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works referral comments in relation to criteria discussed throughout the report because it is unclear which version of the comments the staff intended to incorporate; and because it is possible that the final version of the comments may not have been available seven days before the public hearing. In his March 21, 2018 correspondence, Mr. Conte appears to argue that under ORS 197.763 the hearings official can consider, and that the record can include, only a version of the Staff Report that was available seven days before the hearing. In the March 28, 2018 correspondence he seems to acknowledge that evidence submitted during the open record period can but considered, but argues: "PW referral comments that the staff report "incorporated" and relied upon have not yet been posted by the city, nor has staff made the documents known and available to the public for review and response. Consequently, staff are implicitly asking the Hearings Official to rely upon evidence that the staff claims they placed into the record, but to which parties in these proceedings have been denied any reasonable opportunity to respond. The Hearings Official cannot accede to staff's request without prejudicing the substantial rights of all parties in these proceedings." The Public Works referral comments to which Mr. Conte refers includes several versions of comments submitted by the Public Works staff to Planning staff between November 30, 2017 and February 28, 2018. Specifically, as recited in the City's response to Mr. Conte's public records requests (dated March 11, 2018 and March 14, 2018) the initial Public Works referral comments were dated November 30, 2017 and attached to an email to City Planner Nick Gioello on December 8, 2018. Public Works submitted revised comments on February 12, 2018. Mr. Gioello questioned Public Works staff about one section of those comments (EC 9.6815(2)(f)) "and received an email on 2-13-18 * * * with a minor revision altering one sentence which Nick pasted into the revised 2-12-18 referral comments." (City response to Paul Conte public requests request, March 22, 2018.) On February 28, 2018, Mr. Gioello received an additional email from Public Works with additional language for inclusion into the referral comments. Mr. Gioello combined the text from the earlier comments with the language provided on February 28, 2018 to create the final Public Works referral comments document, which is dated "November 30, 2017 - Revised February 28, 2018." Copies of each of the versions, and the emails between Mr. Gioello and Public Work Staff are attached to Mr. Conte's correspondence. Mr. Conte is correct that ORS 197.763(4)(b) requires that any staff report used at the public hearing be available at least seven days before the hearing. The city complied with that requirement. However, regardless of whether the City staff may have made changes to that Staff Report, to the extent Mr. Conte continues to argue that either the city cannot provide any additional information, or the hearings official cannot consider evidence from the city that was provided less than seven days before the hearing, nothing in ORS 197.763 supports that assertion. Under ORS 197.763 and the city's code requirements, the record includes all testimony and evidence submitted and accepted into the record until it is closed. Evidence in the record includes that provided by the city so long as it is provided before the close of the record. Mr. Conte's arguments related to the version of the Public Works referral comments that are incorporated into the Staff Report also does not establish a violation of ORS 197.763. To clarify, the Staff Report consists of the staff's initial evaluation of the application as it relates Hearings Official Decision (PDT 17-1) 7