California Surveyors Forums

I came across this document by Knud Hermansen on Ethics in my search through old files.

A good read.

TT, PLS

Thanks, Tom . . .

Knud is full of nuggets of wisdom . . .

"The law often permits what honor forbids." Bernard Joseph Saurin, 1760

Good stuff!

The examples he gives are very good. They appear to apply ONLY to private practice land surveyors. If you read the PLSA, it is heavily biased toward enforcement against private surveyors; there are so many violations for contracts, business practices and everything that applies to a private surveyor and none to public employees.

Do ethics apply to public employees?

If you are inclined, please review the highlighted sections of the PLSA. (This is an older version). How many of these apply to public sector land surveyors?

8726.1. Defines the authority to practice

Any licensed land surveyor may offer to practice, procure, and offer to procure civil engineering work incidental to his or her land surveying practice, even though he or she is not authorized to perform such work, provided all such civil engineering work is performed by or under the direction of a registered civil engineer. Further, any licensed land surveyor may manage or conduct as manager, proprietor, or agent, a land surveying practice which offers to practice, procure, and offers to procure, such incidental civil engineering work.

8729. Land surveying businesses
(
a) This chapter does not prohibit one or more licensed land surveyors or civil engineers licensed in this state prior to 1982 (hereinafter called civil engineers) from practicing or offering to practice, within the scope of their licensure, land surveying as a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability partnership, firm, or corporation (hereinafter called business), if the following conditions are satisfied:

8759. Written Contracts

(a) A licensed land surveyor or licensed civil engineer authorized to practice land surveying shall use a written contract when contracting to provide professional services to a client pursuant to this chapter. The written contract shall be executed by the licensed land surveyor or licensed civil engineer and the client or the client’s representative prior to the licensed land surveyor or licensed civil engineer commencing work, unless the client knowingly states in writing that work may be commenced before the contract is executed.

8772. Marking of monuments

Any monument set by a licensed land surveyor or registered civil engineer to mark or reference a point on a property or land line shall be permanently and visibly marked or tagged with the certificate number of the surveyor or civil engineer setting it, each number to be preceded by the letters “L.S.” or “R.C.E.,” respectively, as the case may be or, if the monument is set by a public agency, it shall be marked with the name of the agency and the political subdivision it serves.
Nothing in this section shall prevent the inclusion of other information on the tag which will assist in the tracing or location of the survey records which relate to the tagged monument.

8776. Licensees required to report criminal convictions, civil action judgments, settlements, arbitration awards, and administrative actions

(a) A licensee shall report to the board in writing the occurrence of any of the following events that occurred on or after January 1, 2008, within 90 days of the date the licensee has knowledge of the event:
(1) The conviction of the licensee of any felony.
(2) The conviction of the licensee of any other crime that is substantially related to the qualifications, functions, and duties of a licensed land surveyor.
(3) A civil action settlement or administrative action resulting in a settlement against the licensee in any action alleging fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, breach or violation of contract, negligence, incompetence, or recklessness by the licensee in the practice of land surveying if the amount or value of the settlement is greater than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000).

8776.2. Professional liability insurers required to report of civil action judgments, settlements, or arbitration awards against licensees

(a) Within 30 days of payment of all or any portion of any civil action judgment, settlement, or binding arbitration award described in Section 8776 against a licensee of the board, any insurer providing professional liability insurance to that licensee shall report to the board the name of the licensee; the amount or value of the judgment, settlement, or binding arbitration award; the amount paid by the insurer; and the identity of the payee.
(b) Within 30 days of payment of all or any portion of any civil action judgment, settlement, or binding arbitration award described in Section 8776 against a licensee of the board, any state or local government agency that self-insures that licensee shall report to the board the name of the licensee; the amount or value of the judgment, settlement, or binding arbitration award; the amount paid; and the identity of the payee.

8780. Complaints against Professional Land Surveyors

The board may, upon its own initiative or upon the receipt of a complaint, investigate the actions of any land surveyor licensed under this chapter or any civil engineer licensed under the provisions of Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 6700) who is legally authorized to practice land surveying and make findings thereon . . .(g) A breach or violation of a contract to provide land surveying services.

8792. Misdemeanors

Every person is guilty of a misdemeanor:
(i) Who, unless appropriately licensed, manages, or conducts as manager, proprietor, or agent, any place of business from which land surveying work is solicited, performed, or practiced, except as authorized pursuant to Section 6731.2 and subdivision (d) of Section 8729.

Of course Ethics apply to public employees, however, it is much more difficukt to implement an police them in public sector.
Public sector suffers from a greater level of dilution of responsibility.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion ... onsibility

They are also protected under a number of legal rules.

Sounds like the engineering department talking to the survey department.

I am going through our annual training videos today, momentary topic is ethics.
They are talking about compliance with laws and regulations of laws governing professions.
Couple items that stand out "...ignorance is no excuse..." and "...it is your obligation to ask if there are any facets of the laws that you do not understand..."

Some states require surveyors to take an ethics class associated with their renewal of license. This could be a good idea, say every 5 years, but CA first has to sell the continuing education aspect. No surveyor will have good ethics if they first do not agree we ALL need this, and some continuing education. You should have been at the conference, see other post.