2010 Pennsylvania Code
Title 66 - PUBLIC UTILITIES
Chapter 3 - Public Utility Commission
334 - Presiding officers.

     § 334.  Presiding officers.
        (a)  Presiding officers to decide.--The same presiding
     officer shall to the fullest extent possible preside at all the
     reception of evidence in a particular case to which he has been
     assigned. The same presiding officer who presides at the
     reception of evidence shall make the recommended decision or
     initial decision except where such presiding officer becomes
     unavailable to the commission.
        (b)  Outside consultation prohibited.--Save to the extent
     required for the disposition of ex parte matters not prohibited
     by this part, no presiding officer shall consult any person or
     party on any fact in issue unless upon notice and opportunity
     for all parties to participate; nor shall any presiding officer
     be responsible to or subject to the supervision or direction of
     any officer, employee or agent engaged in the performance of
     investigative or prosecuting functions for the commission. No
     employee, appointee, commissioner or official engaged in the
     service of, or in any manner connected with the commission shall
     engage in ex parte communications save to the extent permitted
     by this part. No officer, employee or agent engaged in the
     performance of investigative or prosecuting functions for the
     commission in any case shall, in that or a factually related
     case, participate or advise in the decision, recommended
     decision or commission review, except as witness or counsel in
     public proceedings.
        (c)  Ex parte communications.--Ex parte communications
     prohibited in this section shall mean any off-the-record
     communications to or by any member of the commission,
     administrative law judge, or employee of the commission,
     regarding the merits or any fact in issue of any matter pending
     before the commission in any contested on-the-record proceeding.
     Contested on-the-record proceeding means a proceeding required
     by a statute, constitution, published commission rule or
     regulation or order in a particular case, to be decided on the
     basis of the record of a commission hearing, and in which a
     protest or a petition or notice to intervene in opposition to
     requested commission action has been filed. This subsection does
     not prohibit off-the-record communications to or by any employee
     of the commission prior to the actual beginning of hearings in a
     contested on-the-record proceeding when such communications are
     solely for the purpose of seeking clarification of or
     corrections in evidentiary materials intended for use in the
     subsequent hearings.