Amended in Assembly March 18, 2016

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 2560

Introduced by Assembly Member Obernolte

February 19, 2016

An act to amend begin delete Sections 8704, 8720.1, 8743, 8744, 8748.5, 8760, 8770, 8773.3, 8775.2, 8783, and 8804 end delete begin insert Section 5096.21 end insert of the Business and Professions Code, relating to professions and vocations.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 2560, as amended, Obernolte. begin delete Professional Land Surveyors’ Act. end delete begin insert Accountants: practice privileges: out-of-state individuals. end insert

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Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of the practice of accountancy by the California Board of Accountancy within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law authorizes the board to make a determination based on specified factors about whether allowing individuals from a particular state to practice pursuant to a practice privilege violates the board’s duty to protect the public and requires the board, if it were to make such a determination, to require those individuals, except as specified, to file the notification form and pay specified fees as a condition to exercising a practice privilege in this state.

end insert begin insert

This bill would authorize the board to adopt emergency regulations in order to implement the above-described provisions.

end insert begin delete

The Professional Land Surveyors’ Act provides for the licensure and regulation of land surveyors by the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists, which is within the Department of Consumer Affairs, and requires any person practicing, or offering to practice, land surveying in the state to submit evidence that he or she is qualified to practice and to be licensed under the act.

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This bill would change masculine pronouns, as specified, throughout that act and make other nonsubstantive changes.

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Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee:  begin delete no end delete begin insert yes end insert . State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

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begin insert SECTION 1. end insert   

end insert

begin insert Section 5096.21 of the end insert begin insert Business and Professions
Code end insert begin insert is amended to read: end insert

5096.21.  

(a)  begin insert (1) end insert begin insert   end insert On and after January 1, 2016, if the board
determines, through a majority vote of the board at a regularly
scheduled meeting, that allowing individuals from a particular
state to practice in this state pursuant to a practice privilege as
described in Section 5096, violates the board’s duty to protect the
public, pursuant to Section 5000.1, the board shall require, by
regulation, out-of-state individuals licensed from that state, as a
condition to exercising a practice privilege in this state, to file the
notification form and pay the applicable fees as required by former
Section 5096, as added by Chapter 921 of the Statutes of 2004,
and regulations adopted thereunder.

begin insert

(2) The board may adopt emergency regulations, in accordance
with the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing
with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the
Government Code), to implement this subdivision. The adoption
of the regulations shall be deemed an emergency and necessary
for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety,
or general welfare for purposes of Sections 11346.1 and 11349.6
of the Government Code.

end insert

(b) The board shall, at minimum, consider the following factors
in making the determination required by subdivision (a):

(1) Whether the state timely and adequately addresses
enforcement referrals made by the board to the accountancy
regulatory board of that state, or otherwise fails to respond to
requests the board deems necessary to meet its obligations under
this article.

(2) Whether the state makes the disciplinary history of its
licensees publicly available through the Internet in a manner that
allows the board to adequately link consumers to an Internet Web
site to obtain information that was previously made available to
consumers about individuals from the state prior to January 1,
2013, through the notification form.

(3) Whether the state imposes discipline against licensees that
is appropriate in light of the nature of the alleged misconduct.

(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), if (1) the National
Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) adopts
enforcement best practices guidelines, (2) the board, upon a
majority vote at a regularly scheduled board meeting, issues a
finding after a public hearing that those practices meet or exceed
the board’s own enforcement practices, (3) a state has in place and
is operating pursuant to enforcement practices substantially
equivalent to the best practices guidelines, and (4) disciplinary
history of a state’s licensees is publicly available through the
Internet in a manner that allows the board to link consumers to an
Internet Web site to obtain information at least equal to the
information that was previously available to consumers through
the practice privilege form filed by out-of-state licensees pursuant
to former Section 5096, as added by Chapter 921 of the Statutes
of 2004, no practice privilege form shall be required to be filed by
any licensee of that state as required by subdivision (a), nor shall
the board be required to report on that state to the Legislature as
required by subdivision (d).

(d) (1) The board shall report to the relevant policy committees
of the Legislature, the director, and the public, upon request,
preliminary determinations made pursuant to this section no later
than July 1, 2015. The board shall, prior to January 1, 2016, and
thereafter as it deems appropriate, review its determinations made
pursuant to subdivision (b) to ensure that it is in compliance with
this section.

(2) This subdivision shall become inoperative on July 1, 2017,
pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code.

(e) On or before July 1, 2014, the board shall convene a
stakeholder group consisting of members of the board, board
enforcement staff, and representatives of the accounting profession
and consumer representatives to consider whether the provisions
of this article are consistent with the board’s duty to protect the
public consistent with Section 5000.1, and whether the provisions
of this article satisfy the objectives of stakeholders of the
accounting profession in this state, including consumers. The
group, at its first meeting, shall adopt policies and procedures
relative to how it will conduct its business, including, but not
limited to, policies and procedures addressing periodic reporting
of its findings to the board.

(f) On or before January 1, 2018, the board shall prepare a report
to be provided to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature,
the director, and the public, upon request, that, at minimum,
explains in detail all of the following:

(1) How the board has implemented this article and whether
implementation is complete.

(2) Whether this article is, in the opinion of the board, more,
less, or equivalent in the protection it affords the public than its
predecessor article.

(3) Describes how other state boards of accountancy have
addressed referrals to those boards from the board, the timeframe
in which those referrals were addressed, and the outcome of
investigations conducted by those boards.

(g) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2019,
and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that
is enacted before January 1, 2019, deletes or extends that date.

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SECTION 1.  

Section 8704 of the Business and Professions
Code is amended to read:

8704.  

Any person practices land surveying when he or she
professes to be a land surveyor or is in responsible charge of land
surveying work.

SEC. 2.  

Section 8720.1 of the Business and Professions Code
is amended to read:

8720.1.  

Each review committee shall consist of no fewer than
three licensed land surveyors appointed by the board. Each member
of a committee shall have the same qualifications and shall be
subject to the same rules and regulations as if he or she were a
member of the board.

SEC. 3.  

Section 8743 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:

8743.  

The names and addresses of at least four land surveyors
or civil engineers, duly qualified to practice in the place in which
such practice has been conducted, each of whom has sufficient
knowledge of the applicant to enable him or her to certify to the
applicant’s professional integrity, ability, and fitness to receive a
license, shall be submitted with the application for the second
division of the examination.

SEC. 4.  

Section 8744 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:

8744.  

The applicant for the second division of the examination
shall state in his or her application that, should he or she be
licensed, he or she will support the Constitution of this state and
of the United States, and that he or she will faithfully discharge
the duties of a licensed land surveyor.

SEC. 5.  

Section 8748.5 of the Business and Professions Code
is amended to read:

8748.5.  

If an applicant for license as a land surveyor or
certification as a land surveyor-in-training is found by the board
to lack the qualifications required for admission to the examination
for such license or certification, the board may, in accordance with
the provisions of Section 158 of this code, refund to him or her
one-half of the amount of his or her application fee.

SEC. 6.  

Section 8760 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:

8760.  

Every licensed land surveyor or registered civil engineer
may administer and certify oaths:

(a) When it becomes necessary to take testimony for the
identification or establishment of old, lost, or obliterated corners.

(b) When a corner or monument is found in a perishable
condition and it appears desirable that evidence concerning it be
perpetuated.

(c) When the importance of the survey makes it desirable to
administer an oath to his or her assistants for the faithful
performance of his or her duty.

A record of oaths shall be preserved as part of the field notes of
the survey and a memorandum of them shall be made on the record
of survey filed under this article.

SEC. 7.  

Section 8770 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:

8770.  

The record of survey filed with the county recorder of
any county shall be securely fastened by him or her into a suitable
book provided for that purpose.

He or she shall keep proper indexes of such record of survey by
the name of grant, tract, subdivision, or United States subdivision.

The original map shall be stored for safekeeping in a reproducible
condition. It shall be proper procedure for the recorder to maintain
for public reference a set of counter maps that are prints of the
original maps and the original maps to be produced for comparison
upon demand.

SEC. 8.  

Section 8773.3 of the Business and Professions Code
is amended to read:

8773.3.  

In every case where a corner record is filed pursuant
to Section 8773, the licensed land surveyor or registered civil
engineer shall reconstruct or rehabilitate the monument of such
corner, and accessories to such corner, so that the same shall be
left by him or her in such physical condition that it remains as
permanent a monument as is reasonably possible and so that the
same may be reasonably expected to be located with facility at all
times in the future.

SEC. 9.  

Section 8775.2 of the Business and Professions Code
is amended to read:

8775.2.  

Maps, documents, or reports prepared by, or under the
direction of, a licensed photogrammetric surveyor shall carry his
or her signature and certificate number, which will indicate his or
her responsibility for the work.

SEC. 10.  

Section 8783 of the Business and Professions Code
is amended to read:

8783.  

A plea or verdict of guilty or a conviction following a
plea of nolo contendere made to a charge substantially related to
the qualifications, functions, and duties of a land surveyor is
deemed to be a conviction within the meaning of this article. The
board may order the license or certificate suspended or revoked,
or may decline to issue a license or certificate, when the time for
appeal has elapsed, the judgment of conviction has been affirmed
on appeal, or when an order granting probation is made suspending
the imposition of sentence, irrespective of a subsequent order under
the provisions of Section 1203.4 of the Penal Code allowing such
person to withdraw his or her plea of guilty and to enter a plea of
not guilty, or setting aside the verdict of guilty, or dismissing the
accusation, information, or indictment.

SEC. 11.  

Section 8804 of the Business and Professions Code
is amended to read:

8804.  

The renewal or reinstatement of any certificate of
registration of a civil engineer under Chapter 7 (commencing with
Section 6700), who is also a licensed land surveyor, shall not
include the renewal or restoration of his or her land surveyor’s
license without the payment of the surveyor’s renewal fee or
penalty.

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