NYSSPE Legislative Update July 2016 – Spring Legislative Session Summary

Anthony Fasano PE, Executive Director of the New York State Society of Professional Engineers (NYSSPE) speaks with Mark Kriss, Esq., NYSSPE legislative counsel, in a legislative video summary of the 2016 spring legislative session. This summary provides the final results of the three main issues covered in our previous NYSSPE legislative videos: parking garages, fingerprinting, and NYC Design-Build. The following information describes the outcome of each topic further in detail, and provides the time stamps for the location of each topic in the video.

Parking Garage Inspections (0:29):

NYSSPE assisted in the passing of a bill which will require regular inspections for parking garages in New York. The intent of this bill is to protect the public health and safety of individuals at risk to parking garage collapses. This bill has passed both houses and NYSSPE expects that this bill will be signed by the governor.

Fingerprinting for Professionals (1:55):

NYSSPE opposed the bill that would require professional engineers to be fingerprinted. It is important to note that this bill is not directly pointed at professional engineers. It was originally aimed towards the medical professions that were running into several problems with people trying to pose as medical professionals to gain access to drugs.  The bill did not pass in this session, but there are several components of the bill that are still being worked out and NYSSPE will continue to monitor the bill.

Design-Build (3:39):

A specific bill is highlighted in this portion of the video that proposed to allow NYC agencies to administer projects through Design-Build. NYSSPE opposed the bill because it felt that it didn’t have the specific necessary guidelines in place to protect the public and maintain safety.  Although this bill didn’t pass either house in legislation, NYSSPE believes that this bill will come back and in the interim, NYSSPE will work with the sponsor to try have some of the safeguards described added into the legislation.

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