N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 5, § 11.5 – Evaluation of application.

(a) Completed applications for certification shall be submitted by the business enterprise to the local empire zone administrative board.
(b) The local zone administrative board shall first determine whether the facility is, or is planned to be, located in the empire zone. If the local zone administrative board determines that the facility is, or is planned to be, located in the empire zone, the local empire zone administrative board shall make a determination to recommend or not recommend a business enterprise for certification based upon the business enterprise's completed application. If the local zone administrative board recommends a business enterprise for certification, the chair of the local empire zone administrative board shall so indicate that recommendation by signing the application in the space provided therefore and forward the completed application to the commissioner and retain a copy. Provided, however, if the applicant is in a pending boundary revision or awaiting approval of a regionally significant project, the chair of the local zone administrative board shall not send the application to the commissioner prior to the official approval of such boundary revision or regionally significant project.
(c) If the completed application is recommended by the local empire zone administrative board, the commissioner shall send the application to the Commissioner of Labor for review pursuant to section 959(a)(iii)(5) and (7) of the General Municipal Law. Upon completion of that review, the Commissioner of Labor shall notify the commissioner whether the business enterprise, during the three years preceding the submission of an application for certification, has:
1. (1) engaged in a substantial violation or a pattern of violations of laws regulating unemployment insurance, workers compensation, public work, child labor, employment of minorities and women, safety and health, or other laws for the protection of workers as determined by final judgement of a judicial or administrative proceeding, further, the Commissioner of Labor shall notify the commissioner if the business enterprise failed to disclose on its application any findings that it had violated the laws regulating unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, public work, child labor, employment of minorities and women, safety and health, labor standards, or any other laws for the protection of workers during the three years preceding the date upon which it submitted its application; or
2. (2) been found in a criminal proceeding to have violated, in the previous three years, any of the foregoing laws or regulations promulgated pursuant to such laws, the conditions of any permit issued thereunder, or similar statute, regulation, order or permit condition of any other government agency, foreign or domestic.
  In the evert the Commissioner of Labor determines that the business enterprise has been found in a criminal proceeding to have committed the violations referred to in paragraph (2) of this subdivision, the business enterprise shall not be certified.
(d) The commissioner shall have the right to reject, in the commissioner's sole discretion, any application that the commissioner determines is incomplete, without making any determination to approve or disapprove the application. In the event of such rejection, the commissioner shall return the application to the local zone administrative board that recommended the business enterprise for certification.
(e) Except for a determination by the Commissioner of Labor in accordance with the last sentence of subdivision (c) of this section, the commissioner shall approve or disapprove an application for certification in his or her discretion after consideration of the criteria set forth in section 11.4 of this Part. If the commissioner approves the application, he or she shall thereafter send to the local empire zone administrators the application and a numbered certificate, as described in section 11.6 of this Part, authorizing the business enterprise to operate as a certified empire zone business. Upon receiving the application and the numbered certificate, the executed numbered certificate of empire zone certification shall be issued to the applicant.