§ 17-17. Appeals from actions or decisions of Minimum Housing Enforcement Officer.

(a)

Any person aggrieved by any action or decision of the Minimum Housing Enforcement Officer may appeal to the Clerk of the Courts by filing with the Clerk of the Courts within twenty (20) days after the date of the action or decision complained of, a written notice of appeals which shall set forth concisely the action or decision appealed from and the reasons or grounds for the appeal. This appeal provision shall not apply to any citation issued in accordance with Chapter 8CC of this Code or other applicable local code enforcement regulation. The Clerk shall set such appeal for hearing at the earliest possible date, and cause notice thereof to be given to the appellant and the Minimum Housing Enforcement Officer.

(b)

The administrative hearing shall be open to the public. The proceedings at the hearing shall be recorded and may be transcribed at the expense of the person requesting the transcript.

(c)

Any person who has been served with notice of violation shall elect either to pay the enforcement costs in the manner indicated on the notice, and correct the violation within the time specified on the notice (if applicable); or

(d)

Request an administrative hearing before a Hearing Officer to appeal the decision of the Minimum Housing Enforcement Officer which resulted in the issuance of the notice of violation.

(e)

Appeal by administrative hearing of the notice of violation shall be accomplished by filing a request in writing to the address indicated on the notice, no later than twenty (20) calendar days after the service of the notice.

(f)

Upon receipt of a named property owner's timely request for an administrative hearing, the Clerk of the Court shall set the matter down for hearing on the next regularly scheduled hearing date or as soon thereafter as possible or as mandated in the specified Code Section which is enforced pursuant to this chapter.

(g)

The Clerk of the Court shall send a notice of hearing by first class mail to the property owner at his last known address. The notice of hearing shall include but not be limited to the following:

(1)

Name of the Minimum Housing Enforcement Officer or enforcement officer who issued the notice.

(2)

Factual description of alleged violation.

(3)

Date of alleged violation.

(4)

Section of the Code allegedly violated.

(5)

Place, date and time of the hearing.

(6)

Right of the property owner to be represented by a lawyer.

(7)

Right of property owner to present witnesses and evidence.

(8)

Notice that failure of property owner to attend hearing shall result in enforcement costs and administrative costs being assessed against him or her.

(9)

Notice that requests for continuances will not be considered if not received by the Hearing Officer at least fifteen (15) calendar days prior to the date set for hearing.

(h)

The Clerk of the Court shall schedule hearings upon the request of the appellant. No hearing shall be set sooner than twenty (20) calendar days from the date of service of the notice of violation.

(i)

All testimony shall be under oath. Assuming proper notice, a hearing may proceed in the absence of the property owner.

(j)

The Clerk of the Court shall provide clerical and administrative personnel as may be reasonably required by each Hearing Officer for the proper performance of his duties.

(k)

Each case before a Hearing Officer shall be presented by the Minimum Housing Enforcement Officer or designee.

(l)

The hearing need not be conducted in accordance with the formal rules relating to evidence and witnesses. Any relevant evidence shall be admitted if the Hearing Officer finds it competent and reliable, regardless of the existence of any common law or statutory rule to the contrary.

(m)

Each party shall have the right to call and examine witnesses; to introduce exhibits; to cross-examine opposing witnesses on any matter relevant to the issues even though that matter was not covered in the direct examination; to impeach any witness regardless of which party first called the witness to testify; and to rebut the evidence against him.

(n)

The Hearing Officer shall make findings of fact based on evidence of record. The Hearing Officer shall make findings of fact immediately upon conclusion of the hearing. Once commenced, no hearing shall be deferred, however, the property owner shall have the option to request a reschedule of the hearing. A request to reschedule the hearing shall only be considered prior to the commencement of the testimony and presentation of evidence and shall be granted only upon good cause shown. In order to make a finding upholding the Minimum Housing Enforcement Officer's decision, the Hearing Officer must find that a preponderance of the evidence indicates that the property owner was responsible for the violation of the relevant Section of the Code as charged.

(o)

If the property owner is found guilty of the violation, he shall pay the reasonable costs of the administrative hearing and the costs and expenses of the enforcement agency for investigation, enforcement, testing, or monitoring. The costs and expenses of the enforcement agency for investigation, enforcement, testing, or monitoring shall be calculated and submitted to the Hearing Officer, to be attached to the final order for amount owed, in standard format as prescribed by departmental administrative orders approved and amended from time to time by the Board of County Commissioners or the local municipal governing board. All costs of enforcement shall be paid within thirty (30) days of the date of the administrative hearing unless an alternate timeframe is established by the enforcing agency.

(p)

The fact-finding determination of the Hearing Officer shall be limited to whether the violation alleged did occur and, if so, whether the person named in the civil violation notice can be held responsible for that violation. Based upon this fact-finding determination, the Hearing Officer shall either affirm or reverse the decision of the Minimum Housing Enforcement Officer as to the responsibility of the named property owner for the Code violation. If the Hearing Officer affirms the decision of the Minimum Housing Enforcement Officer, the Hearing Officer shall determine a reasonable time period within which correction of the violation must be made, provided however, that such time period shall be no more than thirty (30) days. If the Hearing Officer reverses the decision of the Minimum Housing Enforcement Officer and finds the named property owner not responsible for the Code violation alleged in the civil violation notice, the named property owner shall not be liable for the payment of any administrative costs, absent reversal of the Hearing Officer's findings. If the decision of the Hearing Officer is to affirm, then the following elements shall be included:

(1)

Amount of enforcement costs of the enforcement agency.

(2)

Administrative costs of hearing.

(3)

Date by which the violation must be corrected to prevent imposition of continuing violation penalties (if applicable).

(q)

The Hearing Officer shall have the power to:

(1)

Adopt procedures for the conduct of hearings.

(2)

Subpoena property owners and witnesses for hearings; subpoenas may be served by the Miami-Dade County Police Department or by the staff of the Hearing Officer.

(3)

Subpoena evidence.

(4)

Take testimony under oath.

(r)

(1)

A Hearing Officer shall postpone and shall not conduct a hearing if the named property owner, prior to the scheduled hearing date, files with a duly authorized County board of appropriate jurisdiction, an administrative appeal concerning the interpretation or application of any technical provisions of the Code Section allegedly violated. However, once an issue has been determined by a Hearing Officer in a specific case, that issue may not be further reviewed by a County board in that specific case. A named property owner waives his right to administrative appeal to other County boards if the property owner does not apply for such appeal prior to the property owner's administrative appeal hearing before the Hearing Officer.

(2)

Upon exhaustion of a timely filed administrative appeal and finalization of the administrative order by such board, the Hearing Officer may exercise all powers given to him by this chapter. The Hearing Officer shall not, however, exercise any jurisdiction over such alleged Code violations until the time allowed for court appeal of the ruling of such board has lapsed or until such further appeal has been exhausted.

(3)

The Hearing Officer shall be bound by the interpretations and decisions of duly authorized County boards concerning the provisions of the codes within their respective jurisdictions. In the event such a board decides that an alleged violation of the Code is not in accordance with such board's interpretation of the Code provision on which the violation is based, the Hearing Officer shall not be empowered to proceed with the enforcement of the violation.

(s)

Any person aggrieved by any decision of the Hearing Officer on appeal taken to it, including, but not limited to, the Minimum Housing Enforcement Officer, may apply to the Circuit Court of Miami-Dade County for review by writ of certiorari in accordance with the applicable Florida Appellate Rules. For such purposes, the Clerk of the Court shall make available for public inspection and copying the record of each such decision to be reviewed; provided, such clerk may make a reasonable charge commensurate with the costs, in the event he/she is able to and does furnish copies of all or portions of such records. Prior to certifying a copy of any record or any portion thereof, the clerk, or designee, shall make all necessary corrections in order that the copy is a true and correct copy of the record, or those portions thereof requested, and shall make a charge of not more than actual copying costs per page, instrument, or exhibit; provided the charges here authorized are not intended to repeal or amend any fee or scheduled fees otherwise established.

(Ord. No. 63-30, § 1.17, 7-16-63; Ord. No. 65-32, § 3, 4-20-65; Ord. No. 65-37, § 1, 5-4-65; Ord. No. 73-13, § 1, 2-20-73; Ord. No. 73-48, § 1, 5-1-73; Ord. No. 95-31, § 1, 2-7-95; Ord. No. 07-148, § 5, 10-2-07; Ord. No. 18-18, § 1, 2-6-18)