International Civil Rights Center and Museum chief financial officer and interim president John Swaine is not a certified public accountant in North Carolina:
In 2008, the N.C. State Board of Certified Public Accountant Examiners ordered Swaine to stop calling himself a CPA while he was director of finance at Industries of the Blind in Greensboro.
The CPA board told Swaine to “immediately cease and desist from the use of the titles ‘certified public accountant’ or ‘CPA,’” or face a $1,000 fine for each violation.
Swaine signed an order agreeing to those terms.
Since then, he has referred to himself as a CPA in various places — including on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Question is should we be surprised that the museum’s CFO has a checkered employment history —Swaine filed lawsuits against former employers Industries of the Blind and Goodwill—given the financial mess that prompted Gboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan to propose that the city take over?
Some might also say this further sullies the museum’s reputation. With that in mind, N&R editor and publisher Jeff “Grits” Gauger expressed his concerns about the proposed city takeover:
Risk No. 1 is that, at a time when public discourse too often defaults to “government is always incompetent,” the museum would suffer from its association with city government, even if not deserved. The museum’s reputation has been sullied enough by financial difficulties and incompetent leadership.
The notion that the museum’s reputation can be further sullied is somewhat laughable, considering the fact that anyone who has observed the museum’s leadership over the years —-Earl Jones, Skip Alston and Deena Hayes-Greene —know that further sullying is a tough bid.
