Proposed article on City Surveyors and County Surveyors stamping monuments

[mpallamary]

I am preparing an article for The American Surveyor Magazine on city surveyors, county surveyors, and government employees signing and stamping maps and monuments or, conversely, unwilling to do so. Is there anyone who is willing to be interviewed or who has any comments?

[Ian Wilson]

Give me call at the office. 650.599.1410.

San Mateo County Surveyor

[mpallamary]

Great! Will do as soon as I get a few minutes!

[surveyoron]

I stamp and sign all documents and maps reviewed or prepared by me or under my supervision. If one of my staff performs a map check or prepares a document I review it and sign and stamp before it goes out the door. Monuments and reference points set in the field are stamped "HumCo DPW" per 8772.

[mpallamary]

Thanks Ron as always! Would you support a revision to 8772 requiring government surveyors to stamp the monuments with their license number?

[surveyoron]

I am not sure I would support that. Many larger agencies have multiple licensed surveyors on staff. It could be problematic. In our case it is more of a budget issue as the County has not had to purchase new tags with my number. Every penny counts in a small rural county. We always file a Corner Record or Record of Survey if we reset or set a monument and my signature and seal appears there. If a revision to 8722 were to pass, I would not necessarily oppose it.

[Ian Wilson]

I understand your concern, Michael, and I understand the issues. I’m not sure how much benefit is added by putting my number on tags set under my responsible charge as San Mateo County Surveyor.

Under §8772, tags set by staff at public agencies are marked with the agency as well as the political subdivision (i.e. – tags set by San Mateo County survey crew is marked “DPW SMC”). There isn’t a lot of room for other information. Having said that, I am contemplating trying to hand stamp some of the few thousand disks and tags we have. As Ron said, every penny counts…although I have been known to dip into my own pocket to pay for some of the things I’ve needed. (Yeah, bad precedent…sue me. After 32 years of married life, I have no ex-wives to support and all the offspring are out of the house and mostly independent.)

The other issue I struggle with is the fact that, as the County Surveyor, I cannot record a Record of Survey. Section 8765(a) of the PLS Act the map produced meets the requirements of §8764, except for the Recorder’s Certificate. Chris Vandrey started a drawer of County Surveyor Maps. Currently, they are not available on line. I’m trying to work out how to get those loaded on a separate layer on our GIS and stored on our server so that they can be accessed by the public (read – other surveyors).

Would I support a revision to §8772? That depends on the wording of the revision.

BTW – never got that phone call…

[mpallamary]

I owe you a call! I am on vacation in Boston. We are headed down to Cape Cod. I come to the Cape every September for a vacation. I am moving around a lot. Forgive me. I will be in touch. With all due respect, the cost of stamped discs is insignificant. I will follow up as soon as I get a break. I am traveling a lot!

[mpallamary]

I am at a retirement and change of staff at the Boston police department. The new police commissioner and I went to the same high school. Having a great time.