Board for Professional Engineers & Land Surveyors (BPE&LS) Reauthorization

Laws passed in the mid 1990’s required all 35 Board and Bureaus operating under the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to be reviewed for sunset or recommendation of continuation.  The sunset review committee reviewed BPE&LS and a number of corrective requirements where deemed necessary including a study on practice and title acts issues.  CSPE continues to participate in the hearings, forums and studies that are held relative to this issue.  The current sunset date for the BPE&LS is 2004.  If BPE&LS is not successful at implementing the changes the legislature deems necessary, the BPE&LS Board would be disbanded.  The PE law would still remain intact and be enforced and administered under the DCA. 

CSPE supports a licensure board that is focused on enforcement to better protect the public and discourages board actions that foster turf disputes between professional engineers.  

Practice and Title Overlap

The legislative sunset review committee mandated a study to be performed under the guidance of the Department of Consumer Affairs to determine what if any distinction should be made in the areas of practice between the practice act engineer and the title act engineer.  

CSPE believes that California needs to align themselves with the other 49 state licensing laws that license Professional Engineers, but not by branch.  

Certificate of Merit Law

The California Certificate of Merit Law was signed into law in the early 1990’s.  This law is necessary to avoid having engineers as individuals and business owners spend endless time and money defending themselves against frivolous law suits.  

CSPE continues to support the process mandated in this law.

Continuing Professional Competence (CPC)

Currently, continuing professional development is not required for California PE licensure or renewal.  A recent study of CSPE members on the topic of continuing education indicated that most PE’s engage in continuing professional development as part of their engineering work.  The study sample was representative of all age groups, disciplines, and practice areas within CSPE.  

The majority of CSPE members feel that CPD should be left to a voluntary manner unless metered out in response to a specific lack of knowledge that resulted in a disciplinary action.  Although we favor a voluntary program, CSPE provides opportunities for engineers to earn CEU’s that generally satisfy other states with mandatory programs.

Contracting Out - Public Agencies

The issue of when and how public agencies contract for engineering services has been the controversial subject of several California statewide ballot initiatives, state laws and court decisions for the last 12 years.  

CSPE believes the public’s best interest is served when a balance between in house government engineers and private sector engineers are utilized.

Qualification Based Selection (QBS)

QBS is a method of selecting professional consultant services that allows public agencies to customize the selection process to meet specific project requirements.  Once the scope of a project is defined a request for qualifications is issued.  Consultants are gathered and ranked based on their qualifications and competence in relation to a specific project, rather than price.  

CSPE supports QBS and the current process in law for procurement of engineering services.