Licensing 2001: Notorious Numbers Part II
by Anne Paxton

Of 4 scheduled meetings of the California Board of Optometry in 2001, number cancelled due to lack of a quorum: 4
Minimum number of witnesses or legislators at sunset hearings on the California Board of Optometry who described the board as "basically dysfunctional" or "incredibly dysfunctional": 2
(Source: California Joint Legislative Sunset Review Committee)

Of opticianry practical exams checked by Alaska sunset reviewers, percentage found to have errors in the calculation of the scores: 45
(Source: Alaska Division of Legislative Audit)

Scores, on successive re-gradings, that sunset reviewers found on a single opticianry exam in Arizona: 79.5, 77, 73.5, 69.5.
(Source: Arizona Office of the Auditor General)

Number of teaching applicants the Fort Worth School District fingerprinted during the 2000-01 school year: 2,994
Number of those applicants found to have a criminal history: 300
(Source: Texas Sunset Commission)

In months, length of license suspension imposed on a licensee by the Arizona Department of Real Estate for failing to inform his client that a buyer did not make a $5,000 earnest payment: 18
In months, length of license suspension imposed by the same board on a licensee who forged his client’s name on a contract: 2.
(Source: Arizona Office of the Auditor General)

Dollar amount the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants says it has spent every year since 1999 to thwart cheating on the Uniform CPA Examination: 400,000
(Source: AICPA/NASBA Briefing Paper No. 2, Computerizing the Uniform CPA Examination: Issues, Strategies, and Policies: An Update)

Amount, in dollars, that Pennsylvania antitrust chief Jim Donahue alleges optometric associations and lens manufacturers cost consumers between the late 1980s and late 1996, by restricting sales of contact lenses from mail-order houses and other retail outlets: 600,000,000
(Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 26, 2001)

Amount, in dollars, that the North Dakota Board of Podiatric Medicine estimates it has spent in court costs for defending disciplinary findings against Bismarck podiatrist Brian Gale: 50,000.
Amount, in dollars, of annual revenue received by the board in licensing fees: 11,000
Number of requests made by the board in 2001 to the state legislature for permission to incur debt beyond its annual license fees: 1
(Source: Bismarck Tribune, March 21, 2001)

Minimum number of court requests Illinois state senator Christopher J. Lauzen made last year to add the letters "CPA" after his name, in response to a political opponent who charged that while Lauzen was a CPA, he was not a "licensed" CPA: 2
Maximum number of days it took Kane County Judge Patrick Dixon to turn down the request in March, saying state law allows only the Illinois Board of CPA Examiners to award a certified public accounting designation: 1
Number of press releases from the Illinois Board of [CPA] Examiners noting that Lauzen passed the CPA exam in 1975 and was already authorized to use "CPA" after his name without going through a name change: 1
(Source: Chicago Daily Herald, March 27, 2001)

Amount, in dollars, that the Texas Auctioneers Education and Recovery Fund requires complainants to pay, in addition to submitting a notarized complaint form, to make a claim against the fund: 50
(Source: Texas Sunset Commission)

Amount, in dollars, that Ohio spent to develop a new computer licensing system for the state’s 21 regulatory boards before scrapping the project last May: 1.7 million
(Source: Associated Press, May 21, 2001)

Out of 5 auditors posing as members of the public, number who were not able to get certain public information on disciplinary actions against licensees from the Arizona Board of Nursing: 3
(Source: Arizona Office of the Auditor General)

Amount, in dollars, that dentist Kevin Ward agreed in November 2000 to pay the Pennsylvania dental board to cover the costs of prosecuting him, for breaking a 5-year-old boy’s leg during a root canal he allegedly performed on the wrong tooth: 60,000.
Minimum number of other child patients of Ward who reported to the board that he had broken one of their bones during dental treatment: 2
Number of continuing education hours, including training on proper restraint techniques, Ward agreed to take before his license suspension is lifted: 60
(Source: New York Times, November 2, 2000)

Percent of Virginia legislators who voted for an emergency bill last July to keep notices or charging documents in physician disciplinary cases, which are public documents, off the state’s new Web site of information about doctors: 100
(Source: Washington Post, July 31, 2001)

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