ACMLA Board Minutes
ACMLA board meeting held at the Paradise Café, at the Biltmore Shopping Center, Phoenix, AZ on January 7, 2009.
The meeting was convened at 8:30 am. Board members present included Jay Ganske, Bob Gibney, Mark Hunton, Dana Higel, Frank Demeter, Amy Winski, John Burton, and Executive Secretary, Don Ayers. Bruce Hanley, Membership Chairman was also present.
This was a special meeting to discuss the issue of loan officer licensing and requirements passed in the last legislative session.
No committee reports were made.
John Burton has been monitoring this issue for the past several years. A new law was in fact passed by the 2008 legislative session that mandates loan officer licensing and it is to take effect in 2010. ACMLA feels that it would be in the best interest of the members of the association to amend the passed legislation to provide for some exemptions for commercial lenders. In addition there is a gap in the existing statutes that does not address a commercial mortgage broker license.
Proposed changes to the statutes had been drafted by John and circulated for review to the board at two previous times. Now that the licensing law has been passed and without the corrections we wanted, John recommends that we retain a lobbyist to assist in securing the needed amendments or “technical corrections”. John has also discussed the issue with other lobbyists that have represented us in the past and found a more reasonable firm for our consideration to represent us.
Members of the firm KRB Consulting were present at the meeting to provide input regarding lobbying the legislature to effect our desired changes. After some discussion the representatives of KRB were asked to leave the meeting so that further discussion could be held. Jay Ganske questioned the actual need for going forward and retaining the firm. John Burton explained the two-fold purpose of this effort was to:
- correct the discrepancy in the current license statutes to provide for a category of Commercial Mortgage Broker, only a commercial mortgage banker category currently exists; and
- to make a technical correction to the recently passes mortgage licensing law that would exempt the Commercial Mortgage Banker & newly created Commercial Mortgage Broker from the requirement of licensing further than the responsible individual and from the requirement of annual continuing education requirements, which probably only exist for residential lenders currently.
It appears that if nothing is done, members could, according to an interpretation of the current statutes, be subject to the licensing and required to take continuing education which would not really improve our professionalism or protect the public. This would just add to operating costs and potential fines.
John Burton made a motion to retain the firm of KRB as a lobbyist and enter into a contract for the current legislative session in the amount of $20,000.00. Further discussion was held to clarify some points. The motion was then seconded by Frank Demeter. The vote on the motion was unanimous. John Burton was also authorized on behalf of the board to execute the contract.
Additional Business:
Mark Hunton advised that Todd Leslie of Washington Mutual had been serving as Vice President of the Association. Todd had earlier advised Don Ayers and Mark Hunton that he had been transferred to southern California and could no longer serve in that capacity.
According to the bylaws, an officer can resign a position and a replacement can be nominated by a board member and the board has the authority to elect that replacement.
Mark Hunton nominated Lisa Alberti of Small Business Finance Corp to fill the office of Vice President of the association. Lisa was present at the meeting and provided a brief resume of her experience to the board. Lisa was asked to leave the meeting. Bob Gibney seconded the motion and the board voted unanimously to accept Lisa as the new Vice President of the association.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:10am.
