Accusation posting: to post or not to post is the debate.

• Author: Allen, Bruce C.
• Position: CapitalBeat

In 2009, freshman Assembly Member Marty Block from San Diego introduced AB 1005, which contained inflammatory legislative intent language blaming the accounting profession for the economic collapse.

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AB 1005 was sponsored by the Center for Public Interest Law and, as introduced, went back 10 years to cite scandals as justification for changing the law to require that CBA meetings be cast live on the internet.

CalCPA expressed its strong objections to the intent language, as did the CBA. One CBA member pointed out that live broadcasts of CBA meetings would not have prevented the worldwide economic crisis.

The bill was subsequently amended to also require the CBA to post the full text of pending accusations on its website. However, amendments taken during the legislative process eliminated that requirement and the legislative intent language that CalCPA found objectionable.

Accusations are complaints that have been investigated by CBA staff and reviewed by the Attorney General's office.

As enacted, the final bill required the CBA to provide live webcasts of its meetings and post on its website, ''in an easily marked and identifiable location, notice of all formal accusations. The notice of any formal accusation shall contain a link to where a person may request and have sent to him or her a copy of the formal accusation, and the basis for the accusation and alleged violations filed by the board against a licensee. The link to where a person may request and have sent to him or her a copy of the formal accusation shall be clearly and conspicuously located on the same webpage on which the notice is posted and shall authorize a person to request and receive the information described in subdivision (a) by regular mail or electronic mail."

The new law also required that the CBA inform those requesting a copy of the formal accusation that the allegations contained in the accusations are not a final determination of wrongdoing.

The CBA has always posted online notices of pending disciplinary action involving its licensees. The rationale being that consumers looking to hire CPAs would be protected by the knowledge that disciplinary action was pending. If consumers needed additional information. they could request it from the CBA.

However, the Department of Consumer Allan's wanted every licensing board to post accusations on the board's website. The CBA was reluctant to post the actual accusations because:

* CPAs accused of...