Opinion ID: 1143671
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: the opportunity to be heard regarding the appropriate sanction

Text: At the conclusion of the second day of hearings, the contractor requested a week's extension to present argument on the sanction to be imposed. The Board proceeded forthwith, after it decided that the contractor had failed to comply with the WMBE set-aside requirements, to decide upon the sanction. The flavor of the hearing and the summary imposition of the sanction is reflected in the last pages of the verbatim report of proceedings which are included as an appendix. A reading of those pages shows that in the last minutes of the hearing the members of the Board recognized that they had always allowed an accused the time to prepare for and present statements and argument relative to the proposed sanctions which the Board should impose. Yet in this hearing the discussion rapidly left this subject for a discussion of whether the board could and should impose sanctions on Don Merlino, as an individual, as well as upon the Gary Merlino Construction Company. From thence the report of proceedings reflects that counsel for the contractor requested time to talk to his client, a Board member stated that the hearing had taken too much time already, the Board discussed what was the appropriate length of debarment, a motion was passed to debar for 1 year and the proceedings concluded at 11:45 a.m. The Board record plainly shows that Board members were not disposed to hearing any argument by Merlino Construction on the matter. Merlino Construction was denied due process when it did not have an opportunity to be heard in a meaningful manner. The verbatim report of proceedings of these hearings reflects an emotionally charged and unruly hearing. When public excitement runs high, administrative bodies and courts should become particularly alert to upholding the protections of due process. Here, a substantial part of the earning opportunities of a business has been taken away from that business. By abandoning its previously followed procedures, the Board of Public Works deprived the contractor of the opportunity to at least state its position before sentence was imposed. To have permitted the contractor time to prepare a statement and to present mitigating factors before it was precluded from working for a major customer for a year would have restored the aura of fairness which should have surrounded these hearings, but which was sadly lacking.