§ 7.20.060. County hearing officer for expedited cannabis enforcement.

A.

Establishment of Office. For the purposes of hearing and determining expedited proceedings related to cannabis activities which are not otherwise heard by the board of supervisors, there is hereby established the office of county hearing officer, pursuant to Chapter 14 (commencing with Section 27720) of Part 3 of Division 2 of Title 3 of the California Government Code, to which office the board of supervisors may by resolution appoint one or more administrative hearing officers and establish a process for assigning hearings.

B.

Selection of Hearing Officer. The county administrative officer, in consultation with county counsel, shall be responsible for recruiting, selecting and contracting with qualified neutral hearing officer[s] who may be private attorneys or professional hearing officers from the California Office of Administrative Hearings. The compensation and/or future appointment of any hearing officer shall not be directly or indirectly conditioned upon the substance of his or her rulings, including but not limited to the amount of administrative fines levied. Any private attorney hearing officer shall be an independent contractor appointed for a period of not less than one year. If the board of supervisors appoints more than one hearing officer, each hearing required under this chapter shall be assigned to a hearing officer set by the clerk of the board using a random selection process. Whether a hearing officer or the board acts as the administrative hearing body for any matter shall be determined by the clerk based solely on which is available sooner or, if the board has established a process for assigning hearings under subsection A., in accordance with that process.

C.

Qualifications of Hearing Officer. Each hearing officer shall be an attorney at law in good standing who has been admitted to practice before the courts of the State of California for at least five years or a designated hearing officer from the California Office of Administrative Hearings.

D.

Powers of Hearing Officer. Hearing officers shall have all powers set forth in Government Code Sections 27721 and 27722, as well as the power to continue a hearing one time for no more than ten calendar days upon a showing of good cause by a party, the power to prepare a record of proceedings and the power to uphold fines and abatement orders and order that the cost of the abatement and any unpaid fines be specially assessed against the property upon which the violation occurred.

(Ord. No. 18-06, § 4, 5-8-2018)

Editor's note

Ord. No. 18-06, § 4, adopted May 8, 2018, amended § 7.20.060 in its entirety to read as herein set out. Former § 7.20.060 pertained to nuisance existence—hearing—notice—contents, and derived from Ord. No. 411, 197.