| (a) The board, through the policy advisory opinion
committee, shall review all requests for advisory opinions.
(b) Upon receipt of a request for an engineering advisory
opinion, executive director will date stamp the request, issue an
EAOR tracking number, and make a preliminary determination on the
board's jurisdiction regarding the request.
(c) The executive director will review the request
to determine if the request can be answered by reference to the plain
language of a statute or a board rule, or if the request has already
been answered by the board.
(d) If the executive director determines the board
has no jurisdiction or the request can be answered by reference to
a statute, board rule, or previous opinion, the executive director
shall prepare a written response for the policy advisory opinion committee
addressed to the person making the request that cites the jurisdictional
authority, the language of the statute or rule, or the prior determination.
(e) The policy advisory opinion committee shall review
all requests for advisory opinions and may:
(1) approve jurisdiction and reference responses, as
applicable, and report a summary of these actions to the full board
for ratification; or
(2) determine the request warrants an advisory opinion
and to proceed with developing an advisory opinion.
(f) If a request warrants an advisory opinion, the
policy advisory opinion committee shall determine if further information
is needed to draft an advisory opinion. If additional information
is needed, the committee shall determine what information is needed
and instruct the executive director to obtain expert resources, hold
stakeholder meetings, or perform other research and investigation
as necessary to provide the information required to draft an advisory
opinion and report back to the committee.
(g) If during the process, the committee determines
that the request is one the board cannot answer, then the committee
shall have the executive director provide written notification to
the person making the request of the reason the request will not be
answered and this response shall be ratified by the full board.
(h) When sufficient information exists, the policy
advisory opinion committee shall draft an engineering advisory opinion
and post the request and draft opinion on the agency website and in
the Texas Register for comments.
(i) Draft opinions shall be posted for at least 30
days and any interested person may submit written comments concerning
an advisory opinion request. Comments submitted should reference the
EAOR number.
(j) Upon completion of the comment period, the policy
advisory opinion committee shall consider any comments made and draft
a final opinion recommendation to be presented for review and adoption
by the full board.
(k) The full board shall review and adopt the engineering
policy advisory opinion or determine if further revisions are required
and refer the request back to the policy advisory opinion committee
with guidance on proceeding with completing the request.
(l) Each final engineering advisory opinion adopted
by the full board shall be published in summary form in the Texas
Register.
(m) To reconsider or revise an issued advisory opinion,
the board shall process the reconsideration or revision as a new request
and follow the process as set forth in this section.
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