Enrique Fernandez Jr. He made a shortcut to become an engineer, according to the Florida Council of Professional Engineers. Instead of going to college and studying engineering, he appropriated his father’s engineering credentials and hired building inspections, according to the Council, and even renewed his father’s credentials and redirected contact information, allowing fraud.
Since the death of his father in 2018, according to the Council, Fernández Jr. He had been forging his father’s signing and using his professional stamp to raise a license engineer. He signed inspections for high-profile projects such as 3900 Alton Road, a 9-story apartment building by Miami Beach and the Pier 66 Redevelopment Multi-Uuse in Fort Lauderdale, among many others.
It is now facing an administrative complaint of 724 counts of the Florida Board of Professional Engineers. “We needed to ensure that we had everything forging,” said Wendy Anderson, the Board’s lead researcher, so that each inspection is in the complaint.
The Council is looking for fines of up to $ 5,000 for infringement, potentially a total of $ 3.6 million, wants the state to issue a cessation and withdrawal order. Fernández could not be reached to comment on the allegations.
While the re -inspections of the buildings inspected by Fernández did not reveal any risk of security, research charges provide a perspective on the value of an engineering council. A recent bill proposed by some Senators in the State of Florida would have eliminated the autonomous state councils for various professions, including engineering, whose members are not paid, but whose costs are covered by the State.
The legislators proposed transferring professional supervision to the Business and Professional Regulation Department (DBPR), a part of the executive branch, as a way to streamline services, reduce regulatory barriers and centralize professional supervision. Defenders also argued that it would reduce costs and improve efficiency, aligning with wider deregulation initiatives in Florida.
The opponents argued that the abolition of the Council would have reduced the regulation based on experience, emphasizing that specialized boards ensure public security and maintain national competitiveness for professions such as engineering and accounting.
The sponsors of the bill were withdrawn in early May.
Limits of other state engineering advice
Florida is not the only state that is planned to group, the license application or the elimination of an independent advice. The Bill 78 of the Senate of Nevada (SB 78) at the beginning of the year proposed to consolidate administrative functions of the licensed boards, including the Nevada Board of Professional Engineers and Struckers of Land, under the office of the Nevada Boards, the commissions and the rules of the councils. Failed this month.
In a policy statement of February 2025, the Nevada Council wrote: “… we worry that the general effectiveness of the Council in its current form will decrease if it is consolidated in a larger advice with four less engineers and the reduction or removal of specialized staff and process that have allowed us to succeed for snowfall, our licenses and the community.”
Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Virgínia and Washington have all the sun review laws that require legislative assessments of licensed boards every 5-12 years, depending on the state, to justify the continuation.
As Florida’s research began
The case against Fernández Jr. He began with a complaint against his father for a contractor or agency who noticed irregularities in his inspection reports. Following the discovery that his father had died in 2018, the Council’s probable panel produced the report and filed it for a review by an administrative law judge. Fernández may appeal the conclusions of the Council.
The inspections of Fernandez Jr., although not structural, collect critical, electrical and mechanical plumbing systems for properties in the counties of Miami-Dade and Broward, according to the Council. He worked for a number of different companies, one of which fired him after discovering that he lacked a degree or license, causing re -registrations by licensed engineers, wrote the Council.
In Florida, the Board execution powers are limited. It may rule a judgment of $ 3.6 million in potential fines, but if Fernandez Jr. It does not comply, the application is delivered to the DBPR state to pursue court rulings, guarantees, salary collection or contracting contracting. However, financial capacity, potential bankruptcy and DBPR resource restrictions may limit recovery.
“Ours is an administrative role,” Anderson says of the Board’s ability to apply. “We deepened the application of the law in the hope that they would take it.”
