There are a few land use boards and commissions that continue their hearings until well after midnight. This practice must stop. It deprives the participants of a fair process.
The requirements of constitutional procedural due process are well-known: notice, the right to be heard, the right to challenge evidence, a fair and impartial decision maker, and a decision based on the record. Connecticut also has a common law right to “fundamental fairness” which is not coextensive with due process. The leading case of Grimes v. Conservation Commission of Litchfield, 243 Conn. 266, 274 (1997) describes it as requiring that the conduct in an administrative proceeding not violate the fundamentals of natural justice and, among other things, that participants have the right to produce relevant evidence and to cross-examine witnesses produced by an adversary or otherwise offer evidence in rebuttal.
