10A.506  Licensing and regulation of business and commerce-related professions.
  1.  a.  The department shall administer and coordinate the licensing and regulation of several professions by bringing together the following licensing boards:
  (1)  The engineering and land surveying examining board created pursuant to chapter 542B.
  (2)  The Iowa accountancy examining board created pursuant to chapter 542.
  (3)  The real estate commission created pursuant to chapter 543B.
  (4)  The real estate appraiser examining board created pursuant to chapter 543D.
  (5)  The architectural examining board created pursuant to chapter 544A.
  (6)  The landscape architectural examining board created pursuant to chapter 544B.
  (7)  The interior design examining board created pursuant to chapter 544C.
  b.  The director shall administer chapter 543E.
  2.   The director shall appoint and supervise staff and shall coordinate activities for the licensing boards within the department pursuant to subsection 1 and for the administration of chapter 543E.
  3.  The licensing and regulation examining boards included in the department pursuant to subsection 1 retain the powers granted them pursuant to the chapters in which they are created, except for budgetary and personnel matters which shall be handled by the director. Each licensing board shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 17A. Decisions by a licensing board are final agency actions for purposes of chapter 17A.
  4.  The department may expend additional funds, including funds for additional personnel, if those additional expenditures are directly the cause of actual examination expenses exceeding funds budgeted for examinations. Before the department expends or encumbers an amount in excess of the funds budgeted for examinations, the director of the department of management shall approve the expenditure or encumbrance. Before approval is given, the director of the department of management shall determine that the examination expenses exceed the funds budgeted by the general assembly to the department and the department does not have other funds from which the expenses can be paid. Upon approval of the director of the department of management, the department may expend and encumber funds for excess examination expenses. The amounts necessary to fund the examination expenses shall be collected as fees from additional examination applicants and shall be treated as repayment receipts as defined in section 8.2, subsection 8.
  5.  All expenses required in the discharge of the duties and responsibilities imposed upon the department, the director, and the licensing boards by the laws of this state shall be paid from moneys appropriated for those purposes.
  6.  The licensing boards included in the department pursuant to subsection 1 may refuse to issue or renew a license to practice a profession to any person otherwise qualified upon any of the grounds for which a license may be revoked or suspended or a licensee may otherwise be disciplined, or upon any other grounds set out in the chapter governing the respective board.
  7.  The licensing boards included in the department pursuant to subsection 1 may suspend, revoke, or refuse to issue or renew a license, or may discipline a licensee based upon a suspension, revocation, or other disciplinary action taken by a licensing authority in this or another state, territory, or country. For purposes of this subsection, “disciplinary action” includes the voluntary surrender of a license to resolve a pending disciplinary investigation or proceeding. A certified copy of the record or order of suspension, revocation, voluntary surrender, or other disciplinary action is prima facie evidence of such fact.
  8.  Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the licensing boards included within the department pursuant to subsection 1 may by rule establish the conditions under which an individual licensed in a different jurisdiction may be issued a reciprocal or comity license, if, in the board’s discretion, the applicant’s qualifications for licensure are substantially equivalent to those required of applicants for initial licensure in this state.
  9.  Notwithstanding section 272C.6, the licensing boards included within the department pursuant to subsection 1 may by rule establish the conditions under which the board may supply to a licensee who is the subject of a disciplinary complaint or investigation, prior to the initiation of a disciplinary proceeding, all or such parts of a disciplinary complaint, disciplinary or investigatory file, report, or other information, as the board in its sole discretion believes would aid the investigation or resolution of the matter.
  10.  Notwithstanding section 17A.6, subsection 3, the licensing boards included within the department pursuant to subsection 1 may adopt standards by reference to another publication without providing a copy of the publication to the administrative code editor if the publication containing the standards is readily accessible on the internet at no cost and the internet site at which the publication may be found is included in the administrative rules that adopt the standard.
  11.  Renewal periods for all licenses and certificates of the licensing boards included within the department pursuant to subsection 1 may be annual or multiyear, as provided by rule.
  12.  A quorum of a licensing board included within the department pursuant to subsection 1 shall be a majority of the members of the board and action may be taken upon a majority vote of board members present at a meeting who are not disqualified.
86 Acts, ch 1245, §710
C87, §546.10
88 Acts, ch 1274, §41; 90 Acts, ch 1247, §18; 90 Acts, ch 1261, §42; 91 Acts, ch 260, §1246; 93 Acts, ch 131, §24; 94 Acts, ch 1107, §94, 95; 94 Acts, ch 1187, §22; 2001 Acts, ch 55, §33, 34, 38
; 2002 Acts, 2nd Ex, ch 1003, §33, 35
; 2003 Acts, ch 145, §286; 2005 Acts, ch 19, §115; 2006 Acts, ch 1030, §66; 2006 Acts, ch 1177, §52; 2007 Acts, ch 170, §7; 2010 Acts, ch 1055, §3; 2011 Acts, ch 34, §131; 2012 Acts, ch 1023, §157; 2013 Acts, ch 93, §2; 2016 Acts, ch 1124, §30 – 32; 2019 Acts, ch 59, §195; 2023 Acts, ch 19, §1704, 1711; 2023 Acts, ch 108, §49, 50; 2023 Acts, ch 119, §28
C2024, §10A.506
Referred to in §543D.5, 544A.8
Section transferred from §546.10 in Code 2024 pursuant to directive in 2023 Acts, ch 19, §1711
Section amended