Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
11 <br /> <br />The Orange County Board of Adjustment is a quasi-judicial hearing panel appointed by the <br />Board of Commissioners. The term quasi-judicial usually refers to the adjudicative acts of an <br />elected or appointed official or board. In Orange County the quasi-judicial hearings before the <br />Board of Adjustment generally fall into three categories – appeals of final decisions, <br />applications for special use permits, and variances. <br /> <br />Unlike legislative hearings in which the public at large may comment on all conceivable policy <br />issues associated with the subject matter of the legislative hearing, there are restrictions on <br />who may participate in quasi-judicial hearings. The participants of a quasi-judicial hearing may <br />only be those interested parties with standing. Interested individuals with specific knowledge or <br />expertise on the subject matter may participate as witnesses or expert witnesses as long as <br />they have the ability to offer competent, material, substantive testimonial or other evidence. <br />Members of the general public may not participate if they do not fall into one of these <br />categories. <br /> <br />The parties to a quasi-judicial hearing have a right to have their matter heard by an impartial <br />decision-maker. If a member of a quasi-judicial board has already formed an opinion before the <br />hearing or has a conflict of interest, that member should not participate in the hearing. Members <br />of quasi-judicial boards should also ensure they have no ex parte communications either with <br />parties, witnesses, or the general public. Any such communications must, at a minimum, be <br />disclosed. <br /> <br />There may be members of local quasi-judicial boards who would prefer to deliberate in closed <br />session. This is not permitted. North Carolina open meetings laws require meetings of public <br />bodies to be held in open session so that the public may remain informed of the nature and <br />subject matter of the meetings. The law does have exceptions that allow closed sessions, but <br />these exceptions do not include the authority to deliberate on quasi-judicial hearings. The only <br />exception that may apply to boards of adjustment is consultation with an attorney. There may <br />be situations in which a board of adjustment needs to consult an attorney – for example, when <br />a decision is appealed to inform the Board of Adjustment of its role in the appeal. <br /> <br />Currently, meetings of the Orange County Board of Adjustment are attended by a staff attorney <br />of the County Attorney’s office. Under the prior County Attorney, meetings were attended by the <br />assistant attorney. In both situations the attorney was present to answer questions of law and <br />procedure and to help ensure due process. As noted above, it may be lawful for boards of <br />adjustment to meet in closed session to consult with an attorney. This has only occurred once <br />in the last thirteen years. That incident was for the limited purpose of discussing the board’s <br />role in an appeal. Questions of law are generally asked in open session and generally <br />responded to by all attorneys present. <br /> <br />Attachment 1 in their agenda packet shows examples of how surrounding counties and towns <br />staff board of adjustment meetings. None regularly hire independent counsel to represent their <br />boards of adjustment. <br />The only exceptions to this appear to be when there is an actual conflict for the attorney who <br />attends their board of adjustment hearings. Only in those situations does another attorney <br />attend for the board of adjustment. The only situations in which another attorney would be <br />needed are situations as noted above when the Board of Adjustment has questions of law that <br />for some reason cannot be asked in open session or if the County appeals a Board of <br />Adjustment decision. The former has occurred once as noted above. The latter has not