All hearings held pursuant to this chapter shall be recorded by an audio-recording device unless the city chooses to use a court reporter. The hearings need not be conducted according to technical rules of evidence. Hearsay evidence may be used for the purpose of supplementing or explaining any direct evidence, but shall not be sufficient in itself to support a finding unless it would be admissible over objection in a civil action in a California court of competent jurisdiction. Any relevant evidence shall be admitted if it is the type of evidence on which reasonable persons are accustomed to rely in the conduct of serious affairs, regardless of the existence of any common law or statutory rule which might make improper the admission of such evidence over objection in a civil action. Oral evidence shall be taken only on oath or affirmation. Irrelevant and unduly repetitious evidence shall be excluded. (Ord. 114 § 16, 1993)