Howard County                                   2217

PECUNIARY interest which he may have in the subject matter of the
proceeding. This shall include the position of any member who stands
to gain or lose, either pecuniarily, professionally, politically, or socially,
by his decision. Any party shall have an opportunity to object to the
qualifications of any member, on the grounds of bias, at any time during
the hearing by filing a timely and sufficient affidavit stating the reasons
for his objection, which reasons may be for any matter appearing on the
face of the record, or for the member's conduct during the hearing, or
otherwise. Any such member may at any time withdraw if he deems
himself disqualified.

(b)    Members presiding at hearings shall have authority subject to
the published rules of the agency within its powers, to (1) administer
oaths and affirmations, (2) issue subpoenas authorized by law, (3) take or
cause depositions to be taken whenever the ends of justice would be served
thereby, (4) regulate the course of the hearing, (5) hold conferences for
the settlement or simplification of the issues by consent of the parties,
(6) dispose of procedural requests or similar matters, and, (7) take any
other action authorized by agency rule consistent with this subtitle.

(c)    Except as statutes otherwise provide, the proponent of a rule
or order shall have the burden of proof. Any oral or documentary evidence
may be received, but every agency shall as a matter of policy provide for
the exclusion of irrelevant, immaterial or unduly repetitious evidence and
no sanction shall be imposed or rule or order be issued except upon con-
sideration of the whole record or such portions thereof as may be cited by
any party and as supported and in accordance with the reliable, probative
and substantial evidence.

22.206—Decisions and Orders

Every decision and order rendered by an agency shall be in writing
or stated in the record and shall be accompanied by findings of fact and
conclusions of law. The findings of fact shall consist of a concise state-
ment of the conclusions upon each contested issue of fact as well as the
reasons or basis therefor presented on the record together with the appro-
priate rule, order, sanction, relief or denial thereof. In arriving at its
decision and order, the vote of each member together with his reasons
therefor shall be taken and recorded as part of the record of proceedings.

, but the agency shall not permit any member to publish separate and

dissenting decisions. A copy of the agency's decision and order and accom-
panying findings and conclusions shall be delivered or mailed promptly to
each party or to his attorney of record.

Section 2. And be it further enacted by the County Council of Howard
County, Maryland, That nothing in this Act shall be held to diminish the
constitutional rights of any person or to limit or repeal additional require-
ments imposed by statute or otherwise recognized by law. Except as
otherwise required by law, all requirements or privileges relating to
evidence or procedure shall apply equally to agencies and persons. If any
provision of this Act or the application thereof is held invalid, the re-
mainder of this Act or other application of such provision shall not thereby
be affected, the County Council hereby declaring that it would have passed
the remaining parts of this title or any section thereof if it had known
such clause, sentence, part or parts of any section thereof should be declared
invalid or unconstitutional. No subsequent legislation shall be held to
supersede or modify the provisions of this Act except to the extent that
such legislation shall do so expressly.