About the CIB
The Construction Industries Board (“CIB”) is a self-funded, non-appropriated state agency whose work is essential and whose mission is critical to the protection of the health, safety and welfare of the public. The CIB receives no federal funds and is funded by occupational fees, pursuant to the related statutory trade regulatory acts and administrative rules as adopted through the legislative rulemaking process of the Administrative Procedure Act.
The CIB consists of seven (7) board members each appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of four (4) years. The contractor board members are Oklahoma business owners and all of the board members are business-minded people applying business principles to the operations of the CIB. The CIB board members and the trade committee members serve without compensation, except they may receive mileage reimbursement pursuant to the State Travel Reimbursement Act.
The CIB is the statutorily created state agency charged with regulating, through licensing, registration, inspection and enforcement, the Plumbing License Law of 1955, the Oklahoma Inspectors Act, the Electrical License Act, the Mechanical Licensing Act, the Home Inspection Licensing Act, the Roofing Contractor Registration Act, and the Construction Industries Board Act.
These regulatory acts help to ensure Oklahoma’s citizenry that professionals performing the complex tasks required for installation, repair or remodel work have met the statewide minimum competency required by statute to perform skilled trade, or craft trade work providing a safer edifice for life and property, including protecting areas such as our public water supply.
The CIB board functions as the umbrella board over the various skilled trade examining committees. The CIB board is unlike other state boards and commissions in that the administrative regulatory decisions it makes over the different skilled trade committees administrative proceedings (plumbing, electrical, mechanical, roofing, building and construction inspectors, and home inspectors) cannot consist of a majority of market participants due to the various and separate trades represented on the CIB board, thereby inherently protecting itself from anti-competitive and anti-trust challenges. An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) presides over all administrative hearings on alleged violations of the statutes/rules and makes a written recommendation to the CIB board. No order is final until, and unless, the CIB board issues a final order. The hearings are conducted pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act, the Open Meeting Act, and CIB statutory and rule requirements.
History
Prior to 2001, various skilled trade committees governing statewide regulation were in existence under the Department of Public Health, occupational licensing division. In 2001, policymakers determined there was a need to streamline and improve the administration of the various construction licensing committees, resulting in more oversight, accountability, and transparency of the skilled trade regulatory function by separating the skilled trades from the Department of Public Health and creating the Construction Industries Board.
Effective January 1, 2002, the CIB became the regulatory agency and began regulating the plumbing, electrical and mechanical trades, and building and construction inspectors through the powers and duties set forth in the Construction Industries Board Act and in the respective licensing acts for such trades. The purpose of the CIB has not changed and other trade regulatory acts have been added, such as the Home Inspection Licensing Act and the Roofing Contractor Registration Act, all for the continuing mission of protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the public. The last license fee increase for any license was sought in 2009 due mainly because of the 2008-2009 downturn in construction.
Administrative Procedures And Practices
The CIB is audited annually as required by 59 O.S. § 1000.4(C). The annual audit is performed, issued, and published by the Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector. Prior year audits can be viewed on the website of the Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector.
The CIB contracts with Shared Services OMES/ABS (Agency Business Services) for Financial Shared Services. OMES/ABS is the CIB’s CPO and acts as CIB’s CFO approving purchases for conformance with state purchasing laws and Executive Orders, budget/fund availability, and proper coding. OMES/ABS also prepares the monthly reconciliation between the CIB’s licensing software, PeopleSoft, and the Office of the State Treasurer, and presents other financial reports monthly to the CIB Board for their review. Expenditures in excess of $25,000 must be approved in advance by the CIB’s Cabinet Secretary, per Executive Order 2019-13.
The CIB contracts with Shared Services OMES/DCAR for HCM Shared Services to process employee payroll and payments from the employee time/leave information input into PeopleSoft by the CIB staff. Payroll expenses are included in the monthly reports prepared by OMES/ABS and presented to the CIB Board. When fully staffed, the CIB operates with 14 office staff, using temporary staff when necessary, and 21 field staff licensed in the different trades covering construction sites across Oklahoma. The CIB also contracts with OMES Mailing Services through the Interagency Mail Department.
All revenue and expenditures are entered into the PeopleSoft system. All funds are reconciled monthly by the Office of the State Treasurer (OST) (banking information), Shared Services OMES/ABS (PeopleSoft information), and the CIB (licensing software information) as demonstrated on the Form 11 every month which then triggers the transfer of CIB funds by the OST from the clearing account to the appropriate revolving fund and the transfer of ten percent (10%) of the fees to the state General Fund.
CIB purchasing is audited by OMES Central Purchasing, click here to see the most recent Central Purchasing Audit.
There are six (6) statutory licensing/registration acts, each having their own restricted revolving fund and authority for use of the restricted revolving fund. The Skilled Trade Education and Workforce Development Fund enacted by HB1280 (2018) requiring administrative fines collected to go through Inter-Agency contract to the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education for workforce development is also a restricted revolving fund. These seven (7) revolving fund accounts are all physically controlled by the OST making checks/payments by warrants issued through the audited purchasing process. There is no “general” CIB fund. The CIB cannot write checks on any bank account. The required monthly reconciliations are a part of the documentation that is reviewed during the annual audit by the Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector.
The CIB IT has been consolidated into OMES/ISD who must approve all IT expenditures. The CIB contracts with Shared Services OMES/ISD for IT services.
Legal counsel is supplied to the CIB board and all six (6) trade committees through contract with the Office of the Attorney General.
All of the licensing requirements administered by the CIB are established by the Legislature and the Governor who set the requirements and authority through legislation passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor, or through the provisions of the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act (APA), at 75 O.S. § 250, et. seq., for all permanent administrative rules of the CIB requiring public hearings on proposed rules and that the rules be filed with and approved by the Governor and the Legislature pursuant to the APA.
Relevance Today
The reasonable regulation of the trades under the CIB provides inherent fairness through a regulatory process for the benefit of consumers, applicants, licensees and complainants through the statutory and administrative procedures and due process principle. Also, without a minimum standard of skills and knowledge the workforce would not strengthen the Oklahoma economy as it would encourage less knowledgeable, less skilled and less educated workers and would put Oklahoma workers’ and citizens’ health, safety and welfare at risk by allowing workers with arguably no knowledge, education or experience to construct homes, schools and other buildings, some with the capacity to hold a large number of people. In a state such as Oklahoma with tornadoes, high winds, floods, and other natural disasters, sufficient building codes are essential to the health, safety and welfare of the public.
The purpose of regulation of the various skilled-craft trades under the CIB, as in any trade, is to ensure there is compliance with the minimum standard of statutory requirements to perform skilled-trade, or craft-trade work in order to protect life and property of the public by licensing and inspection of the related trades for the health, safety and welfare of the public. This minimal, reasonable regulation contributes to the education and development of Oklahoma’s skilled workforce and benefits the state by having a better educated and skilled workforce, better end products from the higher quality of homes and buildings constructed under a statewide building code than states without a minimum standard of competence. It also helps to provide a fair and healthy market environment for the contractor business providing jobs, paying wages, and paying taxes to the state and the consumer that fuels the economy by keeping it out of the underground, unscrupulous and transient market.