California Surveyors Forums

Published Attorney General Opinion No. 15-402

“Active state supervision” requires a state official to review the substance of a regulatory decision made by a state licensing board, in order to determine whether the decision actually furthers a clearly articulated state policy to displace competition with regulation in a particular market. The official reviewing the decision must not be an active member of the market being regulated, and must have and exercise the power to approve, modify, or disapprove the decision.

Measures that might be taken to guard against antitrust liability for board members include changing the composition of boards, adding lines of supervision by state officials, and providing board members with legal indemnification and antitrust training.

http://www.californialandsurveyorsforum ... boards.83/

Michael,

Thanks for sharing that!

It is a well reasoned and articulated opinion, as is to be expected from the office of the AG.

I especially appreciated the suggestion that Board members receive training to become aware of the necessity of placing their policy decisions - particularly those involving Administrative Rule changes - in light of potential anti-competition impacts for instance. Our Board of Supervisors receive similar ongoing training in various fields for this reason. Think Brown Act for one, and Fair Political Practices for another.

It is fortunate that our licensing Board is under the auspices of the Department of Consumer Affairs, so that there is an avenue for oversight, and advice similar to that of the State Senator who requested this opinion.

Agreed. It is interesting the AG ran this. As I noted it came out yesterday.