FBPE Study Guide 2018 04 PDF

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FBPE Study Guide

Committed to protecting the interest of public health and safety by properly regulating the practice of engineering. Online at fbpe.org

Welcome to the FBPE Study Guide The Florida Board of Professional Engineers is responsible for implementing Chapter 471 of the Florida Statutes, which states that the Legislature deems it necessary in the interest of public health and safety to regulate the practice of engineering in this state. In responding to this statutory mandate, the Florida Board of Professional Engineers works diligently to ensure that licensees are competent and, in fact, do not pose a danger to the public. One aspect of implementing the law involves the evaluation of a candidate’s ability and knowledge of professional engineering. This evaluation is accomplished through the review of an applicant’s education and experience, and requires passage of the national examination developed by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES). In addition, the Legislature has mandated that all Professional Engineers practicing in Florida be knowledgeable regarding the laws and rules that govern the practice of engineering in Florida. The Board implements this requirement through completion of this FBPE Study Guide on Florida’s Laws and Rules. The Study Guide consists of a written text that thoroughly reviews Chapter 471, Florida Statutes, and Chapter 61G15, Florida Administrative Code. You may print out the Study Guide; however, the Study Guide is to be completed online. You are required to submit the Study Guide as a part of the application process. An application file will not be considered complete unless the Study Guide is submitted. In accordance with Rule 61G1520.0016, F.A.C., an applicant must achieve a minimum score of 90 percent on the Study Guide. You may stay online as long as you want, or you may go online and offline as frequently as you want. Once you answer the last question, you will be able to submit your quiz for grading, and your score will be sent directly to your file at the FBPE office. You have unlimited attempts to pass the Study Guide. However, following 15 attempts, you will be prohibited from logging in. You will need to have FBPE staff reset your account to allow further attempts. This Study Guide serves as an excellent resource for information on the Florida Engineering Practice Act and the rules promulgated by the Florida Board of Professional Engineers. Successfully completing the Study Guide will ensure you have the knowledge necessary to comply with regulations as you begin your engineering practice in Florida. Upon completion of the Study Guide, the applicant will have an understanding of: • The history of the Florida Board of Professional Engineers, the requirements for service on the Board, and the current Board membership; • The history of the Florida Engineers Management Corporation; • The laws and rules that are the basis for regulation of the profession, and the definitions that are key to their understanding; • The licensure of engineers to include who is exempt from licensure, pathways to licensure, and the requirements of the different pathways; • The requirements to maintain the license, and the various states of licensure; • The requirements relating to signing, dating, and sealing engineering documents, as well as the proper process for adopting the work of another engineer as that of your own; • The Responsibility Rules, as well as definitions key to their understanding; and; • The disciplinary process when the laws and rules are violated, including a review of the acts that constitute grounds for disciplinary action, and the penalties that may be imposed. FBPESG-1804

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Chapter 1: General information About FBPE The Florida Engineering Practice Act was first enacted by the Florida Legislature in May 1917, and was the first all-inclusive Engineering Practice Act passed in the United States. The first Board was appointed on July 17, 1917, and began functioning Sept. 11, 1917. Those very first Board members were: • • • • •

R.E. Chandler, Chair Orrin Randolph, Vice Chair C.S. Hammatt, Secretary/Treasurer R.Y. Patterson Gail L Barnard

Obviously, you won’t see any of those names among the current members of the Board. However, you will see C.S. Hammatt’s name in examples of how a seal should read in Rule 61G15-23.001, Florida Administrative Code, Seals Acceptable to the Board. In 1925, the law was amended to require that an applicant be subject to an examination. In 1941, the chapter was substantially revised, and re-enacted and designated as Chapter 471, Florida Statutes, the number it has held since. In 1963, the portion of the law allowing corporations and partnerships to offer engineering services was added, and two years later the number of Board members was increased to seven. Also in 1965, the Board was authorized to adopt Rules of Professional Conduct — the precursor of today’s Chapter 61G15, F.A.C., Rules of the Board of Professional Engineers — and made them binding on all who held a “Certificate of Registration,” the precursor of today’s license. In 1979, during a periodic “Sunset Review” of Chapter 471, F.S., the legislature separated the regulation of the practice of engineering from that of land surveying, and recreated the Board of Professional Engineers with seven engineering members and two public members, or persons with no ties to the engineering profession. Those in the profession of land surveying, as it was known then, were provided a Board of Professional Land Surveyors, which subsequently morphed into what is now the Board of Land Surveyors and Mappers. In 1998, the Florida Engineers Management Corporation was created to provide administrative, investigative, and prosecutorial services to the Board. In 2004, the number of Board members was increased to 11.

Requirements for membership on FBPE Section 471.007, F.S., provides that of 11 members appointed to the Board, nine shall be licensed engineers and two shall be laypersons who are not and have never been engineers, nor have ever been members of any closely related profession or occupation. A member of the Board who is a licensed engineer must be selected and appointed based on his or her qualifications to provide expertise and experience to the board at all times in civil engineering, structural engineering, electrical or electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, or engineering education. (While the law calls for separation of the profession by discipline, it does not license engineers by discipline. In Florida, licensure is as a Professional Engineer, and persons may practice within any discipline in which they are competent by virtue of their education, training, and experience.)

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Members of the Board are named by the governor, and subject to confirmation by the Senate. They serve a term of four years. A Board member can be appointed for a second four-year term. The importance of good appointments to the Board cannot be overstated. Unlike many gubernatorial appointments, an appointment to the Board of Professional Engineers is not ceremonial. FBPE is a working board, and the importance and amount of work is substantial. The Board meets, on the average, every other month for two days, and many times those full Board meetings are preceded by committee meetings of a day or more. Members of the Board are paid an honorarium of $50 a day, as well as travel expenses. By the way, they do not get paid while at home performing the necessary review of voluminous materials that flow from each Board or committee meeting. The currency for remuneration for Board service is honor, and it is a high honor to be named to a board responsible for insuring that the public’s health, safety, and welfare is guarded from less-than-capable or charlatan engineers or unlicensed persons.

Who is on the Board? As mentioned above, Board members may be appointed for no more than two four-year terms. Therefore, the makeup of the Board is apt to change somewhat frequently. For a current list, visit fbpe.org and click on “About FBPE.”

Where is the headquarters? Section 471.009, F.S., is very short and very specific. It requires the location of the Board of Professional Engineers to be in Leon County. The physical location of the Board office is 2639 N Monroe St., Suite B112, Tallahassee, FL 32303-5268. The phone number is 850-521-0500, and the fax is 850-521-0521. As previously mentioned, the website is fbpe.org.

If the acronym for the Florida Board of Professional Engineers is “FBPE,” what does “FEMC” stand for? FEMC is the acronym for the Florida Engineers Management Corporation, which is a statutorily created, non-profit corporation whose mission is to deliver administrative, investigative, and prosecutorial services to the Board of Professional Engineers. In other words, FEMC is the staff of the Board and is responsible for all aspects of administration, from answering the telephones to investigating complaints to prosecuting violations of the Engineering Practice Act. It is a unique, service-delivery system created by the 1998 legislature to serve FBPE and improve protection to the public by pinpointing staff-support responsibilities and reducing bureaucracy. FEMC is required to meet certain performance standards found in Rule 61G15-37.001, F.A.C. (the very last rule in Chapter 61G15). The performance standards are not inordinately difficult and not much different from what can be expected of any state agency. Several, however, should be noted in as much as they require FEMC to: •

Send a reminder notice to each licensee at least 90 days before the end of the licensing cycle. The “heads up” here is that the reminder will be sent to the last known address that FEMC has for you. So, if you have moved and not notified FEMC, the renewal notice will be sent to the old address and, in all likelihood, will not be received. Once you have become licensed, go to myfloridalicense.com/licensing, and confirm your address of record. If the address is not correct, go to fbpe.org and click on “Licensure,” then complete the online form “Change Contact Information.” By the way, unlike many businesses, there is no second or “final” reminder. If you fail to respond, your license will be delinquent on March 1 (the first day of the licensure period),

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•

•

and the next notice you receive will be 21 months later or 90 days prior to your license becoming “null and void.” Respond to an applicant within 30 days of receipt of an application for licensure, and notify the applicant of any errors or omissions in the application. Generally, contacting an applicant about missing or needed information within 30 days isn’t an issue. However, twice a year, several hundred applicants wait until the deadline to submit their applications, and the process may bog down. This is another way of saying the standard is good and in place, but human nature may make it difficult to meet. Make a determination of legal sufficiency within 30 days of receiving a complaint, and provide the subject of the complaint or his or her attorney with a copy of the complaint within 15 days of determining the complaint to be sufficient. More on this subject is under the “Disciplining” section, but for now, understand that this is a reasonably tough standard and rarely met prior to the creation of FEMC.

Who provides services to FBPE? FBPE is considered a “working board” in that members of FBPE are heavily involved in Board duties and make key policy decisions. However, the day-to-day work of FBPE is done by employees of the Florida Engineers Management Corporation, usually referred to as “Board staff.” The email address for Board staff can be found on the Board website at fbpe.org under the “Contact” tab. Contact information for the DBPR Contract Monitor can be found on the Board website on the “About FEMC” page under the “About” tab. Contact information for the FBPE’s General Counsel can be found on the “About FBPE” page under the “About” tab. Keep in mind there are nearly 45,000 licensed engineers and around 6,500 Certificates of Authorization holders, all of whom seek to renew their license or Certificate of Authorization in the 90-day or so period between receipt of the renewal notice and the Feb. 28 deadline for renewal. Factor in the several hundred who have applied to become licensed and the number of engineers whose license is under investigation, and you can see that the Board office is a busy place. Although many calls or emails to the Board staff are routine, many are complex and directly involve the professional livelihood of engineers. So be patient and understand that protecting the public from less-than-adequate engineering is important and, sometimes, time-consuming. You will want the same deliberate effort when you ask your question.

Chapter 471 F.S., The Engineering Practice Act Chapter 471, F.S., relates only to the engineering profession. The “Rules” of the Board (Chapter 61G15, F.A.C.) do not expand the authority of the Board beyond that provided by Chapter 471, F.S., but provide more details and mechanics. Chapter 471, F.S., and Chapter 61G15, F.A.C., will be covered in depth in subsequent chapters of this guide. However, before moving into the details, it is important that we understand certain terms and their legal definition. You can download up-to-date copies of Chapter 471, F.S., The Florida Engineering Practice Act, and Chapter 61G15, F.A.C., The Rules of the Board, under the “Legal” tab at fbpe.org.

Definitions important to engineers Section 471.005, F.S., provides key definitions, all of which are important to understanding the rules and regulations of the engineering profession.

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• • • • • •

•

471.005(1) defines “Board” as Board of Professional Engineers. 471.005(2) defines “Board of Directors” as the Board of Directors of the Florida Engineers Management Corporation (the company that provides services to FBPE). 471.005(3) defines “Certificate of Authorization” as a license to practice engineering by a corporation or partnership. 471.005(4) defines “Department” as the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. 471.005(5) defines “Engineer” to include the term Professional Engineer and licensed engineer, and means a person who is licensed to engage in the practice of engineering. 471.005(6) defines “Engineer Intern” as a person who has graduated from an approved engineering curriculum and passed the Fundamentals of Engineering exam. Note, the term replaces the now-dated term “engineer-in-training.” 471.005(7) defines “Engineering,” and, as it is the most important term in the chapter, it is printed in full below, followed by a commentary on the more significant provisions in the definition: “(7) ‘Engineering’ includes the term ‘professional engineering’ and means any service or creative work, the adequate performance of which requires engineering education, training, and experience in the application of special knowledge of the mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences to such services or creative work as consultation, investigation, evaluation, planning, and design of engineering works and systems, planning the use of land and water, teaching of the principles and methods of engineering design, engineering surveys, and the inspection of construction for the purpose of determining in general if the work is proceeding in compliance with drawings and specifications, any of which embraces such services or work, either public or private, in connection with any utilities, structures, buildings, machines, equipment, processes, work systems, projects, and industrial or consumer products or equipment of a mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, or thermal nature, insofar as they involve safeguarding life, health, or property; and includes such other professional services as may be necessary to the planning, progress, and completion of any engineering services. A person who practices any branch of engineering; who, by verbal claim, sign, advertisement, letterhead, or card, or in any other way, represents himself or herself to be an engineer or, through the use of some other title, implies that he or she is an engineer or that he or she is licensed under this chapter; or who holds himself or herself out as able to perform, or does perform, any engineering service or work or any other service designated by the practitioner which is recognized as engineering shall be construed to practice or offer to practice engineering within the meaning and intent of this chapter.”

This definition is the essence of the Engineering Practice Act and contains terms important to the admission to the practice of engineering. As the definition is important — and lengthy — we have broken the definition into bite-size portions so that it can be better understood and recalled as other portions of the Engineering Practice Act are covered. “Engineering” includes the term “professional engineering” and means: •

Any service or creative work, the adequate performance of which requires engineering education, training, and experience…

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• •

•

• •

In the application of special knowledge of the mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences… To such services or creative work as: o Consultation, o Investigation, o Evaluation, o Planning, o Design of engineering systems, o Planning the use of land and water, o Teaching the principles and methods of engineering design o Engineering surveys, or o The inspection of construction for the purpose of determining in general if the work is proceeding in compliance with drawings and specifications… Any of which embraces such services or work, either public or private, in connection with any: o Utilities, o Structures, o Buildings, o Machines, o Equipment, o Processes, o Work systems, o Projects, o Industrial or consumer products, or o Equipment of a mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic or thermal nature… Insofar as they involve safe guarding life, health or property, and… Includes such professional services as may be necessary to the planning, progress, and completion of any engineering services.

A second sentence in the definition further expands the definition of engineering and its application by saying: •

• •

A person who practices any branch of engineering who by: o Verbal claim, o Sign, o Advertisement, o Letterhead, o Card, or o In any other way… Represents himself or herself to be an engineer, or Through the use of some other title implies that: o He or she is an engineer, or o He or she is licensed under this chapter, or o Who holds himself or herself out as able to perform, or o Does perform…  Any engineering service or work, or

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Any other service designated by the practitioner that is recognized as engineering… Shall be construed to practice or offer to practice engineering within the meaning and intent of this chapter. 471.005(8), F.S., defines “license” as the licensing of engineers or the certification of a business to practice engineering 471.005(10) defines a “Retired Professional Engineer” or “Professional Engineer, Retired” as one who: o Has been licensed, and o Chooses to relinquish or not renew his license, and o Is approved by the board to be granted the title “Professional Engineer, Retired.” 

• • •

Those who may consider the “Retired Professional Engineer” status need to know that should you change your mind after the status change is granted, you will be required to meet licensure standards as they exist when you re-apply. 471.005(11) says that the term “secretary” means the Secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. FBPESG-1804

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Chapter 2: Licensure Who is exempt from licensure? As strange as it seems, the authors of Chapter 471, Florida Statutes, The Engin...