Ohio Administrative Code › Title 123:1 - Division of Human Resources › Chapter 123:1-49 - Equal Employment Opportunity Policy › Section 123:1-49-08 - Hearing

Current through all regulations passed and filed through July 1, 2024
(A) Any hearing
			 ordered by the deputy director of the human
			 resources division or the deputy director's designee pursuant to rule
			 123:1-49-07
			 of the Administrative Code shall be held by a hearing officer who may be an
			 employee of another agency or who may be an employee of the
			 affirmative action and equal employment opportunity
			 unit of the department of administrative services.
(B) The hearing officer shall schedule the
			 hearing for a convenient time and place and shall conduct the hearing so as to
			 bring out pertinent facts, including the production of pertinent documents. The
			 complainant, his or her representative, and representatives of the agency at
			 the hearing shall be given the opportunity to examine witnesses who appear and
			 testify.
(C) The hearing officer
			 shall have the power to regulate the course of the hearing; limit the number of
			 witnesses whose testimony would be unduly repetitious; and exclude any person
			 from the hearing for contumacious conduct or misbehavior that obstructs the
			 hearing.
(D) The hearing officer
			 shall request the agency to make available as a witness at the hearing any
			 employee requested by the complainant when he or she determines that the
			 testimony of the employee is necessary. The hearing officer may also request
			 the appearance of an employee of any state agency whose testimony he or she
			 determines is necessary to furnish information pertinent to the complainant
			 under consideration. The hearing officer shall give the complainant his or her
			 reasons for the denial of a request for the appearance of employees as
			 witnesses and shall insert those reasons in the record of the hearing. An
			 agency to which a request is made must make its employees available as
			 witnesses at a hearing on a complaint when requested to do so by the hearing
			 officer. Any agency who has not allowed the employee to testify must state the
			 reasons in writing for the hearing officer. An employee of an agency shall be
			 in pay status during the time he or she is made available as a witness. The
			 agency shall be billed by the affirmative action and equal
			 employment opportunity unit for expenditures involved in the
			 hearing.
(E) The hearing officer
			 shall issue a written report and recommendation to the agency and
			 the deputy director of the human
			 resources division or the deputy director's designee within a reasonable
			 period of time but no later thirty days from the date of the hearing. The
			 agency may approve, reject or modify the recommendations of the hearing officer
			 and report its action to the complainant and the affirmative action and equal employment opportunity
			 unit. The deputy director of the human
			 resources division or the deputy director's designee may take any of the
			 dispositive actions set forth in paragraph (C)(1), (C)(2), or (C)(4) of rule
			 123:1-49-07
			 of the Administrative Code and issue a written decision pursuant to paragraph
			 (D) of rule
			 123:1-49-07
			 of the Administrative Code. There is no right to a hearing before the
			 deputy director
			 of the human resources division or the deputy director's
			 designee.