During the 2022 legislative session a bill known as HB 476 was passed into law that will have an effect on the licensure activities for all land surveyors and engineers in Georgia.  Passage of this legislation has authorized the creation of a PELS Board that can set its own fees, manage its own budget, hire its own staff, and improve customer service for applicants, registrants, and the general public.  Since the new board will be autonomous and independent, the board staff will be dedicated solely to the functions of the PELS board vs. the previous arrangement of shared staff across many boards under the Secretary of State Office.  Our new board structure will be more responsive to requests from applicants and registrants and will lead to more robust enforcement of complaints and licensure violations.  Ultimately, both the land surveying and engineering professions will be improved. 

With the passage of this bill in the 2022 legislative session, the SBOR has created a task force to lead the effort to create and implement this new board structure.   This task force members are as follows:

Bill Womack, PE                SBOR Member, Chairman
Russ Pennington, PE       SBOR Member
Taylor Wright, PE             SBOR Member
Julie Busbee                       SBOR Member
Jim Mattison, PLS             SBOR Member

Tom Szewczyk, PE, SE     SEAOG Liaison
Kevin Berry, PE                  GSPE Liaison
Trenton D. Turk, PLS       SAMSOG Liaison
Darrell Rochester, PE      ACEC Liaison

A tremendous amount of work has already been completed by this task force.  Several meetings have already been held to begin the process of structuring the new board.  The tasks completed so far include the preparation of a strategic plan, job descriptions, an annual budget, and several other items.  The strategic plan has been submitted to and approved by the Georgia Office of Planning and Budget.

One of the most important tasks of the task force has been to set up an annual budget for the PELS Board.  The operating budget proposed by the task force is approximately 2.7 million dollars.  This is going to require that all licensing fees for applicants, engineers, land surveyors, and corporations be raised appropriately to generate the required income to fund the new budget.  The SBOR approved the following fee structure at their board meeting held on August 11, 2022:

• Renewal fees for PE, SE and LS licenses - $ 100.00 annually
• Application fees for PE, SE, LS licenses - $ 100.00
• Comity fees for PE, SE, LS licenses - $ 100.00
• COA fees for Engineering Firms and Land Surveyor Firms - $ 100.00 annually

The new fee structure will go into effect immediately for all future renewals and COA fees.  PE, SE, and LS license renewals will start in October, 2022.  The COA fees will start in April 2023.   Application and Comity fees will go into effect beginning in mid-September 2022.

The goal of the task force is to have the new board up and functioning by the middle of 2023.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_ZxX8c