Inside the CBA; CalCPA member & CBA president David Swartz: focused on the public.

• Author: English, Damien B.M.
• Position: Cover story

David Swartz was more than a little concerned a few years ago when he heard of the California Board of Accountancy's plans to apply the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to private companies in California. "It would have knocked the economic wind out of this state. You can see what it's doing to public companies today; imagine doing that to private companies. Many things they proposed would have been very damaging and would have made it more difficult for California companies to compete nationally."

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So, as a concerned CPA, Swartz attended a CBA meeting to speak his mind. He didn't expect that his decision to attend would put him on the path to becoming the first licensed CPA to be president of the CBA in almost four years--and put him in control of the state regulatory body's agenda.

THE MAN

Swartz, managing partner of Good Swartz Brown & Berns LLP in Los Angeles since 1993, speaks with confidence about the profession, and is proud of the 30-year-old firm he joined in 1990 and has helped build into one of the state's largest CPA firms.

Swartz attended Los Angeles public schools and went to college at Cal State Northridge before starting his career at BDO Seidman. He became a partner in 1976 and managing partner of the Southern California region in 1978 when he was just 34.

"I was there for 20 years, served on their national board, opened the Orange County office and then I left to go work for Westfield, a major shopping center developer," he recalls.

He was Westfield's CFO for a year before deciding it wasn't the right thing for him. "I started from scratch at my current firm," he says. "I had no clients and a non-compete with Seidman. That was in 1990. I built a practice and in 1993 took over as managing partner--and the rest is history."

ENTER THE CBA

The CBA must have been taken with what Swartz had to say about the cascading effect of SOX on private companies because it placed him on a special task force to deal with the issue after his appearance at that meeting. "Our task force agreed to recommend the board not apply SOX to private companies, for a variety of reasons," he says.

The CBA approved the recommendation.

After that meeting, Swartz was encouraged by a colleague to serve on the CBA. He was one of 150 applicants and was chosen for one of two positions. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him.

When Swartz first arrived on the board in November 2004, he realized it hadn't had a CPA-licensed president for three years, and there wasn't going to be one for a while because of the sentiment at the time.

"I became the first licensee president in four years, and it was something I really felt was important," he says. "We're the only jurisdiction in 54 jurisdictions of state boards that has more non-licensees than licensees on its board."

The CBA licenses all CPAs and firms, proposes legislation, makes regulations, polices the profession, enforces rules and metes out disciplinary action.

"We work closely with all of the other regulatory bodies," says Swartz. "We're a member of NASBA (National Association of State Boards of Accountancy) and attend their meetings. People from our board are also regional representatives on NASBA's board. We also interact with the AICPA and CalCPA...