Government Worker Licensing Act
NEW SECTION. Section 1. Legislative findings. To
preserve and protect the health, safety, welfare, culture, and
liberties of the people of the state, the legislature finds:
a. Practitioners of some vocations could cause harm to people
if practitioners provide service that is of substandard quality or
if the practitioner is not well informed;
b. Licensing has long been accepted as a method to insure that
vocational practitioners provide a minimum quality service with
specified education for practitioners, and as a method to hold
practitioners accountable to a standard quality of service provided
to consumers;
c. One considerable pool of vocational practitioners in the
state that is currently unregulated by the state and therefore
unaccountable to the state is the vocational category of government
workers;
d. Any substandard provision of service provided by this
vocational category of workers has the potential to cause harm or
irreparable harm to the health, safety, welfare, culture, or liberty
of the people of the state;
e. It is wholly in the public interest to create a system of
licensing for government workers; and
f. Montana has reserved to itself the police powers, including
the power to regulate vocations in this state.
NEW SECTION. Section 2. Definitions. As used in
[this Act], the following definitions apply:
a. A “government worker” is any person who derives half or
more of the person's income from, or is employed for 20 hours per
week or more by, any government, any subdivision of any government,
any nation, any organization of nations, or any contractor for any
of these when an employee of such contractor is carrying out the
mission of or providing service for a governmental entity.
b. A “temporary or seasonal worker” is any government worker
who is employed in or assigned to the state for less than 90
calendar days.
c. An “office worker” is any government worker who spends more
than half of the worker's working hours indoors and who is not a
member of any other class of defined government workers.
d. An “outdoors worker” is any government worker who spends
more than half of the worker's working hours outdoors and who is not
a member of any other defined class of government workers.
e. A “military worker” is any government worker who is
employed by any branch of any military.
f. A “law enforcement worker” is any government worker who has
powers of arrest.
g. A “consular worker” is any government worker who is a bona
fide, overt employee of any nation that maintains an official,
permanent and public presence in the state.
h. An “administrative worker” is any government worker who has
supervisory authority, directly or indirectly, over five (5) or more
other employees or government workers.
NEW SECTION. Section 3. Exemptions. Those
government workers exempt from the effects of [this Act] include:
a. Any person employed by the State of Montana or any
political subdivision of the state;
b. Any person employed by one of the seven Native American
tribes recognized in the state;
c. Any consular worker; or
d. Any temporary or seasonal worker.
NEW SECTION. Section 4. License required. Except
for those exempted, every defined government worker must be
currently licensed with a valid license to practice the vocation of
government worker.
NEW SECTION. Section 5. Initial license -
duration. A government worker must obtain the proper license
or licenses within 100 days of the first day of work in the
state. It is not a valid exception that a government worker
applied for the required license or licenses within 100 days but did
not receive a valid license before the 100-day deadline because of
processing time delay. An initial license is valid for one
calendar year from date of issue.
NEW SECTION. Section 6. License renewal –
duration. A government worker must apply for license renewal
90 to 30 days before expiration of the initial license. Each
renewal of an initial license is valid for three calendar years from
date of issue.
NEW SECTION. Section 7. Cost of license. The fee
for initial application of a license is $150, except for military
workers which is $50. The fee for any renewal is $100 except
for military workers which is $25.
NEW SECTION. Section 8. License application. An
application for a license under [this Act] must contain the true
name of the applicant, a correct address at which the applicant will
receive U.S. Mail, confirmation of completion of education required
under [this Act] for the type of license sought, and a complete
description of the specific location or locations where the
applicant wishes the license to apply.
NEW SECTION. Section 9. Licensing agency.
Government workers' licenses shall be issued by the Department of
Labor and Industry. The department must conduct a criminal
records background check for every license applicant. The
department must reject any application if:
a. The application is incomplete;
b. The appropriate fee is not paid;
c. The applicant does not document completion of required
training;
d. The criminal records background check of the applicant
demonstrates that the applicant is not eligible to buy or possess
firearms under federal law.
NEW SECTION. Section 10. Electronic license
application. The department must provide a method for
applicants to apply for licenses electronically, in addition to any
other method offered.
NEW SECTION. Section 11. Required education. To be
eligible to apply for a license, an applicant must have completed
training within 60 days prior to application, as follows:
a. All government workers must complete basic training of at
least four hours that includes instruction at least concerning:
i. The Constitution and laws of Montana, including the right
to privacy;
ii. The culture of Montana people and their expectations of
service providers, including ethics; and
iii. The oath of office.
b. Administrative, military, outdoors and law enforcement
workers must complete advanced training of at least four hours that
includes instruction concerning:
i. Knowledge about and respect for the natural environment,
and about the benefits of natural resource development to the
citizens of the state;
ii. The effects of weather, distances, population dispersion
and other conditions on delivery of services to the state's
citizens; and
iii. Individual rights that the state's citizens have reserved
to themselves from interference by government workers.
NEW SECTION. Section 12. Education providers. The
education required by this section may be provided by any
knowledgeable individual elector or organization of knowledgeable
electors of the state. Such education providers may charge
whatever they wish for the education. Any education providers
providing education in compliance with [this Act] must certify to
the department the identifiable names of any government workers who
have successfully completed the required education, together with
the date the education was completed. Any education provider
who provides certification for training which does not meet the
specifications of [this Act] is in violation of [this Act] and may
be fined an amount not to exceed $1,000 per violation. For
purposes of enforcement, every individual government worker
certified by an education provider in violation of, or not up to the
standards of, [this Act] is a separate offense.
NEW SECTION. Section 13. Enforcement, penalties.
Any government worker who performs a service defined by [this Act]
without a valid license must be fined $1,000 for violation of [this
Act]. For purposes of enforcement, every day in violation is a
separate offense. The department may seek orders of a justice
or district court, as needed, to enforce the terms of [this Act].
NEW SECTION. Section 14. The department must assemble an
advisory committee, made up of one state elector appointed by each
of the governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state
auditor, and superintendent of public instruction. The
advisory committee must review and approve or reject any regulations
proposed by the department to implement [this Act]. The
advisory committee must review and approve or reject any requests
for revocations of a license issued by the department.
NEW SECTION. Section 15. License revocation – requests -
effect. The department may revoke any license if a licensee no
longer meets the initial qualifications, including for work
performed in places not specified in the licensee's
application. If any five electors forward to the department a
signed statement asserting that a licensee has exhibited conduct or
performed in a way hostile or adversarial to citizens serviced, or
hostile or adversarial to the interests of the state's citizens at
large, the department must refer that complaint to the advisory
committee for review and possible revocation of the license
involved. If the advisory committee revokes a license, that
revocation must be in writing and delivered to the address on record
for the licensee. A government worker whose license is revoked
is unlicensed from the date of revocation.
NEW SECTION. Section 16. Effective date. [This
Act] becomes effective on January 1, 2016.
NEW SECTION. Section 17. (Standard severability clause.)