AB 2560, Obernolte. Accountants: practice privileges: out-of-state individuals.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of the practice of accountancy by the California Board of Accountancy within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law authorizes the board to make a determination based on specified factors about whether allowing individuals from a particular state to practice pursuant to a practice privilege violates the board’s duty to protect the public and requires the board, if it were to make such a determination, to require those individuals, except as specified, to file the notification form and pay specified fees as a condition to exercising a practice privilege in this state.
This bill would authorize the board to adopt emergency regulations in order to implement the above-described provisions.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 5096.21 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:
(a) (1) On and after January 1, 2016, if the board determines, through a majority vote of the board at a regularly scheduled meeting, that allowing individuals from a particular state to practice in this state pursuant to a practice privilege as described in Section 5096, violates the board’s duty to protect the public, pursuant to Section 5000.1, the board shall require, by regulation, out-of-state individuals licensed from that state, as a condition to exercising a practice privilege in this state, to file the notification form and pay the applicable fees as required by former Section 5096, as added by Chapter 921 of the Statutes of 2004, and regulations adopted thereunder.
(2) The board may adopt emergency regulations, in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code), to implement this subdivision. The adoption of the regulations shall be deemed an emergency and necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, or general welfare for purposes of Sections 11346.1 and 11349.6 of the Government Code.
(b) The board shall, at minimum, consider the following factors in making the determination required by subdivision (a):
(1) Whether the state timely and adequately addresses enforcement referrals made by the board to the accountancy regulatory board of that state, or otherwise fails to respond to requests the board deems necessary to meet its obligations under this article.
(2) Whether the state makes the disciplinary history of its licensees publicly available through the Internet in a manner that allows the board to adequately link consumers to an Internet Web site to obtain information that was previously made available to consumers about individuals from the state prior to January 1, 2013, through the notification form.
(3) Whether the state imposes discipline against licensees that is appropriate in light of the nature of the alleged misconduct.
(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), if (1) the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) adopts enforcement best practices guidelines, (2) the board, upon a majority vote at a regularly scheduled board meeting, issues a finding after a public hearing that those practices meet or exceed the board’s own enforcement practices, (3) a state has in place and is operating pursuant to enforcement practices substantially equivalent to the best practices guidelines, and (4) disciplinary history of a state’s licensees is publicly available through the Internet in a manner that allows the board to link consumers to an Internet Web site to obtain information at least equal to the information that was previously available to consumers through the practice privilege form filed by out-of-state licensees pursuant to former Section 5096, as added by Chapter 921 of the Statutes of 2004, no practice privilege form shall be required to be filed by any licensee of that state as required by subdivision (a), nor shall the board be required to report on that state to the Legislature as required by subdivision (d).
(d) (1) The board shall report to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature, the director, and the public, upon request, preliminary determinations made pursuant to this section no later than July 1, 2015. The board shall, prior to January 1, 2016, and thereafter as it deems appropriate, review its determinations made pursuant to subdivision (b) to ensure that it is in compliance with this section.
(2) This subdivision shall become inoperative on July 1, 2017, pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code.
(e) On or before July 1, 2014, the board shall convene a stakeholder group consisting of members of the board, board enforcement staff, and representatives of the accounting profession and consumer representatives to consider whether the provisions of this article are consistent with the board’s duty to protect the public consistent with Section 5000.1, and whether the provisions of this article satisfy the objectives of stakeholders of the accounting profession in this state, including consumers. The group, at its first meeting, shall adopt policies and procedures relative to how it will conduct its business, including, but not limited to, policies and procedures addressing periodic reporting of its findings to the board.
(f) On or before January 1, 2018, the board shall prepare a report to be provided to the relevant policy committees of the Legislature, the director, and the public, upon request, that, at minimum, explains in detail all of the following:
(1) How the board has implemented this article and whether implementation is complete.
(2) Whether this article is, in the opinion of the board, more, less, or equivalent in the protection it affords the public than its predecessor article.
(3) Describes how other state boards of accountancy have addressed referrals to those boards from the board, the timeframe in which those referrals were addressed, and the outcome of investigations conducted by those boards.
(g) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2019, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2019, deletes or extends that date.
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