The California Board of Accountancy(CBA) enforcement chief told the Enforcement Advisory Committee on Oct. 9 that the board received more than 4,600 complaints in fiscal year 2024–25 and that continuing-education compliance was the most common deficiency cited.

Enforcement Chief Miss O'Connor said the CBA closed more than 5,900 cases in the year, with 98% closed within one year and an average of 87 days to close investigations. She said the enforcement unit had about 440 pending investigations at the end of the reporting period, including two matters pending more than 24 months that remained actively investigated as of June 30.

"We received over 4,600 complaints," O'Connor said, summarizing the report. She told the committee that unlicensed activity continued to be the most common complaint type and that the board received more than 1,800 complaints regarding unlicensed activity and closed over 2,400 investigations in that category during the fiscal year.

The CBA referred 26 matters to the Attorney General(AG) and filed 34 pleadings, O'Connor said, with 25 matters pending at the AG's office. The board took action on 28 final disciplinary orders in the reporting period.

O'Connor reported the board issued just over 2,000 citations; she said 94% of those citations resulted from failure to comply with the 2012 continuing-education requirement. The CBA received just under 250 citation-and-fine appeals and withdrew or modified 139 citations after appeals, generally because licensees provided new evidence or corrected the compliance issue.

On probation monitoring, O'Connor said the CBA had 51 licensees on probation, three new probationers since the last report and 24 identified probation violations in the period, the majority related to failing to submit the required written quarterly report.

Committee members asked for clarification about what the CBA considered a "renewal deficiency." In response, O'Connor said continuing-education issues are the most common renewal deficiency.

"The most common would be the continuing education, related issue on their renewal application," she said. When asked about clerical or transmission errors on renewal attachments, O'Connor said that licensing staff typically contact applicants to resolve clerical issues and that such events usually do not result in enforcement cases being opened. "That seems like it wouldn't have resulted in an enforcement case being opened," she said.

A committee member asked whether the increase in matters pending 12 to 24 months reflected more referrals or a backlog at the AG's office. O'Connor said several cases in that category were pending hearings, and that the number can fluctuate.

The committee approved the minutes for the July 10, 2025 Enforcement Advisory Committee meeting by recorded roll-call vote; the approval carried. Draft minutes approval was moved and seconded on the record and then adopted by voice/roll call with each named member recording an "approve" vote.

After the report and questions the committee moved into closed session to review and deliberate on enforcement files.