Provides relative to life safety and property protection licensing (OR INCREASE SG RV See Note)

House Bill 917 amends Louisiana's life safety and property protection licensing statutes by restructuring criminal background check requirements, modifying fee schedules, and altering license validity periods. The bill adds a new definition of administrative personnel and creates two new exemptions from licensure: one for administrative personnel who do not visit customer premises and another for remote technical support employees of licensed firms who are physically located outside Louisiana and have passed a private criminal background check. The bill also modifies criminal background check requirements to apply only to principals, officers, and designated qualifiers of firms seeking property protection endorsements, rather than all applicants. Concurrently, the bill repeals provisions allowing provisional licenses for property protection applicants and eliminates the definition of door hardware specialist. The fee structure is consolidated into a single schedule with firm endorsements carrying an initial fee of $1,200 and a renewal fee of $375, while employee endorsements cost $300 initially and $150 for renewal.

The practical effect of these changes significantly impacts both licensing applicants and the fire marshal's administrative operations. Firms employing remote technical support personnel outside Louisiana can now utilize those employees without requiring them to obtain individual licenses, provided the firm conducts its own background verification. Administrative personnel performing clerical and scheduling functions are no longer required to maintain separate licenses. However, applicants for property protection licenses now face stricter consequences for failure to renew timely, as licenses expire completely one year after the expiration date rather than remaining eligible for renewal indefinitely, and such reapplications trigger new criminal background checks. The modified renewal grace period allows fifteen days without penalty fees but imposes late fees up to $125 for applications filed between sixteen and sixty days after expiration. All licenses now have three-year validity periods rather than one-year terms, potentially reducing administrative burden for license holders who successfully maintain compliance.

These amendments operate within Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 40, which establishes the fire marshal's authority over life safety and property protection matters. The modifications interact with existing criminal procedure law, specifically Code of Criminal Procedure Article 893 regarding felony conviction dismissals, and with substantive criminal law provisions defining crimes of violence and sex offenses. The bill reflects the legislature's intent to balance public safety through criminal background verification with administrative efficiency by exempting certain categories of workers from individual licensing while maintaining oversight through employer verification requirements and the fire marshal's authority to conduct independent criminal history verification. The statutory framework continues to treat property protection licenses and endorsements as distinct regulatory categories, with qualifiers maintaining heightened scrutiny compared to ordinary employees.