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Hillsborough County attorney urges interim "hearing officer" step to streamline zoning decisions
Summary
At a Charter Review Commission meeting, Julia Mandel, the Hillsborough County attorney and former Tampa city attorney, told commissioners a hearing‑officer model can produce a distilled record and make zoning decisions legally more defensible; commissioners asked staff to draft prescriptive and non‑prescriptive charter language options for city council review.
Julia Mandel, who identified herself as the Hillsborough County attorney and a former Tampa city attorney, told the Charter Review Commission that Tampa’s current process — in which zoning cases come directly to city council — is unusual and can leave elected officials making complex quasi‑judicial decisions without a distilled factual record.
"The hearing officer then has 15 days after they close the public hearing to actually write a report," Mandel said, describing the county process in which a hearing officer synthesizes evidence and produces a written recommendation for the governing body. She said that model helps create a record that is legally defensible if a decision is later challenged.
That presentation framed a broader discussion about whether the commission should recommend adding an interim review step — for example a hearing master or a small review board — into Tampa’s charter or suggest that council create the function by ordinance. Commissioners asked about practical details: what evidence is allowed on appeal, whether consent agendas would still work, and how variances are handled.
The commission did not vote on a final position but directed staff to produce concrete draft language. One member asked staff counsel to prepare two options: "one that is more prescriptive and one that is less prescriptive," a participant said. The aim is to give city council a choice between a charter amendment that sets a firm interim review step and a recommendation that preserves more flexibility for future ordinance action.
Mandel cautioned there are trade‑offs: a hearing officer model can add time to the process but can also make decisions easier to defend in court. Commissioners said they want to balance legal defensibility, public access and the council’s role as elected decision‑makers. The group expects to review the drafted options at a future meeting.
The discussion concluded with an agreement to return the zoning item with written options for consideration by the full commission.
