(a) Hearing shall be public unless otherwise ordered by the hearing officer or the panel. An official reporter shall make the only official transcript of such proceedings.

(b) Copies of the official transcript will not be provided to the parties, but may be purchased by arrangement with the official reporter or with such costs as the panel may otherwise assess, or may be examined in the offices of the panel and/or the hearing officer subject to such conditions as the panel may prescribe.

(c) A charging party in asserting that an unfair labor practice has been committed within the meaning of the policy, shall have the burden of proving the allegations of the charge, or the amended charge, by a preponderance of the evidence.

(d) The parties shall not be bound by the technical rules of evidence, but the hearing officer, may, in his discretion, exclude any evidence or offer of proof if he finds that its probative value is substantially outweighed by the risk that its admission will either necessitate undue consumption of time or create substantial danger of undue prejudice or confusion.