthcoming releases will include hearing‑schedule optimization and automation of certain forms.

Board members asked how scheduling optimizations would be prioritized; Willoughby described options to tune scheduling beyond the current first‑in, first‑out model so particular case types (for example, lengthy or repeated no‑show cases) can be prioritized dynamically.

In other business, the board approved the minutes for the Sept. 18, 2024 meeting following a motion; Member Ng and Vice Chair Kent Monning voted "aye" and the minutes were adopted. Chief Counsel Mark Woosam reported there were no closed‑session items, and the meeting was adjourned.

The board said it filled three staff positions since the last meeting, has 11 recruitments in progress, and reported a net loss of 23 administrative law judges since December; staff said those vacancies are being monitored as part of ongoing staffing and scheduling adjustments. The cross‑training program that moved field ALJs into appellate operations is scheduled to end Nov. 1, staff said.

The board did not record a formal vote regarding the announced appointment of Andrea Miles during the meeting; staff presented the appointment as a personnel announcement.