BILL ANALYSIS
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|Hearing Date:March 22, 2010 |Bill No:AB |
| |1431 |
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS
AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod, Chair
Bill No: AB 1431Author:Hill
As Amended:March 9, 2010 Fiscal: Yes
SUBJECT: Geologists and geophysicists.
SUMMARY: Renames the Board for Professional Engineers and Land
Surveyors and increases the Board membership from 13 to 14 by adding a
licensed geologist or geophysicist to the Board.
Existing law:
1) Licenses and regulates engineers and land surveyors by the Board
for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (Board) within the
Department of Consumer Affairs.
2) Provides that the Board is made up of 13 members, consisting of 6
professional members
(5 engineers and 1 land surveyor) and 7 public members.
a) The Governor appoints 5 public members and the 6 professional
members.
b) The Senate Rules Committee and the Speaker of the Assembly
each appoint a public member.
1) Establishes, effective October 23, 2009, that the Board shall
succeed to and is vested with all the duties, powers, purposes,
responsibilities, and jurisdiction previously vested in the Board
for Geologists and Geophysicists (BGG), thereby requiring the Board
to administer the Geologists and Geophysicists Act.
This bill:
1) Renames the Board as the Board for Professional Engineers, Land
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Surveyors and Geologists.
2) Increases the membership of the Board from 13 to 14 by adding a
professional member licensed under the Geologist and Geophysicist
Act.
3) Makes technical, conforming and clarifying changes.
FISCAL EFFECT: The Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis, dated
January 21, 2010, indicates minor costs of less than $20,000 per year
to the Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors Fund, a Special Fund.
COMMENTS:
1. Purpose. This bill is sponsored by Professional Engineers in
California Government (PECG) to rename the Board for Professional
Engineers and Land Surveyors to the Board for Professional
Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists, and increase the
membership of the Board from 13 to 14 by adding a professional
member licensed under the Geologists and Geophysicists Act.
In 2009, the Legislature approved and the Governor signed ABX4 20
(Strickland, Chapter 18, Statutes of 2009, effective October 23,
2009). One provision of that bill consolidated the BGG into the
Board, thereby transferring all licensing and regulatory
responsibilities for licensed geologists and geophysicists to the
Board. However, the legislation did not change the name of the
Board to reflect its new responsibilities, nor did it include a
licensed geologist or geophysicist on the Board now overseeing
geologist and geophysicists. This bill would make those changes.
2. Hearing on Governor's Elimination, Consolidation and Reorganization
Proposals. In the summer of 2009, the Business, Professions and
Economic Development Committee (Committee) convened a hearing on
the Governor's Elimination, Consolidation and Reorganization
Proposals made in the May Revision of the 2009-2010 State Budget.
The Budget Conference Committee had requested that the Committee
consider a number of the specific elimination, consolidation and
reorganization proposals made by the Governor, as well as other
consolidation proposals identified by the Committee. In the
hearing, the Committee received testimony from the Administration,
the departments, boards and bureaus that would be affected by the
proposed changes, the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), the
Center for Public Interest Law, professional associations, members
of the regulated professions, and members of the public. The
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Committee made its recommendations in a Report to the Conference
Committee. Those recommendations and the legislative changes
necessary to implement the recommendations were the bases for ABX4
20.
At that hearing, the Committee considered 13 separate consolidation or
elimination proposals, including whether the BGG should be
consolidated with the State Mining and Geology Board. That
proposal was approved on an 8-1 vote. Ultimately, during Budget
negotiations, that recommendation was modified to consolidate the
Board of Geologists and Geophysicists with the Board for
Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors. Those changes were
included in ABX4 20 (Strickland, Chapter 18, Statutes of 2009).
3. Background on Consolidation Efforts. Over that last fifteen years,
a number of efforts have been made to merge or consolidate the BGG
into other regulatory agencies. In 1994, the Business and
Professions Committee initially reviewed whether the BGG should be
merged with another entity including the Board. At that time, no
changes were made to BGG. In 1996 and again in 1999, the Joint
Legislative Sunset Review Committee (Sunset Review Committee) and
DCA reviewed the Geology Board and both DCA and the Sunset Review
Committee recommended BGG be continued as an independent board and
not be combined with any other entity.
In 2004, the Governor's California Performance Review (CPR)
recommendation was to combine BGG with the Board of Mining and
Geology and place the new board under the Division of Land
Management within the proposed new Department of Natural Resources.
LAO and the Administration's CPR Commission rejected this
proposal. The Governor's Reorganization Plan which included
converting the BGG to a bureau was rejected by the Legislature, and
ultimately withdrawn by the Administration.
4. Arguments in Support. The Sponsor argues in support that changing
the makeup and name of the Board is good policy and common sense so
that the title reflects the professions the Board is licensing.
The Sponsor further believes that fairness and common sense
requires that the Board include at least one licensee. It is not
reasonable for a Board to oversee a profession without any
professional representation of that profession, according to the
Sponsor.
With the latest amendments to remove the term "Geophysicist" from the
proposed name, the Board for Professional Engineers and Land
Surveyors is in support of the bill, stating:
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The Board's position is not intended to slight geophysicists;
the Board does not believe that it is necessary to include
their title in the name of the Board. In response to the
argument that geophysicists are a practice protected group of
licensees, so are the engineering professions of civil,
electrical, and mechanical engineers and those titles are not
currently included in the name of the Board. Furthermore, the
200 California licensed geophysicists are not hired by your
average public consumer; they are hired by a more
sophisticated consumer. Therefore, being able to locate the
Board that regulates geophysicists would not be an issue.
5. Arguments in Opposition. The Association of Environmental and
Engineering Geologists (AEG) has taken an oppose unless amended
position on the bill, urging that the bill be amended to: (1)
maintain the number of Board members at 13 members, the current
level; (2) add one geophysicist to the Board; (3) add
"Geophysicist" to the name of the Board;
(4) revise Business and Professions Code 6712 to make conforming
changes regarding the Governor's authority to appoint the new Board
members.
AEG believes increasing the size of the Board will result in decreased
efficiency, and suggests that the Board remain at the current level
of 13 members by exchanging the two title act positions currently
on the Board (one structural engineer; one of the remaining
branches of engineering) with two Geologist and Geophysicist Act
licensees.
AEG further argues that as a title act license, the practice of
structural engineering does not require a structural engineer
license; and the same is true for the remaining branches of
engineering, other than civil, mechanical, and electrical, but the
practice of geology and geophysics does require a license in
California. According to AEG, practice acts exist because the
public and the Legislature have determined that licensure of those
professions is necessary for public protection; and it therefore
follows that "a board's professional members must be licensed under
the board's practice acts in order for those members to be
considered qualified to address public safety-related issues
related to their profession."
6. Policy Issue: Public Member Majority. Over the last 15 years, the
Legislature has made significant strides with the consumer boards
under DCA in balancing the professional and public representation
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in board membership. The Legislature has consistently moved toward
having greater public representation on consumer boards, and has
established public member majorities on all non-health boards
(except for the California Architects Board which has 5
professional and 5 public members), and several health-related
boards have public member majorities (Board of Podiatric Medicine,
Acupuncture Board, Board of Behavioral Sciences, Board of
Vocational Nurses and Psychiatric Technicians).
In 2001, the Sunset Review Committee, addressed the balance of public
and professional on DCA boards as a "crosscutting issue" under
sunset review, stating:
As a general rule, consumer protection is best served when
consumers have balanced representation on the boards under the
Department's purview. Consumers are generally represented by
a board's public members. Prior to the initiation of the
sunset review process, many boards had more professional
members than public members. The sunset review process has
been effective in bringing greater balance to most Department
boards . . . The primary rationale for professional members on
licensing boards is their understanding of the profession they
regulate.
Since that time, based upon the Sunset Review Committee and
Administration recommendations, several bills have been enacted
which have moved the boards to greater consumer representation.
In its current form, this bill would add a licensed geologist or
geophysicist to the Board, increasing the membership to 14 members
and making the number of professional members equal to the number of
public members. In order to maintain a public member majority on
the Board, staff recommends amending the bill to include an
additional public member, bringing the total Board membership to 15
(7 professional, 8 public members).
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION:
Support:
Professional Engineers in California Government (Sponsor)
Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors
Opposition:
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Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists
Consultant:G. V. Ayers