Happy New Year! Welcome to 2019!

As 2019 begins I am happy to report that on December 28th, 2018, our final member finished their NAR Code of Ethics class for the past cycle. We were one of only a handful of Associations in the country to achieve 100% by the year-end. The next series begins now and runs until December 31, 2020. Final member dues payments were the 15th of January, and unfortunately, 15 members were suspended for nonpayment. Most are working to gather the cash.

Our new sales representative from Rapattoni Scott Quinn, met with leadership on December 18th to introduce himself and to not only demonstrate some new changes and improvements to our MLS, but to also see if there were needs of our Board. He took much information from the meeting and has been communicating with leadership and staff on the feedback.

I have been busy finalizing our end of year reporting to prepare for our Audit on January 22nd. All of our required reporting to both the IRS and the State of Ohio, have been submitted.

2018 was arecord year for RPAC in Ohio and below is a breakdown of other PAC related goals including Major Investor, President’s Circle and overall percent participation. As you can see, for the first time, Ohio REALTORS exceeded our percent participation goal ending the year at 38.57%.

In the categories of Major Investor and President’s Circle Members we were within striking distance of both goals, coming in only 6 shy of our MI goal and 1 shy of our PC goal. While we did not meet those goals last year, we did significantly tighten our loss when compared with 2017. I have full confidence that we will hit these goals in 2019.

Category 2018 Goal 2018 Total Difference

Total RPAC Dollars $921,000 $1,041,675.26 + $120,675.26

Major Investors 306 300 (NAR) 306 (OR)* -6 (NAR), 0 (OR)

President’s Circle Members 31 30 -1

Percent Participation 37% 38.57% +1.57%

*NAR does not count affiliate Major Investors - the discrepancy in totals is from that.

2018 was a year we should all be proud of and please share this great news with your fellow REALTORS.

My REALTOR Party training will be held Monday, February 11th at the Franklin Park Conservatory, Columbus. This training is geared toward the following member positions:

• RPAC Chair
• Legislative Chair
• 2019 President
• 2020 President
• AE

2018 was a busy year for Professional Standards and Grievance and already this year we have have had two complaints filed. Our annual training is scheduled for February 14 here at the Board Office. This year we have the training designed to give all attendees credit for Code of Ethics class for the next cycle that ends in 2020.

As always the first of the year is busy with planning for the coming year and we will be sharing event information as it is finalized. 

Respectfully submitted,

David W Freitag RCE, CEO

The 2019 Hondros Scholarship has been awarded by our scholarship committee to Paula Lukac from Norwalk, OH.  She has already registered and is ready to go.  We look forward to working with Paula soon!

As we are putting the finishing touches on 2018, I would like to take a moment to review the past month's accomplishments.

On the public policy front, we have been busy with the local candidate interviews to determine their positions on matters as they relate to our industry. I want to thank our legislative committee for the time that they spent in the process. This year for the first time, our Board has conducted interviews in four of our five counties. We have been able to help distribute over $ 28,000 in RPAC support to our endorsed candidates. The following is the list of our local supported candidates;

Ottawa County: Steve Ardnt, State Representative, and Jim Puffenberger, Auditor

Erie County: Steve Ardnt, State Representative, and Steve Shoffner, Commissioner

Huron County: Nathan Manning, State Senate

Sandusky: Jerri Miller, Auditor, and Bill Reineke, State Representative

Seneca: Bill Reineke, State Representative

We also had interviewed Ottawa County Commissioner Candidates, but the committee made no recommendations on that race. We have had great discussions will all of the candidates, and our Board is well known to the local candidates.

In addition to the above activities President Steve, Frank Corder and I attended an event for Senator Randy Gardner in Perrysburg. We were able to have Representative Arndt join us at our table along with Ed Sitter, Federal Political Contact for U.S. Congressman, Bob Latta. We also we able to talk momentarily with the Congressman.

We left the event and headed to Tiffin to meet with State Representative, Bill Reineke along with Ohio REALTORS District 2 VP, Sara Riesen.

I also attended a luncheon with Secretary of State candidate, Frank LaRose hosted by our Board Attorney D J Swearingen.

Our Annual Awards banquet was held on October 9^th at the Bellevue Society of the Arts. We had over 100 attend, and this venue seems to be a central location allowing a shorter drive for our Seneca and Sandusky County membership. I want to thank the committee and especially Cameron Deehr for his hard work.

On the Professional Standards front, we continue to work through our caseload. We were able to have a successful mediation to avoid an Arbitration hearing on a case pending. We had one case settled in Toledo, and we still have one pending at Lorain County. We still have two hearings scheduled, with one trying mediation on October 19^th. I am recommending to the Directors that we need to adopt several changes to our Professional Standards procedures. The suggested changes are as follows;

1. Mandatory Mediation for commission disputes.    

The following change will be required to our by-laws;

Board can require REALTORS to mediate otherwise arbitrable disputes pursuant to Article 17. Mediation can resolve disputes, promote amicable resolutions, and reduce the number of cases requiring the more formal and complex arbitration procedures of the Board, thus reducing the time and effort required of Board Members serving on the Professional Standards Committee

Section 2. It shall be the duty and responsibility of every REALTOR® member of this association to abide by the Constitution and Bylaws and the rules and regulations of the association, the Constitution and Bylaws of the State Association, the Constitution and Bylaws of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, and to abide by the Code of Ethics of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, including the duty to mediate and arbitrate controversies arising out of real estate transactions as specified by Article 17 of the Code of Ethics, and as further defined and in accordance with the procedures set forth in the Code of Ethics and Arbitration Manual of this association, as from time to time amended. (Adopted 11/11)

2. Adoption of Ethics Mediation Policy for minor ethics violations.
3. Expansion of working relationship with both Toledo and Lorain Boards Professional Standards Committees. This will allow a larger group to chose panel members.

4. Adoption of a Citation Policy for minor ethics violations.

Associations adopting this Citation Policy model must also adopt a “Citation Schedule” of potential violations covered, and must specify the fines that apply to those violations. Information about the Ethics Citation Program, including the Citation Schedule, will be provided as part of the information sent to potential complainants considering filing ethics complaints with the association.

Associations adopting this Citation Policy shall establish a Citation Panel, comprised of at least three (3) individuals, who will review complaints to determine eligibility for the citation program and the appropriate citations. It is recommended that the Citation Panel be a subset of the association’s Professional Standards Committee and that the individuals on the Citation Panel have a high level of experience in hearing professional standards cases.

If the Directors and membership approve the above changes, it is recommended that the Board select a Board Mediation Officer. The rationale for this is as follows;

Conducting successful mediation procedures require tact, diplomacy, and a sense of equity. Careful consideration should be given by the Board President (or the Board of Directors of the Board) in selecting the Board’s Mediation Officer. Many Boards will find that one Mediation Officer will be sufficient. However, in large Boards, consideration can be given to appointing a standing panel of two, three, or more Mediation Officers depending upon the number of requests for arbitration normally filed in the course of a year.

Respectfully submitted,

David W Freitag RCE, CEO