PUBLIC HEARING

A Public Hearing is conducted by a Hearing Officer. In the hearing, testimony is taken under oath, recorded by court reporter and documents are introduced as exhibits. A complainant is represented by an Assistant Attorney General and may retain a privately retained attorney. Respondent is almost always represented by a private counsel. The Hearing Officer issues a decision which may be affirmed, reversed or modified by the seven-member Commissioners.

The number of hearings conducted is the Commission's most notable accomplishment of FY 1980. The public hearing docket was fifty (50) cases as FY 1980 began, but was decreased to only twenty-one (21) cases as FY 1980 closed. Taking into account the complexity of scheduling, conducting and issuing hearing decisions, it is a remarkable record.

The Commission added nineteen (19) cases to the public hearing docket in FY 1980. Some twenty-six (26) cases from the docket were settled and another twenty (20) hearings were held.