An alert reader pointed out an article by Eric Boehm today, New FTC Task Force Will Put Licensing Boards On Notice, where he describes the new Economic Liberty Task Force of the Federal Trade Commission. The Task Force is focused solely on the illegal persecution of exempt practitioners by state licensing boards, with a dual role of:

• Advising state licensing boards of the limits the federal government imposes on their power.
• Taking legal action against many boards that insist on violating federal law.

All this came about when, once again, the Federal Trade Commission’s powers were affirmed in the courts, this time by the Supreme Court (FTC v. North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners, 2014).

Why a Task Force?

In that decision, the Supreme Court reiterated in extremely clear language that state licensing boards aren’t allowed to hassle anyone except their own licensees. There are a couple of exceptions, but they require that the state law governing the boards be structured in a particular way—which it generally isn’t. (It certainly isn’t in Oregon.)

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Oregon’s Psychology Board is still trying to give the impression that they actually do their job. On Friday, they issued a press release:

As is so often the case, they leave out some important facts:

• The University is paying Kerr’s fine, so in practice it’s not a fine at all.
• Kerr, like all licensed psychologists, is required to take four hours of ethics training anyway, so mandating six hours is meaningless. And all six will no doubt count towards her continuing education requirements, for a net penalty of … zero.

So it’s not even a slap on the wrist.

Deliberate? Or Accidental?

When dealing with the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners, one should always stop and ask whether anyone knew what they were doing.

There can be no doubt that, in this case, they knew exactly what they were doing: when the fine was reduced from $5,000 to $2,500, it was at the plea of the University (which is actually paying it), not from Kerr.

Even the $5,000 is just a rounding error from the University’s point of view. So far, their expenses include:

• An $800,000 out-of-court settlement to the student rape victim whose records were handed over to her attackers’ lawyers by Kerr.
• A $425,000 out-of-court settlement to the two counseling center employees who blew the whistle on Kerr.
• $200,000 in legal costs.

This is the context in which the Psychology Board decided that a $5,000 fine was too large, so they magnanimously knocked it down to $2,500.

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Here’s an email exchange between myself and Charles Hill, the Executive Director of the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners and the Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists. I think it speaks for itself.

My email to Hill:

Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2016 15:57:19 -0800

Subject: Licensure exemption workgroup
From: Robert Plamondon <robert@plamondon.com>
To: charles.j.hill@state.or.us

Mr. Hill,

If I were to submit a document, in advance of the meeting, for distribution to the members of the Licensure Exemption Workgroup, would it be distributed?

As you know, I suspect that communications sent to the OBPE are routinely withheld from the board members, and you refused to answer when I asked you about this directly. However, you promptly answered that, if I sent
material to the OBLPCT, it would be distributed.

Which rules are used with the Licensure Exemption Workgroup?

Robert

Hill’s reply to me, which I reproduce in full:

From: Charles J. Hill <Charles.J.Hill@state.or.us>
Date: Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 2:03 PM
Subject: RE: Licensure exemption workgroup
To: Robert Plamondon <robert@plamondon.com>

Dear Mr. Plamondon,

At this point in time, I am not willing to put any responses to your comments in writing because you have repeatedly twisted, ridiculed and misrepresented things I, or members of OBPE, have said in the past, then published or verbally stated your misinterpretations as fact.  This is misleading to the public and I do not wish to support it.

I will be more than happy to respond to your questions when I see evidence of accurate reporting on your part.

Sincerely,
Charles J. Hill
Executive Director
Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners, (503) 378-4154  x4
Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists, (503) 378-5499  x4

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The Oregon Department of Justice just stopped another act of pettiness by the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners (OBPE), as described by University of Oregon professor Bill Harbaugh in his widely read UO Matters blog. Harbaugh is investigating the Psychology Board’s handling of the UO counseling records scandal, where the Psychology Board plans to deliver a mere slap on the wrist to Shelly Kerr, a licensed psychologist.

Kerr is accused of copying confidential records of a gang-rape victim without the knowledge or consent of the victim or her counselor, and delivering them to the University’s attorneys. For this, the Psychology Board proposes a slap on the wrist.

Where the Board once, for example, gave Christian Wolff a one-year suspension and a $10,000 fine for merely abbreviating “Psychologist Associate” to “PsyA,”* they calculate the value of betraying a rape victim at a $5,000 fine, and no suspension.** As you can imagine, this case is receiving a lot of attention.

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