Journal Entries
This recurring website feature highlights articles from The GASB Report, the GASB’s monthly newsletter. The current article appeared in the September 2013 issue.Leases Task Force Formed
GASB Chairman David A. Vaudt recently announced the appointment of a task force to assist with the Board’s Leases project. Members of the task force are:- Peggy Arrivas, associate vice president and system-wide controller, University of California
- Ted Chapman, director, U.S. Public Finance Infrastructure, Standard & Poor’s
- Lisa Collier, assistant state auditor, Texas State Auditor’s Office
- Barbara Flickinger, managing director, Portfolio Surveillance Western Region, National Public Finance Guarantee
- Daniel McCarron, comptroller, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
- Kathy Opp, deputy director, Lands and Waterways, Idaho Department of Lands
- David Phillips, partner, Greene, Finney and Horton LLP
- Sherry Phillips-Hymel, chief budget analyst, Fiscal Services, Louisiana State Senate
- William Quam, director of plant and financial accounting, Santee Cooper
- Melanie Seale, assistant finance director, City of San Antonio
- Joseph Stefko, president and chief executive officer, Center for Governmental Research
- Peter Stettler, director, Municipal Credit Analytics, BMO Capital Markets
- Todd Webster, managing director, Audit Services, KPMG.
What Do Task Forces Do?
The GASB assembles task forces for most major current projects and certain research activities. Task forces serve as a sounding board, providing suggestions and feedback to the GASB as a project or research progresses. Task force members also review the papers the GASB staff prepares for Board meetings and monitor the Board’s deliberations, commenting as appropriate.How Are Participants Selected?
Task forces are officially appointed by the GASB chairman after consultation with the other GASB members, the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council (GASAC) chairman, and GASB staff.Task force members typically have a particular expertise or experience with the issue being addressed in the project or research and also are capable of articulating the views of other, similar constituents. They can identify possible implementation difficulties, assess the potential cost of proposed standards, or opine on the usefulness of the information that will result from those standards.
Potential participants are primarily identified from the GASB’s constituent database, from the GASAC, and from the lists of persons submitting comment letters in response to proposed standards. The GASB attempts to maintain an appropriate balance of financial statement preparers, auditors, and users on each task force. In addition to identifying persons that possess relevant knowledge and experience and that are representative of various types of constituents, the GASB tries to select persons it believes will actively participate by reviewing papers and proposed standards prepared for the Board and by providing regular feedback to the project staff.