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AIA Maryland |
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2005 Legislative Session Update In the 2005 Legislative Session, AIA Maryland took action on several bills affecting the practice of architecture in our state. The Continuing Education legislation, which we passed successfully two years, ago required an adjustment to conform the continuing education credit cycle to the bi-annual license renewal cycle. House Bill 506: Business Occupations and Professions - Architects - Continuing Education accomplishes that goal and requires that certificates of completion be submitted at request of the SBOA. This allows the Board the latitude to function as other design boards, by randomly sampling transcripts rather than requiring all applicants to submit a complete set of records every 24 months. The governor signed this bill into law on April 26, 2005 as Chapter 215. Delegate Mary Ann Love (D-District 32, Anne Arundel County), a staunch supporter of AIA Maryland, was again the sponsor of our bill. The Mechanics' Lien Bill, House Bill 1188: Real Property - Mechanics' Liens - Professional Services , would have established that work done for or about a building for the purposes of a mechanics' lien include architects, landscape architects, engineers and land surveyors. The bill, which was requested by the Consulting Engineers, passed the House 136-0, but died in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. AIA Maryland opposed House Bill 1221: Public School Construction - Plans and Specifications. The bill would have provided that school construction plans or plans for school capital improvements are the exclusive property of the county board of education, and would have authorized the board to sell the plans to other government jurisdictions. We defeated the bill in the House Appropriations Committee. Senate Bill 92: Proposed Capital Projects - Planning - High Performance Buildings, which AIA Maryland supported, requires a state government unit when requesting funding for preliminary planning of a proposed capital project, to provide justification that a building be a high performance building. The final rendering of the bill, which passed, is a "decaffeinated" version of our original draft. There was tremendous conflict between the House and the Senate over whether the bill's high performance requirement should be stated in positive or negative language (the negative being AIA Maryland's preference). Our more-strongly worded version would have required the procuring state government unit to provide justification that a building "not" be a high performance building. To further complicate matters, the bill was jointly referred to two standing committees in the House, requiring a majority vote in both committees. Our more aggressive benchmark was unanimously supported by the House Government Operations Committee, but rejected by the House Appropriations Committee. Even the Speaker of the House intervened in an effort to bring the differing sides to agreement. In an effort to save the bill, and at the very least establish policy that high performance buildings are being considered in the planning process, the Senate agreed to concur with the House amendments. Moreover, the bill was initially opposed by the plastics industry and the forestry products industry due to the Silver Rating LEED Certification being the sole requirement in our original draft. Additional standards (i.e. Green Globes) and other nationally recognized standards were included to bring the opponents on board. The legislation was sponsored by Senator James Brochin (D-District 42, Baltimore County) and Delegate Dan Morhaim (D-District 11, Baltimore County). These legislators went the "extra mile" to help pass this legislation, making Maryland one of the first states in the U.S. to consider high performance buildings in the preliminary planning process. In addition to hard-core lobbying on the ground, and the VOCUS grassroots system available through AIA National, the efforts of Chris Parts, Mark Keen, Tom Liebel and David Pratt need to be recognized. Their testimony in committee, review of amendments, and evaluation of alternate standards were invaluable. The efforts on this bill went "wire-to-wire," from the beginning of the Session to the very end. The Governor signed this bill into law on May 26, 2005. Senate Bill 143: Certificate Of Merit - specifies that the filing of a certificate of a qualified expert in malpractice claims applies to claims filed in a United States District Court, and applies the requirement to a claim against the employer, partnership or other entity through which a licensed professional performs services. This bill passed and was signed into law by Governor Ehrlich as Chapter 125 on April 26, 2005.
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