Board approves November 2024 minutes; executive officer reports $14.06 million budget and updates on licensing, exams and enforcement

The Respiratory Care Board of California approved the consent calendar item to adopt the November 2024 board meeting minutes and received its executive officer's second-quarter report on budget, staffing, licensing, examinations and enforcement.

Nut graf: The executive officer reported a board budget of $14,061,000 with approximately $5.3 million in expenditures to date and a reserve equal to about 18.1 months of operating expenses; the board was advised potential changes could come in the governor's May budget revisions. The board also heard staffing changes, licensing and exam statistics, and enforcement metrics for the second quarter.

On a motion to approve the November 2024 board meeting minutes, the roll call vote as recorded by staff produced recorded "yes" votes and recorded abstentions; the presiding officer announced "Motion carries." Recorded responses on the roll call included yes votes from Doctor Nick Boyd, Doctor Annette Walker, Wendy Strzok, Justin Hub and Abigail Ortega; two members were recorded as abstaining. The presiding officer then invited the executive officer to give the quarterly report.

In the executive officer report, the board heard the following highlights:

- Budget and reserves: The board's budget was reported as $14,061,000 with expenditures to date of about $5,300,000. The reserve fund was reported at 18.1 months; the executive officer said the statutory cap is 24 months and discussed planning for decisions if reserves exceed the cap.

- Staffing: Promotions and retirements were announced, including the promotion of Zach Beauchamp to licensed analyst in the registration unit and several retirements in exam and complaint units. The board currently has three vacancies and has requested a limited-term management service technician to support registration processing.

- Licensing and registration: The board issued 5,527 new registrations/licenses in the second quarter, bringing total licensees to approximately 47,000 (a 2% increase since the first quarter). Applications received in the second quarter were reported as 26% fewer than the first quarter, attributed to the end of the graduation season.

- Examinations: The board reported an increase in administered exams in the second quarter and noted that the waiting period for the LMFT clinical exam was reduced from 120 days to 90 days effective Jan. 1, 2025. The staff also described a vendor transition for the ASWB exam, with testing scheduled to move from March 16 to March 30 and a change in vendor relationships (references to PSI and Pearson VUE were noted in the report).

- Enforcement: The board received 485 consumer complaints and 212 criminal convictions in the quarter, closed 516 cases, and referred 12 cases to the Attorney General's Office. Average processing times were given as 486 days for formal discipline completion and about 62 days for investigations.

- Organizational effectiveness and outreach: The consumer information office answered 3,141 calls (average wait about 50 seconds) and staff responded to 3,558 emails. Ten outreach events were held in the quarter. The executive officer also provided a status update on transitioning registration applications to the online system referred to in the report (Breezy/Breeze); staff are testing AMFT registrations first, with plans to add other license categories if testing is successful.

Board members asked questions about a target reserve level (the executive officer said a target of eight to 12 months was reasonable, and noted the 24-month cap), timeline expectations for the new online registration system (May was discussed as an optimistic target but not guaranteed), and the expected rollout cadence for other license types (staff estimated a shorter transition after AMFT, possibly two to three months but not guaranteed). The executive officer agreed to include the total number of certified supervisors in a future report.

The meeting then recessed into closed session; the transcript provided no public disposition of the hearing matters discussed in closed session.

Votes at a glance: Motion to approve November 2024 meeting minutes ' Outcome: Motion carries. (Recorded yes votes: Doctor Nick Boyd, Doctor Annette Walker, Wendy Strzok, Justin Hub, Abigail Ortega; recorded abstentions: two members.)