BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1165
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 29, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
SB 1165
(Cannella) - As Amended June 21, 2016
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Policy |Business and Professions |Vote:|16 - 0 |
|Committee: | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill extends the delinquent license reinstatement timeframe
of a professional engineer and land surveyor's license from
three to five years after the expiration of the license;
prohibits the renewal, restoration, reinstatement, or reissuance
of a professional engineer and land surveyor's license after the
five-year delinquent licensee reinstatement timeframe; requires
professional geologists and geophysicists to both sign and seal
their final work product documents; requires professional
geologists and geophysicists to obtain a seal; provides that the
renewal fee for engineering and land surveyor licenses be no
greater than $400, and contains other provisions.
SB 1165
Page 2
FISCAL EFFECT:
No state fiscal impact.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose and Background. This bill is sponsored by the Board
for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists
(BPELSG). According to the author, "this bill would provide
for consistent operations among the Board's licensing programs
by conforming the correlating laws. This bill would also
provide the consumers of California with improved assurance
that the documents of professional geologists and
geophysicists reflect their final professional opinion."
The BPELSG is a licensing board under the DCA and is charged
with safeguarding the life, health, property, and public
welfare by regulating the practices of professional
engineering, land surveying, geology, and geophysics. The
BPELSG qualifies and licenses individuals, establishes
regulations, enforces laws and regulations, and provides
information so that consumers can make informed decisions.
a) Delinquent Reinstatement Rights. Under existing law, the
renewal period for a license as a professional engineer or
land surveyor is anytime within three years after
expiration. After the three year period, the former
license holder may reinstate the expired license by
demonstrating to the BPELSG that they are still competent
to practice without being required to take and pass the
licensing exam. According to the author, the BPELSG has
become concerned that allowing professional engineers and
land surveyors to reinstate licenses that have been
delinquent a significant amount of time without requiring
demonstration of current minimum competency through taking
SB 1165
Page 3
and passing the licensing examinations does not provide
sufficient public protection. The BPELSG believes that the
requirements for obtaining licensure after a lengthy period
of delinquency should be standardized across all of the
professions it regulates. This bill extends the renewal
period to five years but also requires licensees to submit
a new license application.
b) Application and Renewal Fee. The Professional Engineers
Act and the Professional Land Surveyors' Act contain
language that ties the license renewal fee to the
application fee in effect at the time of renewal. The
Geologist and Geophysicist Act indicates that the
application fee and the renewal fee cannot be set at more
than $400, but the two fees are not tied together. The
BPELSG, through two of its three licensing acts, is the
only Board or Bureau under DCA in which the renewal fee
must be based on the application fee.
The application fee only covers expenses attributed to the
workload of processing an application and developing state-
mspecific exams. Renewal fees are the only form of revenue for
the Board to sustain its overall operations. Requiring that the
renewal fee be based on the application fee could lead to a
situation where the application fee would need to be lowered
based on the actual costs to process the applications, which
would then require the renewal fee to also be lowered, even if
doing so was not supported by the operational needs of the
BPELSG. This bill specifies instead that the fee may be no more
than $400 (which is the current statutory maximum for the
application fee). This change will conform these provisions to
those in the Geologist and Geophysicist Act.
1)Current Related Legislation.
a) SB 1479 (Committee on Business, Professions and Economic
Development), also before this Committee today, among other
SB 1165
Page 4
things, authorizes the BPELSG to make arrangements with a
public or private organization to conduct the geology
examination and to contract with a public or private
organization for materials or services related to the
examination, conforming the BPELSG's authority for
geologists to its existing authority for professional
engineers and land surveyors.
b) SB 1085 (Roth) , pending referral to this Committee,
requires, at the time of renewal, all licensees under the
BPELSG to complete an assessment that includes questions to
reinforce the licensees' knowledge of laws applicable to
the specific practice area; makes the failure to complete
the assessment within a specified period of time a cause
for disciplinary action; and requires an applicant for a
geophysicist license to complete an examination that tests
knowledge of state laws, conforming to the requirement for
professional engineers and land surveyors.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081