The Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board reported Tuesday that it substantially reduced its backlog and average case age in 2024 while describing short-term service disruptions in Southern California from recent wildfires and next steps on IT and staffing enhancements.

Board Chair Michael Allen said the board has “closed over 916 cases” since the previous meeting and thanked judges and staff for work during the pandemic and recent emergencies. He asked the board to approve the minutes of the Dec. 11, 2024 meeting; board members recorded aye votes and the minutes were approved by roll call.

The agency’s chief executive officer and administrative law judge, Jess Koutre, told the board that many employees in Greater Los Angeles were affected by evacuations and that the Pasadena field office closed for several days because of air quality before reopening. “Many of our employees in Greater Los Angeles were impacted by evacuation,” Koutre said, and the office reopened fully to the public the day before the meeting after temporary closures and installation of air scrubbers.

Koutre outlined recent workload measures: average appeal intake rose 12% in December, driven in part by overpayments tied to Federal CARES Act benefits. He said field offices moved roughly 800 cases among offices to normalize hearing wait times, and that total open inventory sits at just over 57,000 cases with about 42,000 in UI and PUA programs. The agency reduced average case age from 138 days in January 2023 to just over 57 days by the end of 2024.

Rebecca Bach, supervising administrative law judge for appellate operations, provided appellate metrics tied to Department of Labor guidance: in December the board closed 65.4% of cases within 45 days (Department of Labor target 50%) and 90% within 75 days (target 80%), bringing the year averages to 73.1% and 94.5% respectively. “For the month of December, our case aging was 42.5,” Bach said, noting the Department of Labor standard of 40 days.

On technology, the acting chief information officer, Mark (surname not specified in the record), described ongoing enhancements to the appeals portal and data sharing with the Employment Development Department (EDD). “One of the things we are working on is, improving the engagement with EDD to improve our data so that we're able to, do a better job matching, the public participants to their case data,” Mark said. He said changes aim to make it easier for employers to engage online and to reduce missed appointments by improving appointment communications.

Robert Silver, chief administrative services officer, reported staffing and administrative updates: three recently completed field operations hires joined San Diego and Los Angeles offices, three administrative law judges retired since the prior meeting (12 retirements in the 2024–25 fiscal year so far), and the language-audit result showed all 42 bilingual employees who participated “met or exceeded the 10% threshold standard” for use of language skills. Silver also described administrative time-off (ATO) procedures authorized during the state emergency for employees affected by closures, transportation disruptions, or immediate danger.

The board recorded operational directions and distinctions between discussion and formal action: the minutes of Dec. 11, 2024 were approved by roll call vote; other items — including the wildfire response, staffing actions, IT enhancements, and ongoing case-management reallocations — were discussed or reported but did not include further formal board votes at this meeting.

The meeting ended with the chair offering thanks to staff and acknowledging the advantages of teleconferencing; he then adjourned the meeting.