BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON
BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Senator Jerry Hill, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 1479 Hearing Date: April 18,
2016
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|Author: |Committee on Business, Professions and Economic |
| |Development |
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|Version: |March 10, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Mark Mendoza |
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Subject: Business and professions
SUMMARY: Makes several non-controversial, minor, non-substantive or
technical changes to various provisions within the Business and
Professions Code relating to the non-health regulatory boards or
bureaus of the Department of Consumer Affairs.
Existing law:
1) Provides for the licensing and regulation of various
professions and businesses by some 26 Boards, 10 bureaus, two
committees, one program, and one commission within the
Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) under various licensing
acts within the Business and Professions Code (BPC).
2) Contains the following provisions relating to the California
Board of Accountancy (CBA):
a) Provides that an applicant for certified public
accountant (CPA) licensure is required to complete 10
semester units or 15 quarter units of ethics study with
specific terms in the course title. (BPC § 5094.3 (d))
3) Contains the following provisions relating to the California
Architects Board (CAB):
a) Provides that CAB may grant eligibility, based on an
SB 1479 (Committee on Business, Professions and Economic
Development) Page 2 of ?
eligibility point determined by the Additional Path to
Architectural Licensing Program, for a candidate to take
the examination for a license to practice architecture if
he or she is enrolled in an Additional Path to
Architectural Licensing program that integrates the
experience and examination components offered by a National
Architectural Accrediting Board-accredited degree program.
(BPC § 5550.2)
4) Contains the following provisions relating to the Contractors
State License Board (CSLB):
a) Requires that an application for an original license,
for an additional classification, or for a change of
qualifier become void when:
(1) The applicant or examinee for the applicant has failed to
appear for the scheduled qualifying examination and fails to
request and pay the fee for rescheduling within 90 days of
notification of failure to appear, or, after being rescheduled,
has failed to appear for a second examination.
(2) The applicant or the examinee for the applicant has failed
to achieve a passing grade in the scheduled qualifying
examination, and fails to request and pay the fee for
rescheduling within 90 days of notification of failure to pass
the examination. (BPC § 7074(a))
5) Contains the following provisions relating to the Board for
Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists
(BPELSG):
a) Requires that an examination for registration be held at
the times and places within the state as the board
determine; provides that the scope of examinations and the
methods of procedure be prescribed by rule of the board.
(BPC § 7844)
6) Contains the following provisions relating to the Governor's
Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz):
a) Establishes the California Tourism Marketing Act.
(Government Code (GC) § 13995 et seq.)
SB 1479 (Committee on Business, Professions and Economic
Development) Page 3 of ?
b) Makes various findings and declarations regarding the
importance of California's tourism industry, need for
marketing of the industry and importance in funding the
marketing of the industry, including:
(1) An industry-approved assessment provides a private-sector
financing mechanism that, in partnership with state funding,
will provide the amount of marketing necessary to increase
tourism marketing expenditures by California.
(2) The goal of the assessments is to assess the least amount
per business, in the least intrusive manner, spread across the
greatest practical number of tourism industry segments. (GC §
13995.1)
This bill:
1) Makes the following changes relating to the California Board
of Accountancy (CBA):
a) Provides flexibility to the courses that fall under the
ethics education requirement without expanding the
disciplines in which the education is earned.
2) Makes the following changes relating to California Architects
Board (CAB):
a) Clarifies the language of BPC§ 5550.2 to allow students
enrolled in any program accepted by the National Council of
Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) to receive early
eligibility to take the Architectural Registration
Examination.
3) Makes the following changes relating to the Contractors State
License Board (CSLB):
a) Eliminates the two conditions in existing law that void
an application because of exam scheduling.
4) Makes the following changes relating to the Board for
Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists
(BPELSG):
SB 1479 (Committee on Business, Professions and Economic
Development) Page 4 of ?
a) Authorizes the Board to make arrangements with a public
or private organization to conduct the examination and to
contract with a public or private organization for
materials or services related to the examination.
5) Makes the following changes relating to the Governor's Office
of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz):
a) Deletes the obsolete reference to "secretary" of the
California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency
(BT&H) and instead inserts the word "Director".
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown. This bill is keyed "fiscal" by
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose. This bill is one of two "committee bills" authored by
the Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee
(Committee) and is intended to consolidate a number of
non-controversial provisions related to various regulatory
programs and professions governed by the BPC. Consolidating
the provisions in one bill is designed to relieve the various
licensing boards, bureaus, professions and other regulatory
agencies from the necessity and burden of having separate
measures for a number of non-controversial revisions.
Many of the provisions of this bill are minor, technical, and
updating changes, while other provisions are substantive
changes intended to improve the ability of various licensing
programs and other entities to efficiently and effectively
administer their respective laws.
However, as a Committee bill, if controversy or opposition should
arise regarding any provision that cannot be resolved, then
that provision will be removed from the bill. This will
eliminate the chance of placing any of the other provisions in
jeopardy.
2.Background. The following is background and reasons for the
more significant and substantive provisions in this measure:
SB 1479 (Committee on Business, Professions and Economic
Development) Page 5 of ?
a) Board of Accountancy (CBA). According to BPC § 5094.3,
an applicant for CPA license is required to complete 10
semester units or 15 quarter units of ethics study with
specific terms in the course title. After January 1, 2017,
an applicant is required to complete a maximum of 7
semester units or 11 quarter units, in courses of ethics
study with specific terms in the course title and a minimum
of three semester units or four quarter units in courses
devoted to accounting ethics or accountants' professional
responsibilities.
As written, the requirement of specific terms in the course
title may be too restrictive for applicants and may be
invalidating courses that should qualify. The CBA has received
additional feedback that the requirement of specific terms in
the course title may be too restrictive for applicants that
received their college education in any of the other 54
jurisdictions and/or received their college education
internationally. In order to create flexibility and remove a
potential barrier to entry, this bill would provide added
flexibility to the courses which fall under the ethics education
requirement without expanding the disciplines in which the
education is earned. This change will ensure that applicants
who have completed ethics education will meet the ethics
requirement.
b) California Architects Board (CAB). The current language
of BPC § 5550.2 references the obsolete term "Additional
Path to Architectural Licensing". The nomenclature for
these programs has changed and accordingly the amendment is
needed to reflect the new terminology. This measure
clarifies that students enrolled in any integrated degree
program accepted by the NCARB may be eligible to take the
Architectural Registration Examination early, thereby
improving the licensure process and enabling them to become
licensed and enter the workforce more quickly than the
traditional path.
Currently, there are fourteen NCARB approved universities with
integrated degree programs, three of which are in California.
The three California universities are the University of Southern
California, the NewSchool of Architecture and Design, and
Woodbury University.
SB 1479 (Committee on Business, Professions and Economic
Development) Page 6 of ?
c) Contractors State License Board (CSLB). The current
application for licensure states: "If you are required to
take an examination, subject to some limitation, you have
18 months after the approval of your application in which
to achieve a passing grade on the exam. During that time
period, you may take the exam an unlimited number of times.
A $60 fee is required each time you reschedule an exam."
However, BPC § 7074 further provides eight conditions upon which
an application becomes void, two of which relate to test
scheduling. The first is when an applicant does not reschedule
within 90 days of failing to appear at a scheduled exam; and the
second is when an applicant does not reschedule within 90 days
of failing an exam.
In 2014, 196 applications were voided due to these two
provisions.
This bill eliminates the two conditions in existing law that
void an application because of exam scheduling, since
computer-based testing makes it unnecessary. Prior to computer
based testing, the Board only administered the exam at periodic
times throughout the year. Now, CSLB tests every day and has
eight test centers throughout the state. The Board has more
capacity for testing with the computer based system. Applicants
can schedule an exam time, but also have the option of walking
into a testing center and be accommodated. If an applicant has
an exam scheduled, but does not show, he or she is not taking a
spot from someone else who was waiting to take the exam.
d) Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and
Geologists (BPELSG). This bill would provide for
consistent operations among the BPELSG's licensing programs
by conforming the law relating to geologists and
geophysicists to those for professional engineers and land
surveyors. The BPELSG currently purchases the licensing
examinations for geologists from National Association of
State Boards of Geology (ASBOG), the national organization
that develops the examinations. However, the BPELSG must
still administer the examinations rather than contracting
with ASBOG to administer them. The Professional Engineers
Act and the Professional Land Surveyors' Act contain
provisions (BPC § 6750(b), 6754, 8740, and 8745)
SB 1479 (Committee on Business, Professions and Economic
Development) Page 7 of ?
authorizing the BPELSG to contract with an outside
organization to administer the licensing examinations for
engineers and land surveyors. The BPELSG contracts with
The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and
Surveying (NCEES), the national organization that develops
the engineering and land surveying examinations, to
administer these examinations.
e) Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development
(GO-Biz). This bill deletes the obsolete reference to the
"Secretary" of BT&H and clarifies language to find and
declare that the mechanisms to fund generic promotions be
pursuant to the supervision and oversight of the Director
of the Governor's Office of Business and Economic
Development.
3. Arguments in Support. The California Board of Accountancy
writes, "The CBA would like to thank you for including our
proposal to amend the CBA's ethics study education
requirements for Certified Public Accountant licensure to
provide a level of flexibility by changing the current course
title requirement to a subject requirement in SB 1479."
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION:
Support:
The California Board of Accountancy
Opposition: None on file as of April 12, 2016.
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