Section 129.

(a) As used in this section, "board" means every board, bureau, commission, committee and similarly constituted agency in the department which issues licenses.

(b) Each board shall, upon receipt of any complaint respecting a licentiate thereof, notify the complainant of the initial administrative action taken on his complaint within 10 days of receipt. Each board shall thereafter notify the complainant of the final action taken on his complaint. There shall be a notification made in every case in which the complainant is known. If the complaint is not within the jurisdiction of the board or if the board is unable to dispose satisfactorily of the complaint, the board shall transmit the complaint together with any evidence or information it has concerning the complaint to the agency, public or private, whose authority in the opinion of the board will provide the most effective means to secure the relief sought. The board shall notify the complainant of such action and of any other means which may be available to the complainant to secure relief.

(c) The board shall, when the board deems it appropriate, notify the person against whom the complaint is made of the nature of the complaint, may request appropriate relief for the complainant, and may meet and confer with the complainant and the licentiate in order to mediate the complaint. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed as authorizing or requiring any board to set or to modify any fee charged by a licentiate.

(d) It shall be the continuing duty of the board to ascertain patterns of complaints and to report on all actions taken with respect to such patterns of complaints to the director and to the Legislature at least once a year. The board shall evaluate those complaints dismissed for lack of jurisdiction or no violation and recommend to the director and to the Legislature at least once a year such statutory changes as it deems necessary to implement the board's functions and responsibilities under this section.

(e) It shall be the continuing duty of the board to take whatever action it deems necessary, with the approval of the director, to inform the public of its functions under this section.

(Added by Stats. 1972, Ch. 1041.)