Former investigator urges board to review handling of complaints, alleges conflicts of interest

C. Michael McMinn Jr., a former complaint investigator, told the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors at its Feb. 19 meeting that he believes staff and the board improperly handled multiple investigations into a single surveyor and raised potential conflicts of interest involving past investigators.

McMinn said he served as an investigator for nearly four years and that, in his view, the investigative record supported revocation in earlier cases that instead resulted in probated suspensions and administrative penalties. He cited specific internal complaint numbers and said one investigative report recommended revocation and roughly $13,000 in penalties, while other committee actions resulted in lesser outcomes. “The recommended sanctions for both complaints included revocation of the surveyor’s license and combined $48,400 in administrative penalties,” he said, adding that he believed the subsequent agreed orders and accepted dispositions understate the seriousness of violations.

McMinn also told the board that the 2019 Sunset review identified potential conflict‑of‑interest concerns with himself and Larry Billingsley because both conducted surveying work while serving as part‑time complaint investigators. He said, when conflicts arose, he notified the executive director and referred matters to other investigators, but he urged greater transparency by staff when complaints are presented to the board.

When a board member asked what staff could do about the complaints, Michael Sims, the board’s director of compliance and enforcement, said he would need to “go back and look for specifics” and described some of the matters as apparently minor but did not elaborate during the meeting. McMinn asked that his remarks be entered in full in the meeting minutes and said he wanted the information available to the legislature and the Sunset Commission in any future review.

The board granted McMinn additional public‑comment time after a motion from members, and the chair said his comments would be placed in the record. No formal board action was taken in response to his allegations during the meeting.

The meeting included other public commentators who raised related transparency issues: former complaint investigator Larry Billingsley urged more detailed disciplinary postings to educate practitioners, and engineer Tom Kim requested staff re‑review a certificate of merit and asked the board to send a letter to a city to remove his drawings from a project file after he withdrew from the work.

Next steps: McMinn requested inclusion of his full remarks in the minutes and suggested future legislative/Sunset review consider the matters he raised. The board did not announce an immediate follow‑up at the meeting.