BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 797|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 797
Author: Ma (D)
Amended: 5/4/09 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE BUSINESS, PROF. & ECON. DEVELOP. COM. : 10-0,
6/29/09
AYES: Negrete McLeod, Wyland, Aanestad, Corbett, Correa,
Florez, Oropeza, Romero, Walters, Yee
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-0, 5/28/09 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Accountants: discipline: Internet posting
SOURCE : California Society of Certified Public
Accountants
DIGEST : This bill requires the California Board of
Accountancy to publish disciplinary decisions on its
Website for a period of at least 10 years.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
1.Licenses and regulates some 40,000 certified public
accountants (CPAs) under the Accountancy Act by the
California Board of Accountancy (Board) within the
Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA).
CONTINUED
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2.Authorizes the Board to receive and investigate
complaints against a licensee and to initiate and take
disciplinary action against a licensee, as specified,
through administrative procedures as specified in the
Accountancy Act and in the Administrative Procedure Act.
3.Specifies that protection of the public shall be the
highest priority for the Board in exercising its
licensing, regulatory, and disciplinary functions.
Whenever the protection of the public is inconsistent
with other interests sought to be promoted, the
protection of the public shall be paramount.
This bill:
1.Requires the Board to publish on its Internet Website
disciplinary decisions against a certified public
accountant, public accountant, accountancy partnership,
or accountancy corporation for a period of at least 10
years from the date the decision was issued.
2.Requires the published disciplinary decisions to be
accessible by the name of the accountant, partnership, or
corporation that is the subject of the decision.
Background
The documents related to both a pending formal accusation
against a licensee, and the final disciplinary order
against a licensee are considered a public record and
obtainable upon request to any of the more than 40 consumer
protection boards, bureaus, programs and commission in the
DCA.
As a matter of administrative policy, the Board currently
publishes the final documents of final disciplinary
decisions on its Website for a minimum of 7 years, but in
some cases may publish that information indefinitely.
Specifically, for each final disciplinary action, the Board
posts the licensee's name, the disciplinary action imposed
(revocation, probation, suspension, stipulated decision),
the basis of the disciplinary action (code sections
violated) and a summary of the allegations (the acts the
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licensee committed that constituted violations of the law),
and a link to a copy of the formal accusation and the
disciplinary order (the Board's adopted decision) in "PDF"
format.
This bill codifies the Board's current practice of
publishing the disciplinary decision on the Website, and
would extend the time the decision is available on the
Website to 10 years. The Board would have discretion to
leave the decision posted for an even longer period of time
if it so chooses (such as in cases where there were
especially egregious violations).
Related Legislation
AB 138 (Hayashi) requires California-licensed accounting
firms to undergo a peer review of their accounting and
auditing services.
AB 1005 (Block) requires the California Board of
Accountancy to publish on its Website a notice of formal
disciplinary accusations, documents related to disciplinary
decisions, a live audio or video broadcast of public
meetings, and the meeting minutes, as specified.
AB 117 (Niello) requires the holder of an inactive
certified public accountant license to disclose the
inactive license status on all materials that display the
CPA designation.
SB 961 (Yee) requires, beginning January 1, 2014,
applicants for CPA licensure who have a bachelor's degree
and two years of experience to acknowledge when they sit
for the exam that licensure under that pathway may not be
considered substantially equivalent for purposes of
practice privileges in other states that require 150
semester hours for licensure.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/7/09)
California Society of Certified Public Accountants (source)
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ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
current policy of the Board is to post a summary of
disciplinary decisions on its website for a period of seven
years. This bill requires the Board to post the full text
of its disciplinary decisions for a period of ten years.
According to the author's office this increases consumer
protection by providing the full text of the disciplinary
decisions so that all proven allegations are readily
available and a full description of the proven allegations
can be accessed easily and for a longer period of time.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon,
Duvall, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong,
Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick,
Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill,
Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Krekorian, Lieu,
Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava,
Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, John A. Perez, V. Manuel
Perez, Portantino, Price, Ruskin, Salas, Skinner, Smyth,
Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres,
Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, Bass
NO VOTE RECORDED: DeVore, Logue, Saldana, Silva
JA:nl 7/7/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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