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Member raises concern about hearing-officer discretion after recent case
Summary
An agency member said a recent hearing officer decision allowed an applicant to return with a special-permit request instead of upholding enforcement, and staff warned that hearing-officer appointments and powers are governed by state statute and give officers considerable discretion.
During discussion of the proposed citation-and-fine ordinance, an agency member said a recent case in which a hearing officer declined to act on the information before him and instead allowed the applicant to return with a special-permit request was "concerning to me." The member framed the point as a reason to weigh carefully any shift of adjudicative authority outside the agency.
Alexis responded that the role and appointment of hearing officers is laid out in state statute and that the citation-and-fine process — if adopted — would include hearings conducted by officers who are statutorily appointed and given broad discretion. Alexis said that statutory constraints remove those decisions from staff and appointed agency officials and that this separation is something the agency needs to navigate carefully.
Members did not vote on this procedural concern at the meeting; the issue was raised during the ordinance-item discussion and will factor into the agency’s and the ordinance committee’s ongoing work on the draft language.
