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MCCALL:Yes, I move that we direct the Planning Director to hire a hearings officer <br />to hear this. <br />VITOUSEK:Mr. Chair, as the applicant, may I speak to that issue please, not speaking <br />on the motion but speaking on the question of whether it should be referred to a hearings officer <br />or heard by the Commission. <br />GALDONES:Okay, can I have this motion on deck and then I will open it up for <br />discussion and allow you to proceed. <br />VITOUSEK:Yeah, that€s fine with me, yeah. <br />GALDONES:Do I have a second? <br />GRAHAM:Second. <br />GALDONES:IthasbeenmovedbyCommissionerMcCallandsecondedby <br />Commissioner Graham that the Director be instructed to hire a hearings officer. Further <br />discussion? Norman. Oh- I€m sorry, it has been a long day. Mr. Vitousek. <br />VITOUSEK:Yeah. I mean, I really understand that the point of referring things out to <br />hearings officers is an attempt to speed them up, but it doesn€t work necessarily. The rules set <br />out different procedures for hearings on contested case by hearings officers, and what they <br />provide is that the, you know, it has to be a certain amount of time involved, and then there has <br />to be a post hearing procedure, which requires submission of briefs, admission of proposed <br />Findings of Facts and Conclusions of Law, and then an opportunity to argue those before the <br />Commission. And so instead of going to one Commission hearing for a contested case hearing <br />before the Commission you go to a pre-trial, you go to hearings before the contested case- before <br />the hearings officer, and then you have to get scheduled back on the agenda in order for the <br />Commission to consider the recommendation of the hearings officer. I don€t- this is really not a <br />complex hearing. You know this is not a hearing that€s going to require a lot of witnesses. And <br />so we would really request that the Commission just set this thing for contested case hearing <br />before the Commission, put it on an agenda and let€s rock and roll, because time really matters <br />here, you know. Time really matters here and we will give you every assurance that we will go <br />as quickly as possible. We will submit written testimony in advance. We will do whatever€s <br />necessary to accelerate this. But the difference between 2 months, or a month and a half, and 6, <br />or 8, or 9, or 10 months makes a huge difference when you€re on an academic calendar, you <br />know, and when decisions have to be made and actions have to be taken to project where you€re <br />going to be and where these kids are going to be in the following school year. So that€s really <br />our request, you know, we would like to get this done quickly. Thank you. <br />GALDONES:Norman, in light of Mr. Vitousek€s request, if you agendize this item in <br />the next public hearing in this area will we be able to conduct the contested case hearing at that <br />time and what kind of timeline will we be dealing with? Because I know we have other items on <br />the agenda also. Will be able to fit it within the reasonable timeframe for the day? <br />8 <br /> <br />