Considering the profession's future.

WITH STRONG NATIONAL and state accounting reform legislation signed into law recently, a distinguished group of Californians has launched an ambitious project to study and report on issues related to public trust and confidence in financial reports and financial reporting professionals.

Chaired by John Lacey, a CPA and professor of accounting at California State University, Long Beach, the Committee on the Future of California's Professional Accountants includes former SEC commissioners Aulana Peters and Harold Williams and ethics expert Michael Josephson.

The 17-member committee, which held its first meeting in October, is developing specific recommendations and implementation strategies to restore and strengthen public confidence in the independence, integrity and objectivity of financial reporting professionals and in the completeness and fairness of financial statements prepared by or under the supervision of financial reporting professionals.

The committee plans to issue a report to the public in early spring.

Other committee members include Anthony Anderson, CPA, managing partner of Ernst & Young's Los Angeles office; Joseph Berenato, president, chairman and CEO of Ducommun; John Dodsworth, CPA, president of CAMICO; Loretta Doon, CPA, CFO of the California Teacher's Association; William Holder, CPA, professor of accounting at the University of Southern California; Dan Koskovich, CPA, CFO of Cannon Communications LLC; Ira Landis, CPA, former president of the California Board of Accountancy; Kenneth Leventhal, CPA, chairman emeritus of the Kenneth Leventhal Real Estate Group, a division of Ernst & Young; Kenneth Macias, CPA, founder and managing partner, Macias, Gini & Company; Roger Molvar, CPA, CEO of IndyMac Bank; Robert G. O'Donnell, portfolio counselor, Capital Group Cos.; Susan Waters, CalCPA CEO; and Tracey Westen, executive director of the Center for Governmental Studies.

Waters notes that the committee is operating independently of external interests, including CalCPA. "We are here only to offer a place and a reason to meet," she says.