Audit: Many bias cases may sit idle for months

Tuesday, April 10, 2001 | 10:56 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- People who file complaints of discrimination might have to wait more than one year before the state Equal Rights Commission makes a decision, some cases remain idle for months and management offers little supervision, according to a legislative audit released today.

The audit states the goal of the agency is to close 90 percent of its cases within 250 days or about a year. "However, during fiscal year 2000 more than one-third of the investigations took longer than one year to complete, with 13 percent taking longer than two years."

The agency, which has 20.5 full-time positions, has a $1 million annual budget, which is composed of state and federal funds. The agency is charged with investigating complaints related to race, sex, age, religion and disability.

During the period covered by the audit the average investigation lasted 371 days. "Many cases sit for months without any evidence of being investigated," the report says.

"In addition, the agency's practice of assigning cases to multiple investigators is not controlled, resulting in cases being lost and little evidence of investigative work being done."

Of the 48 files reviewed, multiple investigators were assigned in 18 cases. These took an average of 737 days to investigate, compared to 338 days for cases assigned just one investigator. Some of the cases were reassigned to as many as four investigators.

The policy of the commission is to hold a settlement conference within 30 days of the case being assigned. The audit states that in 40 percent of the cases examined the informal settlement meeting was scheduled beyond the 30 days.

The report, by auditors Darin Conforti, Michael Noel, Timothy Brown and Stephen Wood, suggested the need for tighter supervision and monitoring of these investigations.

"Although management stated it periodically reviews investigator reports and case files, meets with investigators and reviews management reports, we found little evidence of management oversight," said the report.

Auditors said the commission's policy manual was vague. "The manual does not adequately set forth effective case management and investigative procedures or provide guidance for adequate management oversight and supervision."

During the audit on Aug. 2, 2000, the Las Vegas office incurred about $700,000 in damage due to a fire. Some files for active cases were destroyed, but most files for closed cases were not significantly damaged. The auditors said commission managers were cooperative in providing documents for review.

The audit shows that the number of cases being closed by the commission has steadily declined during the past five years.

In 1996 the commission completed 1,261 cases, but that fell to 973 in 2000.

In 53 percent of the cases the commission found no probable cause for the complaint.

Four percent of the cases were settled with benefits; 11 percent of the complaints were withdrawn, but benefits were paid; in 15 percent of the cases the commission issued a notice that the person complaining had a right to sue.

Myla Florence, director of the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, which oversees the Equal Rights Commission, concurred with the auditors' recommendations.