SB 5350 — Establishing deadlines for final determinations and dispositions in agency adjudicative proceedings.

S-1062.1SUBSTITUTES-0280.1SENATE SENATE BILL 5350State of Washington65th Legislature2017 Regular SessionBy Senate Law & Justice (originally sponsored by Senators Fortunato, Padden, O'Ban, Braun, Angel, Schoesler, Brown, and Kuderer)READKudererRead FIRSTfirst TIMEtime 02/02/17.AN01/20/17. ACT Relating to deadlines for final determinations and dispositions in agency adjudicative proceedings;

Referred to Committee on Law & Justice.AN ACT Relating to deadlines for final determinations and dispositions in agency adjudicative proceedings;

The agency shall allow at least twenty days to apply for an adjudicative proceeding from the time notice is given of the opportunity to file such an application.(4) If an agency is required to hold an adjudicative proceeding, an application for an agency to enter an order includes an application for the agency to conduct appropriate adjudicative proceedings, whether or not the applicant expressly requests those proceedings.(5) An adjudicative proceeding commences when the agency or a presiding officer notifies a party that a prehearing conference, hearing, or other stage of an adjudicative proceeding will be conducted.(6) ForAn anyagency mattermust filedmake ona orfinal afteradministrative thedetermination effectiveor datedisposition offor thisany sectionmatter that is subject to an adjudicative proceeding,proceeding an agency must make a final administrative determination or disposition for that matter within two years after the commencement of the adjudicative proceeding, unless all parties to the proceeding agree to waive such time limitationlimitation. or unless the agency otherwise has good cause to delay the proceeding, including but not limited to circumstances where there is a criminal investigation or parallel criminal or civil proceeding relating to the subject matter of the adjudicative proceeding.

When a petition for judicial review is filed under this subsection, the adjudicative proceeding for which judicial review is sought is stayed, pending further order by the court.Sec. 3.  RCWcourt. 34.05.562 and 1988 c 288 s 514 are each amended to read as follows:(1) The court may receive evidence in addition to that contained in the agency record for judicial review, only if it relates to the validity of the agency action at the time it was taken and is needed to decide disputed issues regarding:(a) Improper constitution as a decision-making body or grounds for disqualification of those taking the agency action;(b) Unlawfulness of procedure or of decision-making process;

The court may grant an exception to the stay only on the petitioner's request that the adjudicative proceeding be continued, concurrent with judicial review, with respect to issues and facts not identified as contested in, or otherwise relevant to, the petition for judicial review.Sec. 3.  RCW 34.05.562 and 1988 c 288 s 514 are each amended to read as follows:(1) The court may receive evidence in addition to that contained in the agency record for judicial review, only if it relates to the validity of the agency action at the time it was taken and is needed to decide disputed issues regarding:(a) Improper constitution as a decision-making body or grounds for disqualification of those taking the agency action;(b) Unlawfulness of procedure or of decision-making process;

or(d) Any issue or fact identified as contested in a petition for judicial review filed under RCW 34.05.534(4)34.05.534(4).(2) if the agency has not already received evidence on that issue at an evidentiary hearing.(2) The court may remand a matter to the agency, before final disposition of a petition for review, with directions that the agency conduct fact-finding and other proceedings the court considers necessary and that the agency take such further action on the basis thereof as the court directs, if:(a) The agency was required by this chapter or any other provision of law to base its action exclusively on a record of a type reasonably suitable for judicial review, but the agency failed to prepare or preserve an adequate record;(b) The court finds that (i) new evidence has become available that relates to the validity of the agency action at the time it was taken, that one or more of the parties did not know and was under no duty to discover or could not have reasonably been discovered until after the agency action, and (ii) the interests of justice would be served by remand to the agency;(c) The agency improperly excluded or omitted evidence from the record;

or(d) A relevant provision of law changed after the agency action and the court determines that the new provision may control the outcome.(3) When a petition for judicial review is filed under RCW 34.05.534(4), the court may not remand a matter under subsection (2) of this section unless all parties consentconsent.Sec. 4.  RCW or the court determines that the agency had good cause for delaying the proceeding, including but not limited to circumstances where there is a criminal investigation or parallel criminal or civil proceeding relating to the subject matter of the adjudicative proceeding.Sec. 4.  RCW 34.05.570 and 2004 c 30 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:(1) Generally.