(a) A debarment hearing shall be conducted within:

(b) A recording or transcript of the debarment hearing shall be made.

(c) The debarment hearing shall be conducted by a panel of at least two managerial level employees of the MTA designated by majority vote of the authority’s board; provided that no employee who has taken part in the award of or was otherwise directly involved in the contract to such contractor that is the subject of the debarment hearing, or overseen such contractor’s performance on any authority contract, may serve on a panel considering the debarment of such contractor. The debarment panel also shall include at least one neutral party drawn from the American Arbitration Association and independent of any state agency or authority to be chosen by the Board of the Authority.

(d) A contractor shall have the right to appear by and be represented by counsel at the debarment hearing and any hearings in connection with other proceedings conducted pursuant to this Part.

(e) A contractor at the debarment hearing may assert any and all defenses in the debarment proceeding. Such defenses that may be asserted by the contractor include but are not limited to force majeure; unforeseen circumstances; good faith efforts to take remedial, corrective or disciplinary action; a lack of bad faith in connection with the contractor’s conduct and other mitigating factors. The contractor may assert excusable delay and such other defenses at a debarment hearing irrespective of whether the authority has previously ruled on such defenses.

(f) If a contractor fails to appear at a debarment hearing, the panel may proceed with the hearing based on the record before it and reach a determination without providing for any further appearance or submission by the contractor.