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Six: Commit to Providing Due Process <br />•Much of the time you're acting as "legislators" —making policy and general rules that <br />apply generally —or handling Council level business and corporate matters. <br />•But other times you make decisions affecting a specific applicant's property rights. For <br />these "quasi-judicial" matters you are essentially acting as judges and have heightened <br />duties to provide due process. Failures in this area expose you and the City to liability. <br />•Be familiar with the due process "rules of engagement" <br />•These rules have a familiar source: "No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or <br />property, without due process of law." <br />Due Process - Tips for Quasi -Judges <br />•Limit your involvement to just your participation at the Council public hearing. <br />•Remain neutral; don't make up your mind before the hearing and don't make prejudicial <br />pre -hearing statements. <br />•Don't participate if you have a prohibited conflict of interest in the matter (code of ethics). <br />•Don't engage with one side or the other, or with your fellow Councilmembers, before or <br />outside the hearing (ex parte contacts). <br />•Make sure your decision is based on the relevant, existing criteria and not other factors. <br />7 <br />