BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                    SB 1165  


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          Date of Hearing:  June 29, 2016


                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS


                               Lorena Gonzalez, Chair


          SB 1165  
          (Cannella) - As Amended June 21, 2016


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          |Policy       |Business and Professions       |Vote:|16 - 0       |
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          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.









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          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  








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               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  








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               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