The board that licenses Texas engineers and land surveyors takes up a question Thursday that its rules have never squarely answered: when a crew maps the gas, water and electric lines buried under a construction site, is that engineering, surveying, or both? Public comment comes at the top of the meeting.
The work has a name — subsurface utility engineering — and a routine. Someone pulls the utility companies’ records, sweeps the ground with detection equipment, sometimes digs a small test hole to put eyes on the pipe, and then draws what is down there with a stated level of confidence. Getting it wrong is how excavators hit gas mains. Who may sign that drawing, and under which license, decides who carries the liability and whom the board can discipline when the drawing is wrong.
The board answers questions like this through written policy advisory opinions, drafted by a standing committee and adopted by the full board. This one arrives twice, filed as engineering opinion request No. 74 and as surveying opinion request No. 1 — the first request the surveying side has produced since the two professions were merged under one board. Karen Friese, an Austin engineer and the board’s secretary, chairs the committee that brings it forward.
A stack of licensing rules follows. The board would repeal the separate “English translation” provisions in both the engineering and surveying chapters and put a new rule in each on what language an application must be in. Other items in the package touch standard license applications, temporary licenses for engineers already licensed outside the United States, education requirements, and registration for surveyors coming from other states. Eight applicants are set for personal interviews, two of them asking the board to reconsider.
The rest is housekeeping with money in it: a budget for the fiscal year that starts September 1, nominations for board officers, contract renewals for four advisory members, one consent order against a licensed engineer, and an update on a licensee’s five-year-old lawsuit against the board in a Cameron County district court. Two of the board’s committees meet earlier in the day, and a third meets Wednesday afternoon.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 10:30 a.m. CT Thursday, August 13, 2026. A regular quarterly meeting; the board last met May 21.
- Where
- 1917 S. Interstate 35, Austin. Three board committees meet at the same address, one Wednesday afternoon and two Thursday morning.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors — nine governor-appointed members plus the General Land Office’s surveyor, who serves without a fixed term. Sina K. Nejad, chair; Albert Cheng, vice chair.
- Format
- In person, with the presiding member physically present; the notice reserves the option of videoconference for others. Public comment is item 1F. Closed session may be called on any item.
- Live video
- None advertised on the notice. Materials and past minutes are posted on the board meetings page.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · TBPELS board meetings
Board members
- Sina K. Nejad, Beaumont — chair; professional engineer. Term to 2031.
- Albert Cheng, Houston — vice chair; public member. Term to 2027.
- Karen A. Friese, Austin — secretary; professional engineer. Term to 2027.
- Kiran Shah, Richmond — treasurer; public member. Term to 2029.
- Ademola Adejokun, Arlington — professional engineer. Term to 2029.
- Coleen Johnson, Leander — registered professional land surveyor. Term to 2031.
- Marguerite McClinton Stoglin, Grand Prairie — public member. Term to 2031.
- Roberto Moreno, El Paso — professional engineer. Term to 2029.
- Catherine Norwood, Midland — professional engineer. Term to 2027.
- Mark Neugebauer, Round Rock — General Land Office surveyor; unlimited term.
Roster, hometowns and term dates from the board’s Board Members page; officer titles and committee assignments from its Committees page, effective January 8, 2024. Four non-voting advisory members — Lamberto Ballí, William Edwards, Jon Hodde and Govind Nadkarni — have contracts up for renewal Thursday. Staff: Lance Kinney, executive director; Steven Ogle, general counsel.