During calendar year 2010, we will visit our
in-person hearing sites outside of Des Moines, Council Bluffs
and Mason City in accordance with the schedule below. We are
again taking this step to minimize our travel costs, to maximize
our productivity and to let you know well in advance when we
will be visiting your hearing site.
State law allows the parties, not the agency or administrative
law judge, to choose if a hearing is to be conducted by
telephone or in person. Telephone hearings have been your
overwhelming choice. Last year 95% of our cases were conducted
by telephone. Of the remaining 5%, half were in Des Moines,
Council Bluffs and Mason City, communities in or near which
administrative law judges are stationed. Less than 3% were
scheduled for the thirteen sites listed below. To meet the needs
of the vast majority of our parties, it is necessary to maximize
the amount of time available for telephone hearings.
All of us in state government are facing tight budgets at a time
that requests for services are growing. In 2008 we docketed
12,332 new appeals, and surpassed that number before the end of
August 2009. Travel costs for in-person hearings are much higher
than the costs of telephone hearings. Time spent traveling to
the other hearing sites is time more productively spent holding
hearings and preparing decisions. We use our limited resources
most efficiently when we hold hearings by telephone and minimize
the time and cost of traveling. The schedule below allows us to
do so.
Announcing the schedule now gives you several months rather than
two weeks’ notice of when we will be coming to your hearing
site. You will know when to be ready and available for a
hearing. You also will be able to make a more informed choice of
whether a hearing by telephone or in person best meets your
needs.
If you have any questions or concerns,
you may call me at (515) 281-7082, fax me at (515) 242-5144 or e-mail
me at
.
Dan
Anderson
Chief Administrative Law Judge