Houston Code of Ordinances § 10-411 Appeals of certain orders of the fire code official.
Sec. 10-411. - Appeals of certain orders of the fire code official.
(a) An order of the fire code official (as defined in the Fire Code) outside the scope of Section 105 and Sections 108.1 through 108.3 of the Fire Code shall be appealed by filing a written request for an administrative hearing, which request must be received by the city secretary within thirty days after the day on which the person filing the request was served with the order. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, an order issued under Section 105.5.3 of the Fire Code shall be appealed in the manner provided by this division. All such requests received by the city secretary shall be forwarded promptly to the fire code official. In the absence of such a request for hearing, the order of the fire code official is final, and no further appeal shall be allowed.
(b) No later than thirty days after the city secretary's receipt of a request to which subsection (a) of this section refers, the fire code official shall give a written notice of hearing to each owner, lienholder, and mortgagee of the subject property in the manner described in Section 214.0011(c), Texas Local Government Code. The notice of hearing shall include the following information:
(1) That a hearing will be held on a stated date and at a stated time and place, which date shall be as soon as practicable but in any case no later than ninety days after the day on which the city secretary receives a request to which subsection (a) of this section refers;
(2) That the hearing will be held before a hearing official to consider whether the order was duly authorized by the Fire Code;
(3) That any person having a legal interest in the property (as evidenced by the real property records of the county in which the property is located) may appear in person, may be represented by an attorney, may present testimony and other evidence, and may cross-examine all witnesses; and
(4) That the hearing will be conducted 'in accordance with Division 8 of Article IX of Chapter 10 of the Code of Ordinances, Houston, Texas, which Code is available for public review at www.houstontx.gov/codes.
(c) The hearing officer shall conduct the hearing to which subsection (b) of this section refers.
(1) If the hearing is a record proceeding, the hearing shall be recorded by a court reporter certified by the Texas Court Reporters Certification Board.
(2) The hearing may be postponed once for good cause shown; the existence of 'good cause' shall be determined by the hearing officer in the exercise of his sole but reasonable discretion.
(3) If no person having a legal interest in the property appears before the hearing officer on the date and at the time for which notice was given, the hearing officer shall dismiss the appeal.
(4) After consideration of the evidence presented at the hearing, the hearing officer shall issue a written order, the substance of which order shall be limited to the following:
a. A statement of the date, time, and place of the hearing and of the authority pursuant to which the hearing was conducted;
b. A list of all persons who attended all or part of the hearing, to the extent known by the hearing officer;
c. A general description of the evidence considered by the hearing officer; and
d. A declaration that the order was or was not duly authorized by the Fire Code.
(5) In the event that the hearing official declares that the order was not duly authorized by the Fire Code, the fire code official shall withdraw the order.
(Ord. No. 2013-296, § 20, 4-3-2013)