Kent
In a democracy if the choice is between overly complicated and logically simple the choice is usually overly complicated.
Kent - Texas GLO in Austin
> Do you have both kinds of licenses in Texas?
No, the LSLS license presents an ethical conflict that as an RPLS I can do without. The LSLS licensees agree to act as agents of the Commissioner of the GLO and to allow the Commissioner to exercise control over the surveying decisions they make. As a condition of his or her license, the LSLS agrees to report various matters to the Commissioner that many land owners would prefer to keep private, and both while some private landowner is paying the bill and thinking that he is the surveyor's client. Dual relationships in a profession are nearly always highly problematic ethically and should be avoided.
Kent - Texas GLO in Austin
So are there many dual licensees in Texas?
Kent - Texas GLO in Austin
> So are there many dual licensees in Texas?
All of the few LSLS licensees are also RPLSes. Being licensed as an RPLS is a requirement to qualify for licensure as an LSLS. Historically, the LSLS license was separate from that of the public surveyors and there were quite a few holders of LSLS licenses who were not Registered Public Surveyors, the predecessor license to the RPLS. Those LSLSes were on the whole some of the least competent surveyors in practice in Texas since many of them were licensed at a time when they didn't even need to pass an examination, merely to post a bond. Of course, there were some excellent surveyors among the LSLS roster, but, as a rule an LSLS license more often than not meant the holder wasn't able to get licensed as an RPS and was practicing under this alternate credential.
A couple of LSLSes later managed to make the license seem to be some sort of special category of super surveyor. One of those individuals in particular whose work I'm somewhat familiar with made some incredible messes on the three projects of his that I dealt with that were anything but super. He was 0 for 3, which is distinctly unsuper.
The LSLS was originally conceived as simply a way to expand the county surveyor system during the early oil boom when vacancy hunting and oil development of State land was in high gear. Essentially, that was what the LSLS was: a surveyor who was not county surveyor but was authorized to perform the same functions that the county surveyor could in filing maps, field notes, and other papers in the GLO.
There are some good arguments to be made for abolishing the LSLS license now.