OAR 350-016-0150. Conflicts of Interest; Appearance of Fairness

(1) Members of the Gorge Commission shall comply with chapter 350, division 14 of the Gorge Commission’s rules regarding conflicts of interest in rulemaking and contested case proceedings. (2) Appearance of Fairness. (a) The appearance of fairness doctrine applies where a public hearing is required. The hearing must be procedurally fair and must appear to be conducted by impartial decision makers. The appearance of fairness doctrine is both statutory and court developed in Washington. (A) The statutory appearance of fairness provisions largely prohibit ex parte communications and require disclosure of inadvertent communications. Commission Rule 350-016-0140 contains prohibitions against ex parte communications and requirements for disclosure. (B) The court-developed appearance of fairness doctrine ensures that decision makers are not biased through personal interest, prejudgment of issues, and partiality. (i) Division 14 of the Gorge Commission’s rules address personal interest bias. (ii) The members of the Gorge Commission must reserve judgment of a quasi-judicial matter until after all evidence and argument has been presented. No member of the Gorge Commission shall make a unalterable decision or statement about the merits of a quasi-judicial matter prior to hearing all evidence and argument. (iii) The members of the Gorge Commission must base their decisions on evidence and law and must not evidence a personal bias or personal prejudice signifying an attitude for or against a party. Ideological or policy leanings of a member of the Gorge Commission are distinguishable from partiality. (b) No member of the Gorge Commission may be disqualified by the appearance of fairness doctrine for conducting their official duty as defined in division 14 of the Gorge Commission’s rules with any constituent on any matter other than a quasi-judicial action then pending before the Gorge Commission. (c) No legislative action taken by the Gorge Commission shall be invalidated by an application of the appearance of fairness doctrine. (d) Participation by a member of the Gorge Commission in earlier proceedings that result in an advisory recommendation to the Gorge Commission shall not disqualify that person from participating in any subsequent quasi-judicial proceeding. (e) Anyone seeking to rely on the appearance of fairness doctrine to disqualify a member of the Gorge Commission from participating in a decision must raise the challenge with specific evidence and not speculation as soon as the basis for disqualification is made known to the individual. Where the basis is known or should reasonably have been known prior to the issuance of a decision and is not raised, it may not be relied on to invalidate the decision.