Environmental Control Board Summons Enforcement & Collection: DOI Investigation Identifies Serious Gaps and Issues Recommendations for Reform
Department of Investigation · report
At the request of the City Council's Committee on Oversight and Investigations, DOI examined the City's enforcement and collection of Environmental Control Board (ECB) fines, which are adjudicated at the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) and collected by the Department of Finance (DOF). DOI found serious gaps that let large amounts of City revenue go uncollected, including a lack of data-sharing among agencies, City vendors receiving contract payments while owing unpaid ECB debt, illegible handwritten summonses, and untracked outside collection agency performance. DOI issued six recommendations for reform.
- Released
- 2020-10-01
- Kind
- Investigation
Key findings
- According to DOF's 2019 annual report, the outstanding ECB debt inventory totaled about $1.417 billion, of which roughly $634.9 million was categorized as allowance for bad debt while active collection continued on about $782.2 million. p. 2
- Debt not collected within eight years is canceled; in 2019 alone, about $136.7 million in ECB debt was canceled due to expiration of the eight-year statutory collection period. p. 9
- A lack of information-sharing among City agencies prevents determining aggregate debt owed by a single respondent, worsened by slight variations in name spelling and outdated DOF databases. p. 8
- City agencies did business with vendors that had defaulted on substantial ECB debt; among 187,367 bad-debt respondents, DOI identified 110 vendors that received violations before or during a City contract, and DOF was not using contract payment information to collect the debt. p. 13
- Many summonses are unenforceable due to illegible handwriting or errors in processing handwritten summonses, which hinders confirming a respondent's identity or leads to improper coding; approximately 80% of summonses referred to DOF for collection arise from default judgments. p. 13
- None of the agencies (DOF, OATH, the Law Department) maintain detailed records of why summonses were unenforceable or judgments uncollectible, making it impossible to determine the true collectability of the debt with accuracy. p. 8
What DOI recommended
- The City should standardize and expand a centralized database allowing all agencies to share information relevant to the issuance and enforcement of ECB summonses. p. 17
- City agencies should promulgate rules under Local Law 47 of 2016 and consider existing ECB debt before granting or renewing licenses and permits. p. 17
- Existing ECB debt should be a determining factor in evaluating vendor responsibility for City contracts, and vendors should be told contract payments will not be made until outstanding ECB debt is paid or resolved. p. 14
- Summons-issuing agencies should adopt systems to electronically issue summonses. p. 17
- Unenforceable summonses should be tracked by DOF and the Law Department, with the cause relayed to the issuing agency and OATH, and issuing agencies should designate staff to track them and provide responsive training. p. 2
- DOF should track the performance of Outside Collection Agencies and use the data to identify collection process improvements. p. 2
Entities in this report
- Environmental Control Board Subject
- Department of Finance Subject
- Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings Subject
- Law Department
- Department of Sanitation
- Department of Buildings
- McKinsey & Company
- Adayad Inc
- Wolet Enterprises
- Plaza Homes LLC
- CG Enterprise 1 Corp
- HSL Lessee SNYT LLC
- Yeshivah Ohel Moshe
- 1440 Story LLC
- Grace Episcopal Church
- Flatbridge Parking Corp
- 90-100 Trinity Owner LLC
In the council record
Council meetings after the report date where its subject came up.
- Committee on Finance The preliminary budget testimony discussed billions in uncollected ECB and agency fines, the referral of ECB judgments to Department of Finance collection, and a planned ECB amnesty program, which is the report's subject 2026-03-11
- Committee on Governmental Operations, State & Federal Legislation A council member and the OATH witness discussed ECB fines being the largest cohort of unpaid, uncollected revenue and whether OATH could help collect them, directly matching the report's finding of gaps in ECB fine 2026-03-13
- Committee on Housing and Buildings The chair questioned DOB about the November 2025 ECB report showing over $300 million in uncollected DOB fines, one-third of outstanding ECB judgment debt, and why DOB struggles to collect it, which is the report's 2026-03-24
- Committee on Finance A council member cited the November 2025 ECB report showing over $300 million in uncollected DOB fines and one-third of outstanding ECB judgment debt, on the report's subject of ECB fine collection failures. 2026-03-25