Sec. 17.1-7. Hearings.
(a) Time for Hearings. A hearing officer appointed by the city shall consider and decide petitions for rental increases, as provided herein, within ninety days of the receipt of the completed application form unless a longer time is agreed to by all tenants and management affected. Petitions shall be considered and decided in the order filed.
(b) Open Meetings. All meetings shall be open to the public and notice thereof given as required by law. Meetings shall be held as necessary to hear and decide petitions within the allotted time.
(c) Submissions by Management. City shall prepare an application form and provide notification if an application is incomplete within ten days of its submission. At the time the management files its petition, management shall submit to the hearing officer such information, evidence, or other documentation as the hearing officer may require in determining whether the proposed rent increase is fair. The information which the management may be required to submit may include, but is not limited to the following:
(1) The actual operating expenses by category for the mobilehome park for a two-year period ending no more than four months before the proposed effective date of the increase;
(2) The current and proposed rent schedules for each space in the mobilehome park;
(3) A schedule of other fees and income from the mobilehome park;
(4) The vacancy rates in the mobilehome park during the preceding two-year period.
(5) A list of current leases for spaces unaffected by the proposed increase extending beyond the effective date of the increase, showing the dates that each lease expires and the amount and date of change in rental rates for such lease;
(6) Details of any other factors affecting the need for the proposed rent increase as may be reasonably required by the hearing officer. Failure to include information sufficient to provide the hearing officer with such information as the hearing officer deemed necessary to render an informed decision when requested by the hearing officer shall be at the risk of the management.
(7) The applicant may also submit anticipated increases in expenses for the mobilehome park for the twelve-month period of the proposed increase, provided that the increases are certain and can be precisely calculated.
(d) Representation. Any party to a hearing may be assisted by attorneys or other persons of the party's choice at the party's sole expense.
(e) Hearing Procedure. The hearing officer shall proceed in the manner required by law, including this chapter, and shall render findings which support its decision and which are supported by the evidence. The hearings shall not be conducted according to technical rules of evidence and witnesses. Any relevant evidence shall be considered if it is the sort of evidence upon which reasonable persons are accustomed to rely in the conduct of business affairs, regardless of the existence of any common law or statutory rule which might make improper the admission of such evidence over objection in civil actions. Unduly repetitious or irrelevant evidence shall be excluded upon order of the hearing officer.
Although the hearing need not be conducted pursuant to the rules of evidence, the hearing officer shall afford the parties a fair hearing including, but not limited to, refraining from taking of any ex parte evidence. The hearing officer shall tape record its meetings and make an official record of the hearing, which record shall constitute the exclusive record for decision of the issues at the hearing. The record shall be obtainable for the cost of copying and shall include; all exhibits, papers and documents required to be filed or accepted into evidence during the proceedings; a list of participants present; a summary of all testimony accepted in the proceeding; a statement of all materials officially noticed; all findings of fact; the ruling on each exception or objection, if any are presented; all recommendations, decisions, orders or rulings; all final decisions and orders; and the reasons for each recommendation in each final decision, order or ruling.
(f) Time for decision. The hearing officer shall make a final decision no later than twenty-one days after the conclusion of its hearing on any petition.
(g) Notice of Decision. The management and the tenants shall be sent a notice of the hearing officer's findings and decision within seven days after the rendering of the decision.
(h) Judicial Review. Review of the final decision of the hearing officer shall be by a court of competent jurisdiction and venue. Such review shall be conducted in accordance with the Code of Civil Procedures, Section 1094.5 et seq. (Ord. No. 2110 (NCS), § 1.)