SECTION 131.107. Receipt, Review, and Processing of a Request

(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.

Source Note: The provisions of this §131.107 adopted to be effective May 20, 2004, 29 TexReg 4871