I had to let this one sit for a few days before I wrote about it due to my complete disillusionment and anger.
All last week I have watched everyone go back and forth about communication which I think is the key to common ground. Keep it up.
I love what Mr. Epperson said about us being unable to force anyone to do anything. Perfectly put, none of us can.
So here it is. I got a frantic call from a friend of mine that is a very competent and ethical surveyor informing me that he has been turned into the board by another surveyor. I take this as no surprise as there seems to be witch hunt on and proceed to listen. The more he gets into the story the more I realize what sad state things are in amongst surveyors.
What occurred is my friend surveyed a piece of property for a long time client that wants to get an easement released and join it to his property. My friend did the preliminary boundary work and set 2 corners in a preempt to the assemblage. It turns out that there is question to some underlying rights of the easements and he advised his client to consult an attorney for a proper interpretation and ask advice on how to proceed. (Note: The client has been working this out with his attorney). This particular project has been sitting dormant for 120 days +/- with my friend in contact weekly with his client.
Well, along comes another surveyor who did not survey this property but merely saw my friend’s caps, looked it up and realized nothing has been filed.
This particular surveyor never called my friend and is in the process of turning him with a long list of allegations and then proceeded to my friend’s client’s house and in person showed him the letter that he will be sending to the board.
Needless to say my friend’s client was incredibly off put by this action and immediately informed my friend what is happening.
Now it is my opinion that said particular surveyor has placed himself in an extremely liable situation in that he has defamed my friend to his client and is therefore placing a shadow of doubt in the clients head and has possibly harmed future business deals.
This goes back to the question of who defines completion of a project.
If this particular surveyor had bothered to pick up a phone and find out what is happening it would have saved a whole bunch of time, avoided turmoil and avoided the good tax payer cost to have the already overloaded board review.
Now I am going to tell you what I would do in this case if I was the defendant.
1) Upon receipt of the letter from the board I would immediately have my Warlord of an attorney write a letter to the board in my defense.
2) Have my Warlord of an attorney compose a letter to this particular surveyor demanding a letter of retraction to the board and a letter of apology to my client and give them 10 working days in which to comply.
3) If the particular surveyor declines to do so I would immediately have my Warlord of an attorney begin a thorough asset research of the particular surveyor.
4) Upon receipt of the particular surveyors net worth report I would immediately have my Warlord of an attorney file a defamation of character lawsuit for damages in the amount of said net worth plus 50 percent against the particular surveyor.
Would this suck? Absolutely, but it would be unavoidable.
I am really bummed out about this sort of thing occurring. It is causing me to re-think my choice of career. The stuff I have learned since starting this blog is frankly upsetting.
I honestly believe that my friend has done nothing wrong. The only thing I would have done differently is hold off setting anything until the lawyer figures it out.
Last week someone put this on Topica.
“I don't care what the BTR says; I will conduct my behavior in accordance with the highest level of professional standards possible. This would of course include contacting any person whose work product I do not understand. Not to do so would be removing myself from the level of "professional".
This is a very profound statement and outlook, Thank you sir.
I have always operated outside the politics of surveying and will continue to do so. I am going to have one more post on political stuff and then that’s it. I am finished. I will only speak of business and surveying from here on.
We need to treat our fellow Land Surveyors as peers and not competition. When that paradigm shift happens the communication follows. This is not about pride, honor, riches, or faith, individually. It is about professionalism. One bad example taints us all. We must rise to the occasion; or we will surely fail.
ReplyDeleteGentlemen & Women – Joe politically correct here… I have been watching what has been going on in “here” and have written many replies – then deleted them.
ReplyDeleteWell, here goes. You will never know how much I personally admire and respect each and every one of you. I personally am very proud of the fact that I too, can call myself a Registered Professional Land Surveyor. It is something that each and every one of you should be very, Very proud of. I would never turn in another Surveyor in to the board unless it was literally the last resort. I literally can’t believe what I have been hearing and reading over the last few months. Is it justified? – Possibly. Not knowing both sides of any story – it is hard to pass judgment. But I will say that (at least) some of the one side of the story I have been told – I have a hard time believing many Registered Professional Land Surveyors are now in the position of either having to pay fines or at the very least explain themselves. As far as “the side of the story” I have been told – I call B.S. I also wonder if the situation were completely reversed – what would be “tone” of the (now) defendant???
There seems to be a large number of Surveyors being turned into the board, as far as I am aware of. Maybe it has always been this way. I recently read the minutes of the Board and I know “more than one” person on this list – personally – and personally, I think they are really good Surveyors. The first thing that comes to my pee brain is “What is the hidden Agenda” ? – Personal, Business, “Right Fighters”, “I’m a better measurer”???
Going back a post or two, when is your time frame up? I have been involved in Survey’s in which the City and/or the owners wasted much more time than the rules and reg.’s permit. It’s frustrating. Personally, I have post anal drip about following up. What’s going on? what’s going on? WHAT’S GOING ON!!!!... Anyone ever deal with the City of Scottsdale? – How about the City of Phoenix? – You can lose 60 days in a fat hurry…
I think some of “us” need to roll up a big “fatty” and order a pizza for God’s sake.
Remember, the achievement of actually becoming a R.L.S is nothing to sneeze at. Maybe you don’t agree with another R.L.S. Big dang deal. Shoot him a call, go over and show him what you’ve found and your thoughts. If someone found something different than I did – cool – Maybe, just Maybe, I found something you didn’t, which influenced my decision…Hey I got an idea… Let’s chat about it and see if we can come to some common ground. Take a Pill – or in my case, an aspirin :-)
Like the previous “Anonymous” poster stated – “We need to treat our fellow Land Surveyors as peers”.