How many other OSFMs are as lucky as we are to be located within the same State Agency that houses the Professional and Occupational Licensing Boards? It also helps to have P.E.s and E.I.T.'s on staff that can recognize, competently document, and report cases to the same Agency's Office of Investigations and Enforcement which can lead to a Board case with appropriate disciplinary action including public reprimand. Some cases result from a design professional or contractor that has violated their own licensing law and/or regulations, but other times it is for not being properly licensed to be able to do work [unlicensed practice or lapsed license].
At http://www.llr.state.sc.us/POL/Engineers/index.asp?file=finalorders.htm [click the last 100 orders button] you can see public orders that show our engineering board is active at policing engineering law violations in SC. I can see cases in the list that resulted from various violations that came from myself or my staff. Some cases are easier than others for a Board to determine fault. I had one many years ago where a structural engineer tried to design a daycare facility. When I turned him in to the Architects Board, along with my plan review report showing how many violations of the building codes and state regulations for daycares that had been found on his sealed plans, he pleaded guilty, signed a consent order agreeing not to practice architecture again, and got a fine and a public reprimand. It has been a while since my section referred anyone over to a licensing board for negligence/incompetence, but we have had other types of violations to report. Respectfully, David W. S. Blackwell, II, PE, CFPE, CFI I Chief Engineer Office of State Fire Marshal SC Department of Labor, Licensing, & Regulation, 141 Monticello Trail, Columbia, SC 29203 Telephone: 803.896.9800 [Office] 803.896.9833 [Direct] Fax: 803.896.9806 [Office] Email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Website: http://www.scfiremarshal.llronline.com/ Please note that you can sign up to receive automatic information on SC Division of Fire and Life Safety current events, policies, laws and procedures by visiting our Web site at: http://www.scfiremarshal.llronline.com/ -----Original Message----- From: Sprinklerforum [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Roland Huggins Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2014 1:58 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Water Velocity According to the SFPE, our code of ethics keeps that from happening. They even stopped one of their local chapters from being involved with reporting violations. That's when I dropped my membership with the SFPE. Since the Boards of Registration generally don't know anything outside the big fields of engineering, even blatant displays of ignorance go unpunished. I once heard that ONE office of the state fire marshal would submit obvious displays of ignorance to their state Board. Now I think that has a positive impact but how many state FM are involved with plans review AND will report problems? Roland Huggins, PE - VP Engineering American Fire Sprinkler Assn. --- Fire Sprinklers Saves Lives Dallas, TX http://www.firesprinkler.org On Sep 16, 2014, at 10:47 AM, Todd - Work <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > Given some of my recent experience Roland, what do we do about the engineers > with no apparent field of expertise? > > Todd G Williams, PE _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org
