Anatomy of a building code violation administrative hearing: From inspection to judgment

Attorney A’s client received a notice of ordinance violation from the City of Chicago’s Department of Buildings. As a general practitioner, Attorney A does not appear frequently before administrative agencies and seeks guidance in providing competent representation to her client. Attorney B has appeared before the City of Chicago’s Department of Administrative Hearings but seeks greater insight into the prosecutorial and adjudicatory processes to better represent future clients. Administrative Hearing Officer C has not conducted hearings to date involving building code violations and would like to learn about the role of the Department of Buildings in the enforcement of violations and any differences in the conduct of hearings involving the building code. Lastly, Administrative Hearing Officer D is familiar with the adjudicatory process but would like to gain insight into best practices in the conduct of administrative hearings generally. Realizing that practitioners are not necessarily well versed with administrative hearing procedures and the rights their clients may have in cases before administrative agencies such as the City of Chicago’s Department of Administrative Hearings, and also that hearing officers may not be as conversant as they would like to be with the administrative framework they operate under, the Administrative Law Section Council has planned a wrap-around seminar on June 24, 2015, on the anatomy of a building code violation administrative hearing. The CLE program, to be held from 11:30a.m., until 1:15p.m, at the ISBA Chicago office, 20 S. Clark, is aimed at reinforcing best practices in the prosecution, defense and decision making processes in administrative hearings generally and, in particular, in a building code violation administrative hearing. The Section Council is confident that attendees will increase their familiarity with procedures before the City of Chicago’s Department of Administrative Hearings and their competencies in dealing with issues that may arise in a hearing conducted by an administrative law tribunal.

Honorable Patricia Jackowiak, Director of the City of Chicago’s Department of Administrative Hearings, and Seminar Moderator, will open the CLE program and provide an overview of the Department of Administrative Hearings and of the Buildings Hearings Division. Marlene Hopkins, Managing Deputy Commissioner of the City of Chicago’s Buildings Department, will then provide an overview of the Department, while William Bugajski, the Assistant Director Conservation Inspections of the Buildings Department, will follow with a presentation on the inspection process. Thereafter, Patti Gregory Chang, Senior Counsel, City of Chicago Law Department, will address the prosecution of a building code violation from inception of a case through pre-trial. To round out the program, Honorable Greg Plesha, Administrative Law Judge, Department of Administrative Hearings, will first review issues that may arise in the course of an administrative hearing, address how to preserve the record, and then preside over a mock administrative hearing of a building code violation case.

Honorable Patricia Jackowiak, Director, City of Chicago Department of Administrative Hearings, and incoming chair of the Administrative Law Section Council, and Honorable Yolaine Dauphin, Administrative Law Judge, City of Chicago Department of Administrative Hearings, and ex officio of the Administrative Law Section Council, spearheaded the Section Council’s efforts in planning the CLE program. They were joined in the planning process by co-coordinator Honorable Frank Lombardo, City of Chicago Department of Administrative Hearings.

Get details and register online at <http://www.isba.org/cle/2015/06/24/buildingcodeviolation>. ■