Opinion ID: 1895024
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Remand for Improper Conduct of Board Member

Text: [¶ 7] Biddeford first contends that the Superior Court erred by granting the taxpayers a new hearing before the Board with respect to the appeals of the 1993 assessments. One of the board members visited the neighborhoods at issue after the Board finished taking evidence but before it began deliberations. The parties were not notified that the board member was going to visit the neighborhoods, nor did they have an opportunity to comment on the visit, to accompany the board member, or even ascertain that the board member was, in fact, visiting the neighborhoods that he thought he was visiting. [¶ 8] When the Superior Court... reviews an administrative agency decision without developing any additional evidence beyond the record before the agency, we review the administrative record directly for an abuse of discretion, error of law, or findings unsupported by substantial evidence on the record. H.E. Sargent, Inc. v. Town of Wells, 676 A.2d 920, 923 (Me.1996). Here, the Superior Court, without taking additional evidence and on the record of the first Board hearing, remanded the matter to the Board for a de novo hearing. We have reviewed the record of the first hearing, and we conclude that the Board exceeded the bounds of its discretion by proceeding to a decision without taking substantial steps to cure the improper conduct of the board member. [¶ 9] It is essential to a party's right to procedural due process that he be given notice of and an opportunity to be heard at proceedings in which his property rights are at stake. Mutton Hill Estates v. Town of Oakland, 468 A.2d 989, 992 (Me. 1983). Because no notice was given to the parties of the site visit, they could not be present during the visit or provide a response to the evidence gathered from the visit. [1] For this reason, the visit was improper. [¶ 10] Furthermore, only evidence that is made a part of the record can be considered by the Board in making its decision. See 5 M.R.S.A. § 9059(4) (1989). An agency cannot use information that is not of record. The purpose of this rule is to give a party the opportunity to explain adverse evidence. Brooking v. Maine Employment Sec. Comm'n, 449 A.2d 1116, 1119 n. 4 (Me. 1982). To the extent that an agency relies on information obtained outside of the record and the proceedings, it has acted improperly. [¶ 11] We are unable to conclude from this record that the visit was harmless. A critical disputed fact at the hearing, as well as the later hearing on remand, was whether the Granite Point neighborhood differed from the Fortunes Rocks neighborhood. In its first decision the Board concluded that the assessor was not required to make the same adjustment to the assessments of the Granite Point properties as it had for those in Fortunes Rocks because they were not identical neighborhoods. The board member who visited the neighborhoods was adamant in expressing the viewpoint that the neighborhoods were different. The record of the Board's deliberations demonstrates that the visit to the neighborhoods was a factor in the member's decision. The Board consisted of four members, and the vote to deny the abatement was three to one with one member voting in the majority for the express reason of avoiding a tie. [¶ 12] The Board chairman recognized that the visit by the board member without notice to the parties and after the evidence had closed was improper. Nonetheless the only curative step taken was to caution the member not to let the visit influence his vote. [2] Because the improper behavior of the board member was not harmless, the Board abused its discretion in not taking a substantial step to cure the improper conduct, and the remand by the Superior Court was not erroneous.