Legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee
Keypoints
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ENFORCEMENT POLICIES AND PRACTICES
Section I. DEP Employee Options for Addressing Concerns About Regulatory Enforcement Matters
"Whistleblower" protection against retaliation is available through state and federal law.
Only one of the three state whistleblower statutes sets out an independent review process.
There are hard feelings between certain people at DEP, at both management and staff levels, which reverberate beyond the persons directly involved.
DEP management has not exerted sufficient leadership to address employee issues.
Section II: Environmental Civil Penalty Policy
DEP is not in compliance with the statutory requirement to promulgate civil penalty regulations.
DEP administrative civil penalty policy does not assure the penalty outcome is appropriate or consistent.
Section III: Environmental Enforcement Process
Enforcement case documentation insufficient.
DEP has no systematic way of tracking compliance and there are inconsistent practices among bureaus in closing out enforcement actions.
An inadequate management information system limits DEP's enforcement ability and oversight of enforcement efforts.
Enforcement actions not completed in a timely manner consistent with administrative policies.
On average, DEP takes 99 days to issue a NOV.
Administrative orders (consent and unilateral) take significantly longer than a year to issue.
On average, enforcement cases are resolved and compliance achieved more quickly through a referral to the attorney general (27 months) than a consent order (35 months).
A number of enforcement actions were at variance with stated policies and usual practices.
Appendix A: Findings Related to Specific Circumstances at DEP
DEP "user-friendly" enforcement approach was a source of confusion and contention for staff and had a disruptive impact on enforcement process and cases.
DEP administration was lax in guiding staff in implementing "user-friendly" policy and was either inattentive or indifferent to staff's confusion and the policy's effect on enforcement process.
Mr. Vito Santarsiero (a former executive assistant to DEP commissioner) did not affect the final decisions in cases but did impact enforcement process.
DEP administration did not fully describe the extent of Mr. Santarsiero's role in regulatory permit and enforcement cases.
DEP administration did not take enough action to eliminate the perception, in part caused by Mr. Santarsiero's actions, that professionalism was second to patronage.