§ 2–1831.02. Establishment of Office of Administrative Hearings.
(a) The District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings is established as an independent agency within the executive branch of the District of Columbia government in the form and manner prescribed by this chapter. The Office shall be responsible for the administrative adjudication of all cases to which this chapter applies.
(b) The Office shall commence operations on the day that begins the first pay period after 180 days following Council confirmation of the individual who will serve as the first Chief Administrative Law Judge of the Office. On or after March 6, 2002, the Mayor may issue an executive order appointing an acting Chief Administrative Law Judge, pending his or her confirmation, and may authorize him or her to plan for the implementation of this chapter, including the commencement of operations of the Office.
(c)(1)(A) If the Office begins operations after October 1, 2003, the Chief Financial Officer shall make intra-district transfers, on a quarterly basis, to the Department of Health, the Department of Human Services, the Board of Appeals and Review, the Child and Family Services Agency, and the Department of Motor Vehicles for the continuing costs of their adjudication functions during Fiscal Year 2004. The intra-district transfer shall be calculated as a pro rata share of the funds and full-time equivalent positions that each agency, respectively, transferred to the Office for its Fiscal Year 2004 baseline budget prepared by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. Any amount so transferred shall remain a portion of the Office’s baseline budget for any succeeding fiscal year.
(B) In calculating any pro rata share for the Board of Appeals and Review, the Chief Financial Officer shall exclude from consideration any period that occurs, in whole or in part, during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2004. The Chief Financial Officer shall also make an intra-district transfer to the Office’s budget of any unused funds in the Fiscal Year 2004 budget of the Board of Appeals and Review, as of the date that the Office commences operations in accordance with subsection (b) of this section.
(2) Repealed.
(3) All funding and full-time equivalent position authority associated with the administrative adjudication functions of any agency to which this chapter becomes applicable on October 1, 2004, shall be transferred from that agency on or before the date that this chapter becomes applicable to that agency.
(4) All property associated with the administrative adjudication functions of any agency to which this chapter becomes applicable shall be transferred to the Office on or before the date that this chapter becomes applicable to that agency.
(d) Any hearing officer in an agency covered by this chapter shall be subject to all rights, privileges, and requirements of this chapter, but his or her position and related costs shall continue to be funded by his or her originating agency until personnel authority, property, records, and unexpended balances of appropriations, revenues, and other funds associated with an agency’s carrying out the functions assigned to the Office under authority of this chapter are lawfully transferred to the Office.
