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Administrative appeals over which the examiner has jurisdiction shall be subject to the following procedural requirements:

(1) Appeals shall be addressed to the hearing examiner but shall be filed in writing with the department whose decision is being appealed within 14 calendar days of the date of action or, in those cases requiring personal or certified mail service, the date of service of the administrative action being appealed.

(2) An appeal must contain the following items in order to be complete. The examiner, if procedural time limitations allow, may allow an appellant not more than 15 calendar days to perfect an otherwise timely filed appeal if such appeal is incomplete in some manner.

(a) Specific identification of the order, permit, decision, determination or other action being appealed (including the county’s file number whenever such exists). A complete copy of the document being appealed must be filed with the appeal;

(b) The specific grounds upon which the appellant relies, including a concise statement of the factual reasons for the appeal and, if known, identification of the policies, statutes, codes, or regulations that the appellant claims are violated;

(c) The name, mailing address and daytime telephone number of each appellant together with the signature of at least one of the appellants or of the attorney for the appellant(s), if any;

(d) The name, mailing address, daytime telephone number and signature of the appellant’s agent or representative, if any; and

(e) The required filing fee.

(3) Except for appeals filed under SCC 9.10.030(2), the timely filing of an appeal shall stay the effect of the order, permit, decision, determination or other action being appealed until the appeal is finally disposed of by the examiner or withdrawn; provided, that filing of an appeal from the denial of a permit shall not stay such denial. Failure to file a timely and complete appeal shall constitute waiver of all rights to an administrative appeal under county code or board of health code.

(4) No new appeal issues may be raised or submitted after the close of the time period for filing of the original appeal.

(5) The department whose decision is being appealed shall forward the appeal to the office within three working days of its filing.

(6) The office, within three working days after receipt of the appeal, shall send written notice of the filing of the appeal by first class mail, to the person named in an order or to the person who initially sought the permit, decision, determination or other action being appealed, whenever the appeal is filed by other than such person.

(7) The examiner may summarily dismiss an appeal in whole or in part without hearing if the examiner determines that the appeal is untimely, incomplete, without merit on its face, frivolous, beyond the scope of the examiner’s jurisdiction or brought merely to secure a delay. The examiner may also summarily dismiss an appeal if he/she finds, in response to a challenge raised by the respondent and/or by the permit applicant and after allowing the appellant a reasonable period in which to reply to the challenge, that the appellant lacks legal standing to appeal. Except in extraordinary circumstances, summary dismissal orders shall be issued within 15 working days following receipt of either a complete appeal or a request for issuance of such an order, whichever is later.

(8) Appeals shall be processed by the examiner as expeditiously as possible, giving proper consideration to the procedural due process rights of the parties. An appeal hearing shall be held before a final decision is issued unless the summary dismissal provisions of subsection (7) of this section are utilized or the appeal is withdrawn. The examiner may consolidate multiple appeals of the same action for hearing and decision making purposes where to do so would facilitate expeditious and thorough consideration of the appeals without adversely affecting the due process rights of any of the parties.

(9) Notice of appeal hearings conducted pursuant to this section shall be given as provided below not less than 15 calendar days prior to the hearing:

(a) The office shall give notice of all appeal hearings by first class mail (unless otherwise required herein) to:

(i) the appellant;

(ii) the appellant’s agent/representative, if any; and

(iii) the respondent (by interoffice mail); and

(iv) to the person named in an order or to the person who initially sought the permit, decision, determination or other action being appealed, whenever the appeal is filed by other than such person; and

(v) parties of record as defined by SCC 2.02.165.

(b) At a minimum, the following information shall be included in the notice:

(i) description of order, decision, determination, or other action being appealed, assigned county file number, and county contact person,

(ii) the date, time and place of public hearing if scheduled at the time of notice, and

(iii) any other information determined appropriate by the applicable department.

(10) Notices required by the above subsections shall be deemed adequate where a good-faith effort has been made by the county to identify and mail notice to each person entitled thereto. Notices mailed pursuant to the above subsections shall be deemed received by those persons named in an affidavit of mailing executed by the person designated to mail the notices. The failure of any person to actually receive the notice shall not invalidate any action.

(11) The appeal hearing and examiner consideration of the appeal shall be limited solely to the issues identified by the appellant pursuant to subsection (2) of this section. (Added by Amended Ord. 93-077, Sept. 8, 1993, Eff date Jan. 1, 1994; Amended by Ord. 95-004 § 5, Feb. 15, 1995, Eff date Feb. 27, 1995; Amended by Ord. 95-032 § 1, June 28, 1995, Eff date July 20, 1995; Amended by Amended Ord. 96-003 § 4, Feb. 21, 1996, Eff date Apr. 1, 1996; Amended by Ord. 97-057 § 1, July 2, 1997, Eff date July 17, 1997; Amended by Amended Ord. 97-075 § 1, Sept. 24, 1997, Eff date Oct. 8, 1997; Amended by Ord. 02-098, Dec. 9, 2002, Eff date Feb. 1, 2003; Amended by Amended Ord. 12-007, Mar. 21, 2012, Eff date Jan. 10, 2012; Amended by Amended Ord. 13-043, June 19, 2013, Eff date June 30, 2013; Amended by Amended Ord. 22-061, Oct. 26, 2022, Eff date Dec. 31, 2022).