Lake Forest Park Hearing Examiner

CITY OF LAKE FOREST PARK NOTICE OF APPEAL

The undersigned appeals the decision of the ________________________,
(Deciding Official)

File No._________, dated , a copy of which is attached hereto.

As grounds for my appeal, I allege the following: (State with specificity your contentions.
Use additional pages if necessary)

1. The Deciding Official erred by ___________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

in violation of Lake Forest Park Municipal Code (Ordinance) No______

or ____________________________ (State or Federal statute or legal principle).

2. The Deciding Official erred by ___________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

in violation of Lake Forest Park Municipal Code (Ordinance) No______

or ____________________________ (State or Federal statute or legal principle).

3. The Deciding Official erred by ___________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

in violation of Lake Forest Park Municipal Code (Ordinance) No______

or ____________________________ (State or Federal statute or legal principle).

Dated this _____ day of __________________ 200___

_______________________________
Signature

_______________________________
(Print)

________________________________________________
Address

_(_____)__________________________
Telephone Number

Appeal Number. __________________ (Filled in by City Clerk)

RESOLUTION NO. 607

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LAKE FOREST PARK ADOPTING RULES OF PROCEDURE FOR ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS.

Whereas, the City Council of the City of Lake Forest Park has established a system for appealing administrative decisions; and

Whereas, uniform rules of appeal facilitate fair and impartial hearings; now, therefore,

THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LAKE FOREST PARK, WASHINGTON, DOES HEREBY RESOLVE:

1. That the "Administrative Appeals Rules of Procedure" attached hereto are adopted as appellate rules of procedure for the City of Lake Forest Park.

2. These rules of procedure supersede all rules of procedure for administrative appeals adopted heretofore.

PASSED BY A MAJORITY VOTE OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LAKE FOREST PARK, WASHINGTON, THIS 14th DAY OF DECEMBER 2000.

APPROVED

David R. Hutchinson, Mayor

ATTEST:

Susan Stine, City Clerk

CITY OF LAKE FOREST PARK Lake Forest Park, Washington

ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS RULES OF PROCEDURE

CITY OF LAKE FOREST PARK

RULES OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE

1 Authority and applicability of Rules

These rules, adopted by City Council Resolution No. 607, apply to appeals of administrative decisions of city officials, and they govern proceedings before the City's Hearing Examiner or the City Council sitting as an appellate body. For the purposes of these rules, the Hearing Examiner and the City Council are referred to jointly as the "Examiner."

2 Expeditious Proceedings

To the extent practicable and consistent with requirements of law, appeals shall be conducted expeditiously. In the conduct of such proceedings, all participants shall make every effort at each stage of a proceeding to avoid delay.

3 Ex Parte Communication

Substantive ex parte communications with the Examiner during an appeal are prohibited.
Any substantive ex parte communication shall be publicly disclosed, and the provisions of Rule 17 shall apply.

4 Special Exceptions

These rules are designed to address circumstances expected to occur in appellate proceedings. The Examiner reserves the right to exercise flexibility and discretion when applying these rules to unforseen circumstances.

5. Appeal -- Filing

All appeals shall be filed with the City Clerk on a form provided by the City, a copy of which is attached hereto. A copy of the decision being appealed must be attached to the notice of appeal. Unless otherwise provided in City ordinance or state law, an appeal must be filed within ten (10) days of the date of the decision being appealed. An untimely or incomplete appeal shall not be accepted for filing by the City Clerk.

6 Transmittal of Appeals

The City Clerk shall transmit the Notice of Appeal and attached decision (the "appeal") to the appropriate decision maker as follows:

Jurisdiction -- Hearing Examiner. The City Clerk shall transmit appeals to the Hearing Examiner within two working days of receipt and acceptance of an appeal.
Jurisdiction -- City Council. The City Clerk shall place the appeal on the City Council's consent agenda for the next regularly scheduled Council meeting along with a proposed resolution referring the appeal to the City's Hearing Examiner.
Referral -- Hearing Examiner. Whenever the City Council adopts a resolution referring an appeal to the City's Hearing Examiner, the City Clerk shall transmit the appeal along with a copy of the resolution of referral to the Hearing Examiner within two working days of the date of the resolution.

7 Scheduling

All hearings shall be scheduled by the Examiner; provided that, unless City Ordinance or State law requires otherwise, an appeal shall be scheduled within sixty days of the date it was filed.
Prehearing conferences may be convened to discuss procedural matters; provided that the President Pro Tempore of the Council, or other Council member designated by the City Council, may preside at any prehearing conference when the City Council has jurisdiction over the appeal.
Prehearing conferences and appeal hearings shall be scheduled for a date and time convenient to the parties, if possible. All hearings shall be held at City Hall, except that prehearing conferences may be conducted by telephonic conference calls.
Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, written notice of the date time and place of all proceedings shall be given by the Clerk to the parties not less than 10 days prior to the event.

8 Continuances

Requests for continuance shall be filed in writing to the Examiner and concurrently to other parties before the hearing date.
Except as provided in subsection E, requests in which all parties join will be granted.
Requests for continuance, other than joint requests, shall be heard at a prehearing conference, if possible; otherwise, at the beginning of the appeal hearing; provided that, the Examiner may grant a request a continuance made during the proceedings.
The Examiner shall continue proceedings within the time limits imposed by relevant ordinances or statutes.
Continuances shall not be granted where to do so would violate any state or city procedural time lines, unless the appellant agrees in writing to waive such time lines.
Requests heard at prehearing conferences shall be ruled upon orally and confirmed by written order. Requests ruled upon orally at the appeal hearing shall be confirmed in writing only if granted. Whenever a matter is continued, the written order shall set the date and time of the continued hearing.

9 Motions -- Rulings

Prehearing motions shall be submitted in writing to the Examiner and concurrently to other parties. Motions shall be heard in prehearing conferences; provided that, motions filed less than 20 days before appeal hearing date may heard and ruled upon on the day of the appeal hearing.
A written response to a motion must be filed with the Examiner not later than 10 days after the date that the motion was filed. Late responses may be considered at the Examiner' s discretion if received before a dispositive order ruling on the motion is filed with the clerk.
The Examiner will rule on each motion heard in a prehearing conference in writing. Motions heard at the appeal hearing shall be ruled upon orally. Multiple motions may be consolidated where efficiency would be served and where the rights of the parties would not be prejudiced.
Written orders issued prior to the scheduled appeal hearing will be mailed or faxed to each party of record where time allows, distributed at the appeal hearing or announced at the appeal hearing. Oral rulings made during an appeal hearing, except for denied motions for continuance, shall be memorialized within the written decision on the appeal.

10 Pre-filing of Evidence by Parties

Not less than three weeks prior to the scheduled hearing, the respondent city shall file with the city clerk:
1. One copy of all documents or exhibits which the city intends to submit at the hearing together with a position statement; and
2. The following information for each person the city expects to call as an expert witness: name, resume, the subject matter on which the expert is expected to testify, the substance of the facts and opinions to which the expert is expected to testify and a summary of the grounds for each opinion.
Not less than two weeks prior to the scheduled hearing, the appellant shall file with the city clerk:
1. One copy of all documents or exhibits which the appellant intends to submit at the hearing together with a position statement; and
2. The following information for each person the appellant expects to call as an expert witness: name, resume, the subject matter on which the expert is expected to testify, the substance of the facts and opinions to which the expert is expected to testify and a summary of the grounds for each opinion.
Each party has a duty to supplement at the earliest possible opportunity its submittal made under subsections A and B whenever:
1. An additional expert witness is identified whose participation in the proceedings could not reasonably have been foreseen before the close of the exhibit pre-filing period.
2. A party obtains information that material previously submitted is not correct and the circumstances are such that failure to amend the submittal would constitute knowing concealment of information central to the issues in the appeal.
Material not prefiled shall be inadmissable except by agreement of the other parties or at the Examiner's discretion in extraordinary circumstances.

11 Hearing

The appeal shall be recorded and the Examiner shall have full authority to conduct the hearing, including but not limited to, administering oaths and affirmations; maintaining order as provided in Rule 14; modifying the order the proceeding, so long as no party suffers prejudice; questioning witnesses; limiting evidence to specified issues; ruling on evidence; allowing cross examination; and limiting opening statements and final argument; provided that, the normal order of proceedings shall be:
1. Introduction by Examiner
2. Entry of pre-filed exhibits into the record.
3. Opening Statements
4. Appellant (or party with the burden of proof);
5. The responding party(ies);
6. Rebuttal
7. Sur-rebuttal, if allowed by the Examiner.
8. Argument and rebuttal argument.
The appellant shall have the burden of proof, unless otherwise provided by ordinance or law. Unless another standard of proof is required by ordinance or law, the appellant must establish its case by a preponderance of the evidence.
Rules of evidence and privilege shall apply; however, the examiner may admit relevant evidence possessing probative value commonly accepted by reasonably prudent people in the conduct of their affairs.
The city shall not be responsible for ensuring that documents received after 8:00 a.m. on the day of hearing are entered into the hearing record. Persons submitting such documents are responsible for ensuring such entry. The originator of a facsimile transmittal is solely responsible for insuring that the transmittal was successfully and timely received by the city.
All documentary or other physical evidence submitted shall be sequentially numbered as exhibits and retained by the city as a part of the official case record, except city codes, laws, comprehensive plans or other readily available public documents. Materials which the offering party is not willing to have become city property will not be accepted as evidence except, at the discretion of the Examiner, in unusual circumstances.
Reduced scale/size copies and/or copies which can easily be folded for storage in a legal sized file folder are preferred whenever oversized and mounted documents are used for display purposes at hearing. Three dimensional models may not be used in presentations unless the offering party has color photographs of the model to offer as evidence.
Documentary evidence may be received in the form of copies or excerpts. Upon request, parties shall be given an opportunity to compare the copy with the original.
The Examiner may take official notice of judicially cognizable facts and general, technical, or scientific facts within the Examiner's specialized knowledge; provided that, the Examiner shall so indicate in the written decision; and appellate court decisions, adopted state and local laws, ordinances, motions, policies, plans and other similar documents in the public domain may be referenced, cited, quoted and relied upon.
Unless the Examiner grants additional time to submit additional material and on the record states that the hearing record was left open for such receipt, documentary material submitted after the close of the hearing will not be considered by the Examiner.

12 Optional Written Closing Statement Process

In lieu of oral closing arguments, the Examiner may establish a written closing argument process upon the request of one or more of the parties; provided that, such request is made before the close of the hearing, and the appellant waives any applicable decision time line that might be exceeded by submission of written closing statements. A party shall not be penalized for failure to submit a written closing statement, but failure to file a written closing statement by the established deadline constitutes a waiver of the right to do so.

13 City Clerk

The city clerk shall designate a clerk who shall be responsible for the appeal and all notifications required by these rules, serve as clerk during the appeal hearing and any related proceedings, maintain the register of parties, mark exhibits, keep a list of exhibits and witnesses and perform such other ministerial duties as may be assigned by the Examiner.

14 Examiner's Power to Maintain Order During Hearing

If conduct of an orderly hearing becomes impossible and order cannot otherwise be restored, the Examiner may:
1. order the hearing room cleared and continue in session; or,
2. adjourn the hearing and reconvene the hearing at another location.
If necessary, law enforcement officers may be summoned by the Examiner to maintain order.

15 Reopening of Hearing

When the Examiner decides to reopen a hearing and the appellant approves, the Examiner shall give all parties at least ten (10) days written notice of the date for rehearing.

16 Examiner Decision - Distribution

The Examiner's decision shall be in writing. The decision shall be based upon applicable city ordinances, statutory and case law. Substantial weight shall be accorded to the decision of the responsible official, unless otherwise provided by ordinance or law.

The Examiner's decision(s) in each case shall be transmitted or mailed by the Examiner to all parties. The names and addresses of all recipients shall be listed on the decision.

17 Recusal of Examiner

The Examiner (or Council member) shall withdraw by notice on the record whenever the need for recusal becomes apparent to the Examiner.
Any party may request recusal of the Hearing Examiner. Such a request shall be raised as soon as the basis for disqualification is known to the person and shall state the grounds for the request with as much specificity as possible.
The Hearing Examiner's decision shall be in writing and filed with the City Clerk or delivered orally during the appeal hearing.
If the Hearing Examiner denies the request, it shall not be considered by that official in rendering a decision.

18 Withdrawal of Appeals

Withdrawal of an appeal before the hearing or after the hearing but prior to a decision shall be made by the appellant in writing and confirmed by written order of the Examiner. Withdrawal of an appeal at the hearing may be oral and confirmed in writing by the Examiner.
Withdrawal of an appeal terminates city consideration of the appeal, and no further appeal is allowed.

19. Consolidated Proceedings

Whenever an appeal of an administrative decision is consolidated for hearing with an open record hearing on a related application, the hearing of the administrative appeal shall occur before the open record hearing, unless the Examiner determines fairness requires otherwise.

20 Amendment

The Hearing Examiner is authorized to issue orders amending these rules with respect to proceedings before that officer to accommodate the needs of parties, to promote efficiency or as otherwise expedient to further the goal of achieving fair and impartial hearings.

Resolution No. 607
Approved by Council
December 14, 2000