Working with Public Hearings

Security Details for Working with Public Hearings

This section describes important security roles, requirements, or considerations specific to working with public hearings.

Primary Role	Access Description	Associated Job Roles and Abstract Roles
Anonymous access	View hearings that are final.	All users including users without login
PSC Agency Planning and Zoning Inquiry	View hearings on all planning applications.	PSC Agency Staff - All agency users.
PSC Appeal Hearings of Applications Assigned to Others and Self	Appeal hearings of applications assigned to others and themselves.	PSC System Administrator
PSC Appeal Hearings of Applications Assigned to Self	Appeal hearings of applications assigned to themselves.	PSC Zoning Administrator PSC Planning Assistant PSC Associate Planner PSC Principal Planner
PSC Cancel Hearings of Applications Assigned to Others and Self	Cancel hearings of applications assigned to others and themselves.	PSC System Administrator
PSC Cancel Hearings of Applications Assigned to Self	Cancel hearings of applications assigned to themselves.	PSC Zoning Administrator PSC Planning Assistant PSC Associate Planner PSC Principal Planner
PSC Hearings Management All	Manage hearings of applications assigned to others and themselves.	PSC System Administrator
PSC Hearings Management Self	Manage hearings of applications assigned to themselves.	PSC Zoning Administrator PSC Planning Assistant PSC Associate Planner PSC Principal Planner
PSC Planning and Zoning Hearings Custom Dates Management	Insert and remove custom dates.	PSC System Administrator PSC Zoning Administrator PSC Business Analyst PSC System Administrator

For more information on creating roles for Oracle Permitting and Licensing, see Creating Custom Roles for Oracle Permitting and Licensing.

For more information on all the predefined security data such as abstract roles, job roles, privileges and so on, see the Security Reference for Oracle Permitting and Licensing.

Viewing Public Hearing for a Planning Application

Here's how to view a public hearing:

Select the Planning Applications tile on the agency springboard.
On the Planning Applications page, select the application for which you want to add a hearing.
Under the expanded Progress menu section in the left navigation panel in the application details, click the Decision and Hearing menu link.

The Decision and Hearing page lists all scheduled hearings, including hearing cards with the following information:

Page Element	Description
Decision-making body	View the hearing or decision making body that will evaluate the application. For example, City Council.
Hearing Date	View the date on which the hearing is scheduled for a decision to be made. If there is no date displayed, the hearing is in the Not Scheduled status. You can schedule or reschedule a hearing for your application using the Schedule or Reschedule option in the three-dot Actions menu.
Schedule Status	View the status of the schedule: Not scheduled Tentative Final Canceled
Decision Status	View the status of the decision: Not started Completed
Staff Recommendation	View the recommendation made by the staff.
Decision	View the decision made by the decision-making body.
Actions	The options under this menu is determined by several factors such as the user logged in, the schedule status, the decision status, and the decision. For details about the Actions menu, see the Finalizing the Hearing section in this topic.

Let's take a look at the available actions on the hearing cards. Depending on the Schedule Status, you can peform these actions:
- If the Schedule Status is Tentative, you can click the Finalize button to change the schedule status to Final. The other available actions include these: View Details, Generate Notifications List, Reschedule, and Cancel.
- If the Schedule Status is Final, you can click the Update Decision button to update the decision on the update decision drawer until a decision is entered. The other available actions include these: View Details, Update Staff Recommendation, Generate Notifications List, Reschedule, and Cancel.
- If the Schedule Status is Canceled, you can click the View Details button. The information is read-only.

Scheduling a Public Hearing

Agency planners schedule and manage hearings related to their assigned applications using the Hearing Scheduler. The Hearing Scheduler page provides a summarized, consolidated view of schedules across decision making bodies and the list of planner assigned applications ready for scheduling.

Note:

Before you begin, ensure that hearings are applicable to the application you have selected. Go to the planning application type definition, and in the Hearing field, select Applicable on the Planning Application Type Details page. For more information, see Setting Up Planning Application Types.

You can access the Hearing Scheduler page directly by selecting the Hearing Scheduler tile on the agency springboard, or through the planning application details on the Decision and Hearing page. Click the Schedule New Hearing button on the Decision and Hearing page to open the Hearing Scheduler page in the classic user interface. The applicable decision making bodies and their schedule dates are available for scheduling the hearing.

Once a hearing is scheduled, the Decision and Hearing page for the application is updated to show the new schedule.

Using the Hearing Scheduler Page

The Hearing Scheduler page allows you to perform various scheduling operations in a calendar format in the classic interface:

Schedule a hearing for your assigned application. Drag the selected application item from the left panel onto one of the desired available dates in the calendar space. You can also click the Schedule button on the application item and enter the schedule details.

Agency staff can repeatedly schedule hearings of the same type for a planning application. When an agency staff schedules a hearing for an application which already has an active hearing, the system allows to either schedule a new one and cancel the active hearing or keep the active hearing. So, even though the agency staff can schedule multiple hearings, only one hearing will be active at any given point in time.
Reschedule a hearing for your assigned application. Either drag and drop the application item to a new available date or use the Reschedule action on the scheduled application item.
Reorder the sequence of a hearing for your assigned application. Either drag and drop the application item to a new position or use the Reorder action on the scheduled application item.
Insert a new date in the calendar that is not available on the scheduler. Use the new date to schedule or reschedule hearings.
Finalize a hearing. The schedule status of each hearing appears as tentative until you finalize the hearing by using the Finalize action.
Generate and print the decision making body's agenda for the selected date.

Page Element	Description
Decision Making Body	Lists all the applicable decision making bodies available in the hearing hierarchy. For a selected decision making body, the left panel lists all the applications that are ready for scheduling hearings. The calendar workspace lists the dates as per the recurrence pattern set up and their corresponding hearing schedules.
	Click to open the calendar and select a date that is not listed on the scheduler. Click Insert Custom Date in the calendar to add the new date record in the scheduler. You can schedule a new hearing on this date or drag and drop application items from another date into the date space. Use the cancel button available on the custom date to remove from the scheduler. You can delete a custom date only if there is no hearing scheduled on that date. Note: This button is available to agency staff with appropriate permissions.
Select Date	Click to open the calendar and select a date. The calendar displays only the available schedule dates for the selected decision making body.
	Allows you to view the previous and the next set of available schedule dates for the selected decision making body.
Print Agenda	Click the button to print the decision making body's agenda for the selected date. Note: Oracle Permitting and Licensing supports multiple templates for printing hearing agendas. For details, see Setting Up Hearing and Decision Making Bodies and Setting Up Reports.

Finalizing the Hearing

You use the Finalize button to finalize the hearing schedule. You can finalize the hearing schedule by selecting the application’s action on the Hearing Scheduler page or on the Decision and Hearing page. The Actions menu on the Hearing Scheduler page also allows you to perform the following:

View the application.
Reschedule the hearing.
Cancel the hearing schedule.

Let's take a look at the actions available on the Decision and Hearing page.

Page Element	Description
Update Decision	Click to select the hearing decision, based on the decision made by the decision making body. The values in this field are configured by your system administrator on the Hearing setup page. Note: Agency staff can update a decision only on or after the hearing date. However, agency administrators can make updates to a decision at any time.
Update Staff Recommendation	Click to add or update the staff recommendation.
Generate Notifications List	Click to open the Generate Notifications List page that allows you to download a report containing the addresses within a given geographic radius. You can use the Mail Merge tool to send post cards to the selected addresses. See Generating a Hearing Notifications List.
Reschedule	Click to open the Reschedule page in which you can change the schedule status and select a new hearing date for the hearing.
Reorder	Click to open the Reorder page in which you can change the sequence of the hearing for that day.
Cancel	Click to cancel the hearing. The date will be made available for the other hearing schedules. This option is available based on the access permissions for the user logged in.
Finalize	Click to finalize the date you selected at the time of scheduling.
Request Appeal	Click to escalate the application to the next higher decision making body in its hierarchy. The system automatically creates a new schedule with the next higher decision making body and with the schedule status – Not Scheduled. You manually schedule a date for the new hearing. Note: The hearing decision made by the highest decision making body in the hierarchy is the final. The option to appeal is not available for the particular hearing. For more information, see Working with Appeals.

Updating a Hearing Decision

Agency staff can make updates to a decision only on or after the hearing date.

Once a planning hearing date is scheduled, the agency staff cannot update a decision. This is to prevent agency staff from prematurely or mistakenly updating the planning hearing decision. Agency administrators can still make updates to the hearing decision at any time.

Select the Planning Applications tile on the Agency Springboard.
On the Planning Applications tab of the Transactions page, select the application you are working with.
On the Planning Application page, click Planning Application in the left panel.
Click the Decision and Hearing link under Planning Application to view the Hearings page.
On the hearing row for which you want to update the hearing decision, click the Actions icon and select Update Decision.

View the details of the hearing on the Update Decision page. Select a decision from the Decision drop-down list, such as Approved, Continue, Denied or None and enter comments.

Page Element	Description
Decision Making Body	View the name of the decision making body.
Schedule Status	View the status of the hearing schedule: Tentative Final Note: Once the hearing schedule is finalized, the status cannot be changed to Tentative.
Decision Date	View the date on which the hearing was scheduled.
Decision	Update the hearing decision: Approved Continue Denied None
Comments	Enter comments regarding the decision.

Click Save to save the changes or Cancel and return to the Decision and Hearing page.

When you update the decision here, the workflow task Hearings will behave based on the administrator's configuration on the Business Rules Framework. For example, when a scheduled hearing was finalized by a hearing body and you save the decision as Approved on this page, then the Hearings workflow task status will automatically change to Approved and the workflow task will advance to Appeals with In Progress status.

System administrators configure the Update Workflow action for the Hearing Decision Changed event, which is a one-time setup to trigger the workflow advancement. For information on setting up actions related to workflow, see Setting Up Update Workflow Actions.

Updating the Staff Recommendation

Agency staff who are aware of a particular planning application may give their independent recommendation on the application. These staff recommendations may aid the decision making body to make their decision. Depending on the agency, staff recommendations may or may not be a prerequisite to the decision. Agency staff can add or update a staff recommendation once the schedule status is finalized.

Click the Decision and Hearing link under Planning Application to view the Decision and Hearing page.
On the decision and hearing row for which you want to update the staff recommendation, click the Actions icon and select Update Staff Recommendation.

View the details of the hearing on the Update Staff Recommendation page.

Page Element	Description
Decision Making Body	View the name of the decision making body.
Schedule Status	View the status of the heading schedule.
Staff Recommendation	Update the staff recommendation: Approved Denied
Staff Recommendation Date	Click to open the calendar and select a date. You can select any date from the date on which the hearing was scheduled to add a staff recommendation.
Comments	Enter comments regarding the staff recommendation.

Click Save to save the changes or Cancel and return to the Decision and Hearing page.

Viewing the Details

Agency staff can view all details regarding the decision, as well as the staff recommendation.

Page Element	Description
Decision Making Body	View the name of the decision making body.
Schedule Status	View the status of the schedule.
Decision Date	View the date on which the hearing is scheduled.
Decision	View the decision status.
Decision Comments	View comments regarding the hearing decision.
Appeal Status	View the appeal status.
Appeal Date	View the date on which an appeal was filed.
Staff Recommendation Date	View the date on which a staff recommendation was added.
Staff Recommendation	View the staff recommendation added.
Staff Recommendation Comments	View any comments for the staff recommendation.