Professions and vocations.

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of various professions and vocations by boards within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law authorizes a board to suspend or revoke a license on various grounds, including, but not limited to, conviction of a crime, if the crime is substantially related to the qualifications, functions, or duties of the business or profession for which the license was issued. Existing law requires applicants to certain boards to provide a full set of fingerprints for the purpose of conducting criminal history record checks. This bill would make that fingerprinting requirement applicable to the Dental Board of California, the Dental Hygiene Committee of California, the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau, the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, the California Board of Podiatric Medicine, and the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners. The bill would require new applicants for a license and petitioners for reinstatement of a revoked, surrendered, or canceled license, to successfully complete a state and federal level criminal record information search. The bill would also require, commencing January 1, 2011, licensees who have not previously submitted fingerprints, or for whom a record of the submission of fingerprints no longer exists, to complete the process necessary for a state and federal level criminal offender record information search, as specified. The bill would require licensees applying for license renewal to certify compliance with that requirement, as specified, and would subject a licensee to disciplinary action for making a false certification. The bill would also require a licensee to, as a condition of renewal of the license, notify the board on the license renewal form if he or she, or any member of the personnel of record of the licensee, has been convicted, as defined, of a felony or misdemeanor since the last renewal, or if this is the licensee's first renewal, since the initial license was issued. The bill would provide that the Contractors' State License Board shall implement the provisions pertaining to renewal licenses on a specified schedule, after an appropriation is made for this purpose, utilizing its applicable fees.