The report also questioned why most bar employees are paid more and work a shorter workday hours than workers at other public agencies. Bar leaders are working on introducing job classification and salary changes based on a private consultant’s findings in an April 2017 report, the report said.
In her response, Parker characterized the report as documenting “the important and continuing progress of reform which new state bar leadership has made in slightly less than two years.
“The state bar itself is acting to bring about needed reform; audit reports are helpful but they cannot substitute for such agency leadership,” Parker wrote.
The report was delivered as the Assembly prepares to consider the bar’s annual dues-authorization bill, legislation that stalled last year in an inter-house fight over proposed reforms to the agency.
“The latest audit of the state bar shows that—despite some progress towards focusing more closely on its regulatory duties—once again, the bar continues to hinder itself in carrying out its mission of public protection with poor internal accounting procedures,” said Assembly Judiciary chairman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, in a prepared statement.
