Following is our sample oppositon letter for you to mail or fax before May 16.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Please COPY and PASTE the letter below (be sure to insert the name of your business)
or download here then MAIL or FAX your letter to SB 1312 author, the committee chair and the senator from
your district or you may call in your opposition.
(You'll find senator addresses, phone and fax numbers at the bottom of this letter) HEARING IS ON MAY 12, 2008 MAY 19, 2008
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTER BEFORE MAY 16
May 12, 2008The Honorable ______________
Member of the Senate
State Capitol
Sacramento, California 94248-0001 SUBJECT: SB 1312 Yee) – (as amended 4-17-08) -Registered Interior Designers – CONTINUE TO OPPOSE Dear Senator _________;
This letter is to express the continued opposition from (insert the name of your business) to SB 1312.
I do not feel the amendments made to the bill in the policy committee address the reasons for our opposition. I still see SB 1312 as creating a Practice Act, as
stated in the bill, for a select group of interior designers in California to allow this group to engage in activities that would be denied to the rest of the interior design industry.
For twenty five years
CLCID has served as the primary interior design coalition in the state of California. The membership consists of designers from all over the State with various affiliations and backgrounds. The CLCID includes members of
the California Chapters of the National Kitchen and Bath Association, Interior Design Society and International Furnishing and Design Association; independent Interior Designers, Individual Members affiliated with the
American Society of Interior Designers or International Interior Design Association; students, educators, the interior design industry, and allies of CLCID. All of these groups continue to oppose SB 1312.
Submission of Plans and Drawings
The stated purpose for Senate Bill 1312 is to assure that, by creating the title of "registered interior designer", interior designers will be able to legally submit plans and
drawings to local building officials. Without SB 1312 it has been stated that current interior designers would be prohibited from doing so by the International Building Code.
Neither California, nor any local
officials that we are aware of, have adopted the International Building Code (IBC) or any restrictions as to who can submit plans and drawings to local agencies. California has adopted its own version of the IBC, the
California Building Code (CBC) that does not contain any restriction concerning the submission of plans to local agencies or requirement that only registered design professionals are allowed to submit plans and
drawings. SB 1312 is merely a solution looking for a problem. If there were a few isolated instances where a construction code enforcement official mistakenly required that the submission be made by a registered design
professional where there was clearly no structural or life safety issues involved, this is easily rectified by clarifying the CBC with the officials; the licensing of an entire industry, establishment of a new Board and
adverse impact on a large segment of the design community which this bill would have is certainly not necessary or warranted.
California Already Certifies Interior Designers
Section 5800 of the Business
and Professions Code already establishes the Certified Interior Designer Law and the California Council for Interior Design Certification (CCIDC). California certification is a voluntary program that requires an
interior designer to follow a "Code of Ethics" and pass an exam covering California Codes and Regulations (CCRE) to become a Certified Interior Designer. It already recognizes the NCIDQ exam as one of several tests,
plus a codes exam, as qualifying a designer for Certification. Thus, the mechanism is already in place to achieve the purposes that the proponents of SB 1312 seek to rectify, without needlessly retracing anyone from
practicing their profession or forcing them to take one, private, unregulated exam that is unrelated to California codes and law.
The Codes exam, given by the California Council for Interior Design
Certification, is really the only exam that would test the minimum competency of a designer for California codes and laws, but with one very significant difference – it is open to anyone who can qualify and pass the
exams and demonstrate sufficient competencies in design, not just a select few who go to the "right" schools and programs, who take the "right" test as determined by the sponsors of SB 1312.
NCIDQ Exam is Discriminatory
I strongly disagree that a single exam serving only a small portion of the industry should serve as an industry standard and deny access to all other interior design professionals. To
become registered, Senate Bill 1312 requires an interior designer to pass an exam (called the NCIDQ exam) given by a private organization based in Washington D.C. This is an expensive exam over which California has no
control, has an historically low passage rate, requires that you graduate from select design programs and forces an internship on designers from two to four years under the direct supervision of an NCIDQ certificate
holder or architect. The NCIDQ exam ignores experience in the profession to even qualify to take the exam. If you can't sit for the exam, you can't become registered, and the qualifications to take the test may be
changed at any time at the whim of the NCIDQ (as has been done repeatedly in past years). As mentioned above, the NCIDQ exam also does not test for knowledge of California Codes and Regulations as provided by current
state law.
No Demonstrated Need for SB 1312.
There is no public outcry or threat to public safety, health or welfare that requires licensing of the interior design industry. The proposal to create a
practice act and restrict who can be called a "registered interior designer" is designed to allow a single organization, the American Society for Interior Design (ASID), to essentially only allow their own members to be
considered registered interior designers and exclude all others. ASID has attempted to enact a practice act in many other states, but nothing has been adopted since the 1990s. In the three states that do have such
legislation, all make a distinction between residential and commercial design, unlike the proposed bill which would exclude anyone except their members from performing registered design services. Furthermore, the
Alabama Supreme Court recently declared that state's interior design practice act unconstitutional. That practice act was much less restrictive than the one proposed here, and still the Supreme Court found that the law
achieved no valid public purpose other than to benefit the select few designers who met their own self-imposed standards. As Justice Parker stated in that case:
"Not only are [the designer's ] rights to contract
and to engage in her chosen occupation at stake in this case, but also the rights of the people of Alabama to contract with her. If a homeowner or businessperson wants to express himself by decorating his home or his
office in a certain way, and if that person believes [the designer] can best provide the design that he desires, the State should not tell that person that he may not contract with [the designer] merely because [th
designer] lacks state certification or an academic degree. Nor should this Court embrace the paternalistic notion that the average citizen is incapable of choosing a competent interior designer without the State's help."
For these reasons I am still opposed to SB 1312.
Sincerely,
Your name
Title
Name and address of your business
Mail or Fax the above letter to
Senate Appropriations Committee Members Senator Leland Yee (Bill author) *please send letter
State Capitol, Room 4048
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone: (916) 651-4008
sorry, fax # unavailable
Senator Tom Torlakson (Chair)
*please send letter
State Capitol, Room 5050
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 651-4007
Fax: (916) 445-2527
... and please a send letter to the senator from your district (below) or you may call in your opposition.
If you don't know who your senator is, find here.
Senator Dave Cox (Vice Chair)
State Capitol, Room 2068
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone:
(916) 651-4001
Fax: (916) 324-2680
Senator Samuel Aanestad
State Capitol, Room 2054
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone: (916) 651-4004
Fax:
(916) 445-7750
Senator Roy Ashburn
State Capitol, Room 3060
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone: (916) 651-4018
Fax: 916) 322-3304
Senator Gilbert Cedillo
State Capitol, Room 5100
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone: (916) 651-4022
sorry, fax # unavailable
Senator Ellen Corbett
State Capitol, Room 3092
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone: (916) 651-4010
sorry, fax # unavailable
Senator Robert Dutton
State Capitol, Room 5094
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone: (916) 651-4031
Fax: (916) 327-2272
Senator Dean Florez
State Capitol, Room 5061
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone:
(916) 651-4016
sorry, fax # unavailable
Senator Sheila Kuehl
State Capitol, Room 5108
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone: (916) 651-4023
Fax: (916) 324-4823
Senator Jenny Oropeza
State Capitol, Room 4074
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone: (916) 651-4028
Fax: (916) 323-6056
Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas
State Capitol, Room 4061
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone:(916) 651-4026
Fax: (916) 445-8899
Senator George Runner
State Capitol, Room 5097
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone: (916) 651-4017
Fax: (916) 445-4662
Senator Joe Simitian
State Capitol, Room 2080
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone: (916) 651-4011
Fax: (916) 323-4529
Senator Mark Wyland
State Capitol, Room 4066
Sacramento, CA 94248-0001
Phone:
(916) 651-4038
Fax:(916) 446-7382
Once again, the hearing date is May 12, May 19 so please send your letter before May 16 -
Thank you!
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