(A) The city's Hearing Officer or his or her designee (hereinafter "Hearing Official") shall:
(1) Notify the appellant of the hearing date, time, and location;
(2) Conduct a hearing within ten (10) business days of receipt of the notice of appeal; and
(3) Issue a ruling no later than five (5) business days after the review upholding, rescinding, shortening the duration of the expulsion, limiting the expulsion to less than all parks, establishing use conditions where the expulsion is modified.
(B) The Hearing Official shall consider a sworn report or a declaration under penalty of perjury written by the individual who issued the expulsion notice, without further evidentiary foundation. This evidence creates a rebuttable presumption that the violation occurred and the burden thereafter rests with the appellant to overcome the presumption.
(C) The Hearing Official shall consider the expulsion notice and may consider any written or oral sworn testimony of the appellant or witnesses, as well as pictorial or demonstrative evidence offered by the appellant that the Hearing Official considers relevant and trustworthy. The Hearing Official may consider information that would not be admissible under the evidence rules in a court of law.
(D) The Hearing Official may issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents, and shall administer individual oaths to witnesses. The Hearing Official shall not issue a subpoena for the attendance of a witness at the request of the appellant unless the request is accompanied by the fee required by for a witness in district court. The appellant shall be responsible for serving any subpoena issued at the appellant's request.
(E) If, after the hearing, the Hearing Official is persuaded on a "more probable than not" basis that the violation did occur, the expulsion notice shall be upheld. Upon a satisfactory showing by appellant that he or she understands his or her violation and will not repeat the violation, the Hearing Official may shorten the duration of the expulsion, limiting the expulsion to less than all parks, establishing use conditions where the expulsion is modified. If, however, the violation is not proved on a "more probable than not" basis, then the Hearing Official shall rescind the expulsion.
(F) The decision of the Hearing Official is final.
(G) No determination of facts made by the Hearing Official under this section shall have any collateral estoppel effect on a subsequent criminal prosecution or civil proceeding and shall not preclude litigation of those same facts in a subsequent criminal prosecution or civil proceeding.
(H) In no event will the Hearing Official be a person who is subordinate to the person who issued the expulsion notice.
(Ord. O-2019-28, passed 10-28-19)