Opinion ID: 203233
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: EQB Hearing Examiner

Text: Hearing Examiners are independent contractors who sign a one-year contract for employment with the EQB and are paid a fixed hourly rate. They preside over the administrative hearing and make recommendations to the Governing Board of the EQB as to whether a fine should be levied. They are assigned cases pursuant to the discretion of the EQB; those cases include administrative investigative proceedings, quasi-judicial proceedings, and legislative proceedings. The district court concluded that the contractual relationship between the EQB and the Hearing Examiners exhibited -19- structural bias on account of both the method by which the Hearing Examiners receive assignments and because of the particularities within the pay structure. We agree. Hearing Examiners are not protected from the pressures of political appointments and their employment is entirely dependent on the EQB's willingness to assign cases to them. Furthermore, the evidence on the record indicates that the Hearing Examiner's contract in this case provides an hourly salary rate with a set maximum number of hours for work. Notably, there is no provision for a minimum number of hours. Given that a Hearing Examiner's pay is entirely dependent upon the discretionary assignment of cases from the EQB, the examiner is vulnerable to the temptation to make recommendations favorable to the EQB.5 In addition to the pressure felt by the Hearing Examiners with respect to their case assignments from the EQB, we are particularly concerned by the evidence that they are paid out of the same Special Account into which the fines are deposited. The Hearing Examiner's contract states that in the eventuality of there not existing or being assigned funds for the payment of contracted services[,] the contract shall be deemed rescinded without any further right to collect. While there is some question as to whether the Hearing Examiner may have an 5 Esso asserts that two prior Hearing Examiners were dismissed after various disagreements with the EQB regarding the proceedings against Esso. -20- independent, contractual right to challenge a nonpayment of his salary by the EQB, it is irrefutable that such a provision -- one that expressly links personal salary and the fund into which the fines are deposited -- creates the appearance of and an incentive for bias.6