(a) At the meeting scheduled pursuant to Section 2075, the commission shall hold a public hearing on the petition and shall receive information, written or otherwise, and oral testimony. After the conclusion of oral testimony from the commission and department staff, the petitioner, or any other person, the commission may close the public hearing and the administrative record for the commission’s decision pursuant to this section.

(b) After the commission closes the public hearing, the administrative record for the commission’s decision is closed and it shall not be reopened except as provided in subdivision (c). Once the public hearing is closed, a person shall not submit further information to the commission for consideration on that petition and the commission shall not accept any further information for consideration on that petition except as provided in subdivision (c).

(c) The administrative record for the commission’s decision pursuant to this section shall not be reopened once the commission closes the public hearing unless one of the following occurs before the commission’s decision:

(1) There is a change in state or federal law or regulation that has a direct and significant impact on the commission’s determination as to whether the petitioned action is warranted.

(2) The commission determines that it requires further information to evaluate whether the petitioned action is warranted. If the commission makes that determination during its deliberation, the commission may request, on the record at the scheduled meeting or at a continued meeting, further information on any issue relevant to making its determination as to whether the petitioned action is warranted. Any request by the commission pursuant to this paragraph shall specify a date by which the information must be submitted to the commission and shall serve to reopen the administrative record for the limited purpose of receiving further information relating to the issues specified by the commission in the request. Commission and department staff, the petitioner, or any other person may submit information in response to a request pursuant to this paragraph.

(d) The commission, in its discretion, may either close the public hearing and continue the meeting on the petition for the purpose of deliberation or continue both the public hearing and the meeting on the petition to a subsequent date that is no later than 90 days after the meeting scheduled pursuant to Section 2075, and subject to applicable notice and agenda requirements. If the commission closes the public hearing but continues the meeting for the purpose of deliberation, a person shall not submit, and the commission shall not receive, further information relating to the petition except as provided in subdivision (c).

(e) At the meeting scheduled pursuant to Section 2075, or at a continued meeting scheduled pursuant to subdivision (d), the commission shall make one of the following findings based on the best available scientific information:

(1) The petitioned action is not warranted, in which case the finding shall be entered in the public records of the commission and the petitioned species shall be removed from the list of candidate species maintained pursuant to Section 2074.2.

(2) The petitioned action is warranted, or the petitioned action is not warranted but listing the petitioned species at a different status than that requested by the petitioner is warranted, in which case the commission shall, within 30 days of adopting written findings, publish a notice of that finding and shall add the species to, or remove the species from, the list of endangered species or the list of threatened species. Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code does not apply to the change in status of a species pursuant to this article. The commission shall submit the change in status to the Office of Administrative Law for filing with the Secretary of State and publication in the California Code of Regulations. The commission shall use underline or italics to indicate additions to, and strikeout to indicate deletions from, the California Code of Regulations to reflect the change in status.

(Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 329, Sec. 6. (SB 473) Effective January 1, 2019.)