?ÿI have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of licensees not being required to mark their monuments. How would the next surveyor know who set it or who to call if they discover a discrepancy during a retracement??ÿYeah, it makes about as much sense as surveying in a non-recording state.?ÿ Just baffling to me...
Built in deniability I guess.
THRAC ALERT
Way back in 1974 I attended a national convention held in Chicago at the Conrad Hilton Hotel.?ÿ One fellow was the coordinator for a technical session so provided commentary in between speakers.?ÿ He thought he was a comedian.?ÿ He told us that his wife generally packed his suitcase for his frequent travel.?ÿ As he was walking to the session, he discovered there was a pebble in his shoe.?ÿ His wife had placed it there.?ÿ Her goal was to make him limp while away from home.
Those in attendance having naughty minds understood what he was really saying.?ÿ The rest were struggling to grasp why she would want him to have foot pain.
?ÿI have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of licensees not being required to mark their monuments. How would the next surveyor know who set it or who to call if they discover a discrepancy during a retracement??ÿYeah, it makes about as much sense as surveying in a non-recording state.?ÿ Just baffling to me...
Well, both should be done, but at minimum one or the other needs to be done. I started surveying in Texas, which is a non-recording state but registrants are required to mark their monuments "where practical", which pretty much all have interpreted to mean "you better put a cap on that rebar". Plus the (relatively) unique practice of re-writing descriptions (that's a whole 'nother can of worms right there) meant that there was generally a good record of who had done what in the past.
Some states have evolved differently for sure, but there has to be some way to trace work done back to the licensee. There's no point to having licensed surveyors otherwise.
While I wholeheartedly support capping/tagging and recording as important to efficient maintenance of the cadastre, I don't agree with your last statement. We need those monuments to be put in place by someone who knows what they are doing, even if the irons look unfortunately anonymous.
I probably should have clarified that it doesn't serve the aims of professional licensure, which is there to protect the public by holding licensees accountable for the professional services they provide.
Surveyors would still be needed, but without a way to determine who set what, either by recording laws or by monument tagging laws, there's no accountability for license holders. I could set whatever I feel like, and if I get called out on a mistake or negligence I can just deny that it was me who set it. Holding me accountable would likely require litigation rather than a simple complaint to and investigation by the board.
It would be like going in for surgery and having a totally anonymous surgeon operate on you. If they botched the procedure due to negligence, how do you hold them accountable? You'd still need the surgery, but that MD means nothing if they can't be held accountable for their professional actions.
