INTRODUCTION
This
News Bulletin is being distributed by the Idaho State Board of Registration of
Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors to inform the public and
the State's Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors of those
events which significantly affect the professions. Future News Bulletins will be printed and
distributed as the Board deems advisable.
SCOTT McCLURE, P.E. REAPPOINTED TO THE BOARD
Scott McClure, P.E. of Twin Falls was
reappointed to the Board for an additional five year term by Governor Dirk
Kempthorne. McClure, President of
McClure Engineering, Inc. has been an active member of the Board for the last
five years, as well as participating in meetings of the National Council of
Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) and the Western Zone of
NCEES. We look forward to another five
years of activity from Scott.
JOHN W. HOWE, P.L.S. APPOINTED TO THE BOARD
John
Howe, P.L.S. of
After serving ten years on the Board,
Clyde Porter, P.L.S. of Boise and Garden Valley is about to regain his
freedom.
INTERNATIONAL COMITY ISSUES ADDRESSED BY THE
BOARD
The Idaho Board is addressing one aspect
of the issue of international comity by becoming active in the Pacific
Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) organization.
The organization was founded as a private/public partnership with
representatives from the
LAND SURVEYOR WORKSHOPS WELL ATTENDED
Nearly 200 persons attended the land
surveying workshops hosted by the Board throughout the state this winter. The
workshops covered subjects including the Rules of Professional Responsibility,
the statutes on Corner Perpetuation and Filing, the statutes on Recording of
Surveys and the statutes on Plats and Vacations. Numerous attendees suggested that the Board
should consider repeating the workshops every two to three years, or as
necessary to keep the license holders abreast of changes in the laws and rules.
IN LAND SURVEYING, WHAT IS A “MATERIAL
DISCREPANCY”?
The statutes of Recording of Surveys requires that a survey be recorded if it “Discloses a material discrepancy with previous surveys of record” or if it “Produces evidence or information which varies from, or is not contained in, surveys of record relating to the public land survey, lost public land corners or obliterated land survey corners.” Jack Clark, P.L.S. recently inquired of the Board “What amount of discrepancy or variation would be the trigger to require a registrant to file a Record of Survey?” In answering, the Board relied upon Idaho Code section 55-1911, which states,
“Error of closure. Any survey of land involving property boundaries, including, but not limited to, public land survey lines, shall be conducted in such a manner to produce an unadjusted mathematical error of closure of not less than one (1) part in five thousand (5,000).”
The Board concluded that if a survey reveals a discrepancy with a previous survey of record which is not in excess of one part in five thousand, then the surveyor should not consider that he has found a material discrepancy, and thus would not be required to file a Record of Survey.
LEGISLATION PASSES
The Idaho Legislature passed House Bills
No. 484 and 485 this year. HB 484
amended the Recording of Surveys statute by provided a definition of “basis of
bearing”; by clarifying that all corner records should be referenced on a
survey; by clarifying that the location of a monument must include a bearing
and distance; and by clarifying what surveys of record must be referenced. HB 485 amended the licensing law for
engineers and surveyors by clarifying that engineering experience must be
gained after graduation; by requiring that an applicant for assignment to the
exam for certification as an LSIT or licensure as a PLS must have a minimum of
15 semester credit hours of surveying courses; by allowing up to two years of
experience for graduate education; by clarifying that the Board may charge for
the administration of examinations by an outside party; by clarifying that the
Executive Director is an affected party in disciplinary matters and thus
eligible to file complaints; and by clarifying that issuance of licenses to
practice engineering and land surveying is a state function and prohibiting
local jurisdictions from requiring licenses or fees to engage in the
professions. The Board will be
publishing and distributing a booklet containing the latest version of the laws
in the near future.
RULE AMENDMENTS GO INTO EFFECT
Upon adjournment of the legislature on
RULES REJECTED BY LEGISLATURE
As
a result of a recent disciplinary matter, the Board promulgated Administrative
Rules which would have required registrants and certificate holders to
communicate with their clients and be candid with them. The Rules had been published initially as
Proposed Rules in August 2003, and then, after some modifications, as Pending
Rules in November 2003. The Pending
Rules were reviewed by the recently concluded session of the Legislature. Even though no comments had been received
during the publication process, some licensees expressed concerns during the
Legislative review process about possible interpretations of the Pending
Rules. The Board was sympathetic to the
concerns expressed, and voted to ask the Legislature to pass a Concurrent
Resolution rejecting the Pending Rules, because the only way that Pending Rules
are prevented from going into effect is the passage of a Concurrent Resolution
rejecting them. The Board will likely
revisit the issue this year.
BOARD TO PROMULGATE RULES
Due to the concerns expressed over
Pending Rules during the last session of the legislature, the Board will be
doing Negotiated Rulemaking this year.
The Board is suggesting that a new sub-rule of the Rules of Professional
Responsibility be considered. The
sub-rule, which would be IDAPA 10.01.02.005.06 would be entitled “Obligation to
Client” and would state “A Registrant shall be complete, objective and truthful
in all communications with clients.” The
Board would appreciate your thoughts on this suggestion. Please write the Board at 600 S. Orchard,
Suite A,
BOARD TO OUTSOURCE EXAM ADMINISTRATION
The Board has retained the services of
ELSES, LLC to administer the certification and licensing examinations. The decision to outsource the exam
administration was driven primarily by security issues. Since the exams which are used for
certification and licensing purposes in
BOARD HOLDS HEARINGS ON FIRE ALARMS AND
SPRINKLER SYSTEMS
The Board held hearings in
BOARD OPINION ON SUPERVISION, DIRECTION AND
CONTROL
The Board received an inquiry regarding
the need for physical presence of a license holder to provide direction and
control of an exempt employee or subordinate.
The Board concluded that supervision and direction and control do not
relate to physical proximity, but to involvement of the professional in
responsible charge in the supervision of their unlicensed employees or
subordinates. Regardless of the physical
location, the law requires that the professional be in responsible charge of
the work as defined in Idaho Code.
WHEN ARE SEALED PLANS REQUIRED?
A City Building Official wrote regarding
the authority of a Building Official to waive the requirement for the
submission of plans prepared by a registered design professional. The Board responded that waiver of the
requirement was a judgment call of the Building Official and hinged on whether
compliance with the applicable code can be assured by the Building Official
without the design documents. In the
Board’s opinion, whether that can occur depends upon several factors, key of
which are the complexity of the systems, size of the project, criticalness of
the systems operation, and construction conditions expected to be encountered. First, if the systems to be installed are
simple, incorporating components with which the code official is familiar, and
only required to accomplish basic code functions with which the code official
is familiar, waiver might be considered.
Second, if only a minimal number of system components are required and
interactions between systems and components are clearly understood and
verifiable, again, waiver could be considered.
On the other hand, a small project may be a complex one, in which case
the waiver should not be considered.
Third, if the systems only fulfill basic comfort functions, and their
failure would not adversely affect the health, safety or function of the
building, waiver may be justified. The
final factor is the construction conditions expected to be encountered on site
during construction. Stamped drawings
provide the code official with record documents establishing construction
standards regardless of whether the code official is able to verify all details
of construction. If such documents are
not available, the code official is accepting the obligation of confirmation by
observation that all aspects of construction are satisfactory. If it is anticipated that key components may
be concealed without the code official being able to establish their adequacy
by observation, the presence of design documents provides a means of assuring
adequacy of construction without the requirement that the Building Official
observe all elements of construction. The
Board believes that judicious application of the four criteria above provides
the guidance necessary for the code officials to make appropriate decisions
regarding the waiver of design documents being prepared by a registered design
professional.
ANNUAL REPORT TO THE GOVERNOR
The following was sent to Governor Dirk
Kempthorne as the Board’s Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2003:
During the 2003 fiscal year the Board met
for five regular meetings, two special meetings and two telephone conference
call meetings to conduct Board business, review applications, grant licenses
and consider complaints.
The term of Scott McClure, P.E. expired
on
As of the end of the fiscal year there
were 5,720 Professional Engineers, 599 Professional Land Surveyors, 158
combined Professional Engineer/Professional Land Surveyors, 1,221
Engineers-in-Training, 41 Land Surveyors-in-Training, 960 engineering and/or
land surveying business entities and 358 persons who have elected to take
Retired Status. All renewals, except
business entities, are on a biennial renewal basis. Business entities renew annually.
Licenses were issued to 283 engineers by
comity with other states and to 67 who successfully completed the examination
process; 14 land surveyors by comity with other states and to 9 who
successfully completed the examination process.
There were 194 successful examinees in the Fundamentals of Engineering
examination and certificates as Land Surveyors-in-Training were issued to 3
successful examinees in the Fundamentals of Land Surveying examination. In addition, Certificates of Authorization
were issued to 133 business entities to perform professional engineering or
professional land surveying or both in the State of
The Idaho Legislature passed, and
Governor Kempthorne signed, House Bill No. 53 which clarified the conditions
under which the Board could grant a license to an applicant who was originally
licensed in another jurisdiction. The
Board also adopted changes to its Administrative Rules which eliminated
references to Ainfractions@ and replaced them with references to Aviolations@. Administrative Rule changes also modified the
official office hours, the age at which a license holder could elect to take Aretired
status@, the number of years of experience
required of an applicant with a non-engineering degree, and the publication of
disciplinary actions on the internet.
The Board received a total of 20
complaints against engineers, land surveyors, business entities and unlicensed
persons in fiscal year 2003 and 4 were carried over from previous years. Of these 24 complaints, 12 were dismissed or
terminated without consent agreements or formal hearings and 5 were pending resolution at the end of the fiscal
year. Seven complaints were closed
following issuance of Final Orders of the Board accepting Consent Agreements
which resulted in the admonishment of seven license holders and the deposit of
$3,500.00 in Administrative Penalties to the General Fund of the State of
DISCIPLINARY
ACTIONS
The following
actions on complaints have been taken by the Board since publication of NEWS
BULLETIN No. 34 in June of 2003. In addition to those listed below, the Board
received numerous complaints against individuals or companies who were
inappropriately advertising under headings or names that could be interpreted
to indicate that they were professional engineers or professional land
surveyors, when in fact, they were not.
The companies or individuals agreed to discontinue or revise the
advertising or title.
Docket No. 03.13 – IN THE MATTER OF Brent
S. Bingham, Unlicensed in
Docket No. 04.02 – IN THE MATTER OF Alexander
A. Hudson, P.L.S., P.E.
Docket No. 04.04 – IN THE MATTER OF J.R.
Weissrock, P.L.S. Weissrock
signed a STIPULATION in which he agreed there was sufficient evidence to
support allegations that he did not properly conduct a survey. Weissrock elected to enter into permanent
retirement status effective not later than
Docket No. 04.05 – IN THE MATTER OF David
E. Benton, P.E./L.S.
IN MEMORY OF THOSE RECENTLY DECEASED
Earl W. Bruett, 2233 CE/LS,
Nampa, ID
Jorge M.Calle, 4913 EE, Boise,
ID
Eugene C.
Figg, 4298 CE, Tallahassee, FL
John C.
Goble, 3416 CE, Santa Rosa, CA
Laurence R.
Langdon, 1927 EE, Boise, ID
Wesley G. Luster, 10481 CE,
Richard A. Morley, 928 LS, Spangle, WA
Herb Pember, 1828 CE,
Lee Robinson,
2361 CE/LS, Pocatello, ID
Emil
Rodakowski, 2362 CE/LS, Poplar Grove, IL
Arthur G.
Schwartzenhauer, 440 CE, Manzanita, OR
C. James
Spencer, 1636 ME, Emmett, ID
C. Grayson
Willard, 5049 CE, Greensboro, NC
The following is a summary of
results from the October 2003 administration of the certification and licensing
examinations:
|
|
Number of Examinees
|
Number Passing
|
Fundamentals of Engineering Exam
|
97 |
91 |
|
|
20 |
20 |
|
|
15 |
12 |
|
|
47 |
45 |
|
Non-students |
15 |
14 |
|
|
|
|
Fund. Of Land Surveying Exam
|
11 |
5 |
|
|
|
|
Professional Engineer Exam
|
51 |
37 |
Chemical Engineering
|
1 |
1 |
Civil Engineering
|
21 |
14 |
Control Systems Engineering
|
3 |
3 |
Electrical and Computer
|
7 |
5 |
Environmental Engineering
|
6 |
5 |
Fire Protection Engineering
|
2 |
2 |
Mechanical Engineering
|
9 |
5 |
Nuclear Engineering
|
1 |
1 |
Structural II Engineering
|
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
5 |
4 |