Requires certain engineering plans or specifications for engineering work or services that could pose a material risk to public safety to bear a stamp of approval of a professional engineer and authorizes the public service commission to promulgate rules and regulations relating to such requirement.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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2935--A
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 30, 2019
___________
Introduced by Sen. KAMINSKY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Higher Education --
committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and
recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the education law and the public service law, in
relation to certain engineering plans or specifications for engineer-
ing work or services that could pose a material risk to public safety
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 7208 of the education law, as added by chapter 987
2 of the laws of 1971, the section heading as amended by chapter 475 of
3 the laws of 2014, subdivision g as amended by chapter 994 of the laws of
4 1971, subdivision l as amended by section 15 of part A of chapter 173 of
5 the laws of 2013, and subdivision p as added by chapter 954 of the laws
6 of 1972, is amended to read as follows:
7 § 7208. Exempt persons for the professions of engineering and land
8 surveying. 1. This article shall not be construed to affect or prevent
9 the following, provided that no title, sign, card or device shall be
10 used in such manner as to tend to convey the impression that the person
11 rendering such service is a professional engineer or a land surveyor
12 licensed in this state or is practicing engineering or land surveying:
13 a. Offering to practice in this state as a professional engineer or
14 land surveyor by any person not a resident of, and having no established
15 place of practice in this state, provided that such person is legally
16 qualified for such practice in his own state or country;
17 b. Practice as a professional engineer or land surveyor in this state
18 by any person not a resident, or having no established place of practice
19 in this state, or any person resident in this state but who has arrived
20 in this state within six months, provided, however, such a person shall
21 have filed an application for license as a professional engineer or land
22 surveyor, and is legally qualified for such practice in the state or
23 country in which he resides or has his place of practice or in which he
24 had his previous residence or place of practice, such exemption continu-
25 ing for only such reasonable time as the board requires to grant or deny
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08398-02-9
S. 2935--A 2
1 the application for license, and a person intending to practice under
2 this subdivision shall so state on the application;
3 c. Practice of engineering or land surveying, by an employee of a
4 county or town, in the construction, improvement or maintenance of a
5 county road or town highway, or by an employee of a county, city, town
6 or village, in the construction, improvement or maintenance of any
7 public work wherein the contemplated expenditure for the completed
8 project does not exceed five thousand dollars;
9 d. Operation or maintenance of steam, power, or refrigeration plants
10 by legally authorized persons not licensed under this article or persons
11 engaged or employed as an engine man, operator or driver of any engine
12 or of any mechanical, electrical, chemical or other device or machine;
13 e. Making of surveys by professional engineers, except that the deter-
14 mination of real property boundaries may be done only by a licensed land
15 surveyor;
16 f. Employment or supervision of interns or other persons qualified by
17 education or experience by professional engineers or land surveyors as
18 assistants in the performance of engineering or land surveying, or as
19 consultants or employees in special fields related to but not uniquely
20 engineering or land surveying, provided that the engineers or land
21 surveyors employing or supervising such persons shall not be relieved of
22 any responsibility whatsoever by delegation to such persons, and
23 provided further that such persons who have attained the bachelor's
24 level of studies in accordance with the requirements of section seven-
25 ty-two hundred six of this title may be employed as junior or assistant
26 engineers or junior or assistant land surveyors, or similar titles, to
27 act under the general direction of a professional engineer or land
28 surveyor, or in work not covered by this article;
29 g. Employment of any person as a junior or assistant engineer or
30 junior or assistant land surveyor in the civil service of the state or
31 its political subdivisions in a position the title of which was approved
32 and in use as of July first, nineteen hundred seventy-one, provided such
33 person acts under the general direction of a licensed professional engi-
34 neer or land surveyor;
35 h. Execution by a contractor or by others of work designed by a
36 professional engineer, or land surveyor, or the superintendence of such
37 work as a superintendent, foreman, or inspector;
38 i. The practice of architecture by an architect licensed in this
39 state, or the practice of landscape architecture by a landscape archi-
40 tect licensed in this state, provided that no such architect or land-
41 scape architect shall use the designation "engineer" or "engineering"
42 unless licensed as a professional engineer in this state;
43 j. The practice of engineering or land surveying or having the title
44 "engineer" or "surveyor" solely as an officer or an employee of a corpo-
45 ration engaged in interstate commerce;
46 k. The practice of engineering by a manufacturing corporation or by
47 employees of such corporation, or use of the title "engineer" by such
48 employees, in connection with or incidental to goods produced by, or
49 sold by, or nonengineering services rendered by, such corporation or its
50 manufacturing affiliates;
51 l. The practice of engineering or land surveying, or using the title
52 "engineer" or "surveyor" (i) exclusively as an officer or employee of a
53 public service corporation by rendering to such corporation such
54 services in connection with its lines and property which are subject to
55 supervision with respect to the safety and security thereof by the
56 public service commission of this state, the interstate commerce commis-
S. 2935--A 3
1 sion or other federal regulatory body and so long as such person is thus
2 actually and exclusively employed and no longer, or (ii) exclusively as
3 an officer or employee of the Long Island power authority or its service
4 provider, as defined under section three-b of the public service law, by
5 rendering to such authority or provider such services in connection with
6 its lines and property which are located in such authority's service
7 area and so long as such person is thus actually and exclusively
8 employed and no longer;
9 m. The making of land surveys by a professional engineer where such
10 land surveys are essential to engineering projects, provided he was
11 licensed as a professional engineer in this state on or before the first
12 day of January in the year in which this act shall become a law and
13 files evidence satisfactory to the board on or before the first day of
14 July in the year next succeeding the year in which this act shall have
15 become law, that he is competent and experienced in such land surveys;
16 n. The design by a land surveyor of roads, drainage, water supply or
17 sanitary sewerage facilities of a minor nature in connection with subdi-
18 visions and the extension and inspection thereof, but not including
19 sewage disposal or treatment plants, lift stations, pumping stations,
20 commercial buildings or bridges, provided the surveyor was licensed as a
21 land surveyor in this state on or before the first day of January in the
22 year in which this act shall have become a law and files evidence satis-
23 factory to the board on or before the first day of July in the year next
24 succeeding the year in which this act shall have become a law, attesting
25 that he is competent and experienced in the engineering required for
26 design of such facilities appurtenant to subdivisions; or
27 o. Using the title "marine operating engineer", "stationary engineer",
28 "port of customs surveyor", or "ship surveyor".
29 p. Contractors or builders from engaging in construction management
30 and administration of construction contracts.
31 2. The exemptions provided for in this section shall not apply to
32 engineering work or services that could pose a material risk to public
33 safety, as determined by the public service commission, performed by or
34 on behalf of a gas company that distributes and sells gas within the
35 state.
36 § 2. The education law is amended by adding a new section 7213 to read
37 as follows:
38 § 7213. Engineering plans; public safety. Any engineering plans or
39 specifications for engineering work or services that could pose a mate-
40 rial risk to public safety, as determined by the public service commis-
41 sion, developed by or on behalf of a gas company shall bear the stamp of
42 approval of a professional engineer; provided, however, that any such
43 plan or specification shall be housed within the applicable gas company
44 subject to review and audit by the public service commission. The
45 public service commission may promulgate any rules and regulations
46 necessary for the implementation of this section.
47 § 3. Section 5 of the public service law is amended by adding a new
48 subdivision 7 to read as follows:
49 7. The commission may promulgate rules and regulations necessary for
50 the implementation of section seventy-two hundred thirteen of the educa-
51 tion law relating to engineering plans or specifications for engineering
52 work or services that could pose a material risk to public safety devel-
53 oped by or on behalf of a gas company.
54 § 4. This act shall take effect eighteen months after it shall have
55 become a law.