Iowa Admin. Code r. 875-84.9 - [Effective 3/26/2025] Presiding officer
(1)
The presiding officer in all contested cases is the board, a panel of board
members, or an administrative law judge assigned by the department of
inspections, appeals, and licensing. When board members act as presiding
officer, they conduct the hearing and issue either a final decision or, if a
quorum of the board is not present, a proposed decision. The board may be
assisted by an administrative law judge when the board acts as presiding
officer.
(2) Any party to a
contested case that wishes to request that the presiding officer assigned to
render a proposed decision be an administrative law judge employed by the
department of inspections, appeals, and licensing must file a written request
within 20 days after service of a notice of hearing that identifies the
presiding officer as the board. The board may deny the request only upon a
finding that one or more of the following apply:
a. Neither the board nor any officer of the
board under whose authority the contested case is to take place is a named
party to the proceeding or a real party in interest to that
proceeding.
b. There is a
compelling need to expedite issuance of a final decision to protect the public
health, safety, or welfare.
c. The
case involves significant policy issues of first impression that are
inextricably intertwined with the factual issues presented.
d. The demeanor of the witnesses is likely to
be dispositive in resolving the disputed factual issues.
e. Funds are unavailable to pay the costs of
an administrative law judge and an interboard appeal.
f. The request was not timely
filed.
g. The request is not
consistent with a specified statute.
(3) The board shall issue a written ruling
specifying the grounds for its decision within 20 days after a request for an
administrative law judge is filed. If the ruling is granted, the administrative
law judge assigned to act as presiding officer and to issue a proposed decision
in a contested case will have a J.D. degree unless this requirement is waived
by the board.
(4) The board or a
panel of board members when acting as presiding officer may request that an
administrative law judge perform certain functions as an aid to the board or
board panel, such as ruling on prehearing motions, conducting the prehearing
conference, ruling on evidentiary objections at hearing, assisting in
deliberations, or drafting the written decision for review by the board or
board panel.
(5) All rulings by an
administrative law judge who acts either as presiding officer or assistant to
the board are subject to appeal to the board pursuant to rules
875-84.26 (17A,89) and
875-84.27 (17A,89). A party must
timely seek intra-agency appeal of prehearing rulings or proposed decisions to
exhaust adequate administrative remedies. While a party may seek immediate
board or board panel review of rulings made by an administrative law judge when
sitting with and acting as an aid to the board or board panel during a hearing,
such immediate review is not required to preserve error for judicial
review.
(6) Unless otherwise
provided by law, when reviewing a proposed decision of a panel of the board or
an administrative law judge, board members have the powers of and shall comply
with the provisions of this chapter that apply to presiding officers.
Notes
State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare.
No prior version found.