California Legislative Council
of Professional Engineers
NEW! "Why Must California Be Different?"
by James W. Foley, Jr., P.E., S.E., G.E., Former President
California Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors
Senator Mimi Walters Introduces SB275
Official SB275 Site
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 24, 2009 - Senator Mimi Walters introduced Senate Bill SB275 on February 24, 2009, which is intended to correct flaws in the existing State Engineers' Act as recommended by the Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (BPELS) . The bill would bring California law into line with that of all other US states and territories having professional engineering laws. It would also reduce costs and increase efficiency for users of contracted engineering services. Users who would benefit from passage of SB275 include cities, counties, water districts, state agencies, small business, corporations, utilities and others.
SB275 is cosponsored by California Farm Bureau Federation and Chemical Industry Council of California to acknowledge all recognized engineering disciplines in California as being equal. Passage of this bill will allow entities that hire engineers to hire the engineering discipline of their choice.
The California Legislative Council of Professional Engineers (CLCPE) supports SB 275, which is a reform of the Professional Engineers Act.
California regulates the profession of engineering in a manner that is different from any other state. Most states recognize all engineering disciplines as equal in importance. California is unique in that the only engineering discipline that is given complete respect is civil engineering. Only a licensed civil engineer is able to perform civil engineering (California Business and Professions Code Section 6704 ). The definition of civil engineering applies to fixed works and encompasses any engineering activity relating to them (B&P Code Sections 6731 & 6731.1 ). These statutes both increase costs and restrict availability of expertise.
Companies need and use the services of engineers in all disciplines, not just civil engineers. State agencies are aware of the restrictive nature of the law. Its restrictions are continuously expanding. Regional water boards, Department of Toxic Substances Control ( DTSC ) and other agencies frequently refuse to accept engineering designs from other engineering disciplines. A chemical engineer is restricted from providing designs to address pollution or contaminated sites, even if they are the most qualified to treat the hazard. Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development ( OSHPD ), the agency that regulates the design of health facilities, will not accept a fire protection design performed by a fire protection engineer, even if necessary to protect patients.
SB 275 will allow all engineers to provide engineering services if they are competent. It will eliminate arbitrary restrictions on those services, reduce costs by eliminating redundancy and expediting projects, and it will encourage those entering the profession to explore fields they are most interested in, not just the one favored by the state. Public safety, the primary reason to license engineers, will be enhanced by freeing the appropriate discipline for the task at hand from an arbitrary subversion to another discipline. Civil engineering will be given its appropriate focus, which is to design structures to withstand loads and dynamic forces. Civil engineers, along with all other engineers, will be able to provide services in other areas of engineering, if they are competent for the job.
We ask for your favorable consideration of SB 275.
Walter Okitsu, CLCPE Executive Board member, to speak
August 26, 2008, Los Angeles County (Note new date)
Topic: CLCPE and the Status of the PE License
Details and to RSVP
No cost to attend for members of CLCPE member organizations.
California Dept of Consumer Affairs: THE ENGINEERING TITLE ACT STUDY
California Legislative Council
of Professional Engineers
Member organizations include American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), American Nuclear Society (ANS), American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), California Industrial Engineers, California Manufacturing Engineers, California Society of Professional Engineers (CSPE), Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE), ISA - The International Society of Automation (ISA, formerly Instrument Society of America), Mechanical Engineers Association of California (MEAC), Registered Traffic Engineers of America, and Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE).
For information about the CLCPE,
please contact the President, download the official organization brochure (
Low Resolution, 425K or
High Resolution, 8.4MB
)
or click on the thumbnails below to read online.
Robert A. Katin, P.E., President
California Legislative Council of Professional Engineers
(925) 755-1150 Telephone
(925) 754-8524 Fax
rakatin@pacbell.net
Thanks to action taken by CLCPE in JUL-SEP 2000, we were able to modify State Senate Bill 2030 (SB 2030) to require the Engineering Board (BPELS) to retain an independent consultant to evaluate the State Engineers' Act. SB 2030 became law in JAN 2001, and Cal State Sacramento Institute of Social Research (ISR) was retained in JUN 2001. After spending over $400,000, ISR completed their Study and submitted it to the Engineering Board's boss (DCA) in SEP 2002. As a result of the Study conducted by ISR, the Engineering Board (BPELS) drafted legislation and sponsored SB 246 in JUN 2005. This bill was going to fix the broken State Engineers' Act, correcting deficiencies noted in the ISR Study. Virtually everyone supported the bill, from Fortune 500 companies, engineering firms, regulatory agencies, associations, over 100 Professional Engineers in California Government (PECG) members, and seven Deans of Schools of Engineering from prominent California universities. See
list of supporters
. Even though the majority of PECG members that were contacted had never heard of SB 246, PECG leadership directed their lobbyist to lobby against the bill. So a bill written by the Engineering Board to correct the State Engineers' Act was unfortunately defeated by PECG.
THE ENGINEERING TITLE ACT STUDY:
The Practice/Title Act Distinction and
Protection of Public Health, Safety and Welfare
November 2002
Download report
Recommendation #1a: Remove all prohibitions against overlapping practice between engineering disciplines from the Professional Engineers Act and Board Rules.
Recommendation #1b: Give all regulated disciplines the right to responsible charge of engineering projects when justified by their education and experience. Supportive
Recommendation #2: Eliminate title protection and offer practice protection to all regulated disciplines.
Recommendation #3a: The Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors should track engineering degrees, examinations taken (including the depth module where appropriate) and job experience at time of application for licensing as a means of identifying areas of expertise and assessing policies associated with exam administration. Limited information on licensees should be available to the public.
Recommendation #3b: If the justification for licensing is protection of public health, safety and welfare, and if the state recognizes engineering as a field with the potential for significant social harm, then the state should accept the responsibility of maintaining useful records on applicants for licensure and complaints against licensees so that evaluative questions can be asked of the data.
Recommendation #4: The legislature should mandate the reporting of legal actions, including out-of-court settlements, against engineers, licensed or unlicensed, and against corporations engaged in engineering activities, to the Board.
Recommendation #5a: Develop better information on the public health, safety and welfare impacts of engineering branches before making regulatory distinctions between them. Only when legal actions are reported and more comprehensive complaint data and insurance premium and claims data are available can the state determine whether there is any justification for deregulating currently regulated disciplines. Current information relevant to the Sunrise criteria supports extending practice protection to all currently regulated disciplines. If stronger data becomes available, the need for continuing regulation can be evaluated at that time.
Recommendation #5b: Accept as new regulated disciplines those with an NCEES or California-developed examination if their assessment under the Sunrise Criteria is comparable to existing regulated disciplines.
Recommendation #6a: California's legislature, Board and engineering organizations should work closely with NCEES to standardize the goals, methodologies and analytical techniques used in its job analyses across all engineering disciplines.
Recommendation #6b: Both California and NCEES should maintain nonproprietary data files describing the job analyses to assist educators and licensing boards in understanding and tracking changes in the field.
Download the complete 290-page study, PDF (engineer.zip, 3.5MB)
Member Organizations
American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
AIChE Southern California Section
American Nuclear Society (ANS)
American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE)
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
California Industrial Engineers
California Manufacturing Engineers
California Society of Professional Engineers (CSPE)
Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
International Society of Automation (ISA, formerly Instrument Society of America)
ISA Northern California Section
ISA Orange County Section
ISA San Diego Section
ISA Southern San Joaquin Valley Section
Mechanical Engineers Association of California (MEAC)
Registered Traffic Engineers of America
Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE)
SFPE San Diego Chapter
SFPE Northern California/Nevada Chapter
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