A public accounting firm has offices in Portland and Sacramento. Members of the accounting firm have the following loans to or from officers or directors of a Sacramento audit client. The Sacramento office handles all of the work for this client. A Portland partner has loaned $5,000 to a member of the board of directors and a Sacramento professional staff who does no work for this client has borrowed $3,000 from the president of this company. Which of the above loans would impair the firm's independence with this client?

a) The Portland partner's loan does not impair independence and the Sacramento professional staff person's loan impairs independence
b) both the Portland partner's and the Sacramento professional staff persona's loan would impair independence.
c) Neither the Portland partner nor the Sacramento staff's loan would impair independence
d) The partner partner's loan impairs independence and the Sacramento professional staff person's loan does not impair independence