| (a) Proposals for decision shall be brought before
the commission for final decision. The commission shall render the
final decision in a contested case and is responsible for imposing
disciplinary action and/or assessing administrative penalties against
Respondents who are found to have violated any of the commission's
laws or rules. The commission welcomes recommendations of administrative
law judges as to the sanctions to be imposed, but the commission is
not required to give presumptively binding effect to the judges' recommendations
and is not bound by such recommendations.
(b) The proposal for decision may be acted on by the
commission after the expiration of 10 days after the filing of replies
to exceptions to the proposal for decision or upon the day following
the day exceptions or replies to exceptions are due if no such exceptions
or replies are filed.
(c) It is the policy of the commission to change a
finding of fact or conclusion of law in a proposal for decision of
a judge when, the commission determines:
(1) that the judge did not properly apply or interpret
applicable law, agency rules, written policies provided by staff or
prior administrative decisions;
(2) that a prior administrative decision on which the
judge relied is incorrect or should be changed; or
(3) that a technical error in a finding of fact should
be changed.
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