NAR's new advocacy initiative will expand our influence on public policy at the local, state and federal levels and increase REALTOR® and consumer participation in calls for action. This requires big changes in the technology we use for our calls for action and website, while providing new and innovative opportunities to use online advocacy tools strategically and enhance your grassroots lobbying efforts at all levels of government.
Monthly Archives: July 2017
Small Connecticut Boards Make Big Impact with Placemaking Grants
The 650-member Greater Fairfield Board of REALTORS® created an inviting 'pocket park' on an unused downtown corner. The 156-member Newtown Board of REALTORS® helped establish an attractive and productive 'Fruit Trail' of flowering trees and perennials along a recreational path.
The Executive Officer of the REALTOR® boards of Greater Fairfield and Newtown, Connecticut declares that "Placemaking Grants are one of the best things that the National Association of REALTORS® has done for the local boards!" Frances Cormier-Carroll ought to know: both her boards made use of this small-scale, intensely local REALTOR® Party program to enhance their respective communities with inviting spaces last year. In fact, they're both applying for grants to fund new projects this year, and she anticipates the REALTOR®-supported placemaking activities will continue in this corner of Connecticut well in to the future.
The Placemaking Grant program helps REALTOR® associations plan, organize and build new public spaces in their local communities. "Not only do these activities help the towns and the REALTORS® by generating positive exposure," says Cormier-Carroll, "but the national association is really putting resources back in to the country through its local boards. Our members are proud of that, and our communities are grateful." She notes that the grant application process is user-friendly, and that the NAR staff provides invaluable assistance and advice as the boards have prepared their project proposals.
She credits the presidents of both boards with the energetic leadership it has taken to make their respective projects happen:
Last summer, the 650-member Greater Fairfield Board of REALTORS® (GFBOR) partnered with the Town of Fairfield to create a 'pocket park' on a small plot of unused public land at a downtown crossroads. 2016 President Stephanie Barnes, together with
co-chairmen Michael Traum and Kristen DeLaurentiis, approached the town to develop the project and identify the site. With a $3,000 grant from the REALTOR® Party, numerous planning meetings and about 100 man-hours of labor from the Fairfield Department of Public Works, an inviting and attractive park emerged, featuring new trees and plantings, a winding brick pathway, and three benches with plaques identifying the REALTORS® as the donors. In his remarks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in October, Fairfield's First Selectman, a former REALTOR® and Past-President of GFBOR, noted the benefit of amenities like the new pocket park, in terms of both quality-of-life and property values.
The 156-member Newtown Board of REALTORS® used its $1,500 Placemaking Grant to help establish a "Fruit Trail" along an existing recreational path on the 185-acre campus of a former hospital that the town has taken over for public/private use and development. The Newtown Fruit Trail connects the community with nature, and its young plantings will feed the land and the people, as well as attract bees, birds, and butterflies. One July morning last year, board President Barbara Frey and seven of her REALTOR® colleagues actively joined the effort, mulching, weeding, and planting fruit trees and perennials. Not only did the REALTOR® team contribute the grant and considerable elbow grease, notes Cormier-Carroll, but the funds from the REALTOR® Party were spent at a local nursery, supporting the local economy.
"These boards, Newtown especially, are on the small side, but their members are deeply involved and committed to improving their communities," she says, adding that both of the placemaking projects have also served to strengthen the bonds between REALTORS® and local leaders. "There's been a great community response to these placemaking projects, from neighborly notes to recognition from officials. We are so grateful to NAR and the Placemaking Grant program for making this possible."
To learn more about how smaller associations are making a big impact with the REALTOR® Party's Placemaking Grants, contact Frances Cormier-Carroll, Executive Officer of the Greater Fairfield Board of REALTORS® and the Newtown Board of REALTORS® at 203-255-0497.
Giving Legislators the Big Picture: Record-Breaking Attendance at Connecticut REALTOR® Rally
In the past, the annual REALTOR® Advocacy Day in Hartford, Connecticut, looked similar to lobbying events across the country: about 500 members of the state association would venture to the capitol building and lobby the legislature, one bill at a time. This year, the Connecticut REALTORS®' Board of Directors wanted to engage members in bigger numbers. Thinking outside the box, they did so in a big way: on May 9, more than 2,200 Connecticut REALTORS® gathered on a public green outside the capitol—and the legislators came to them.
"We Sell Connecticut, Give Us a Connecticut to Sell" was the loud and clear message from the record crowd of Connecticut REALTORS®, many sporting REALTOR®-blue scarves and neckties.
Chief Executive Officer Cindy Butts explains the impetus behind the wildly successful REALTOR® Rally. "Our leadership is politically aware, and they're also proactive. They know there are a number of very serious legislative issues on the horizon that that will define the future of our state. The question was, do we prepare to tackle them by building our war chest? Or by building our army?" Because much of Connecticut falls within the very expensive New York metropolitan media market, launching even a single public issue campaign effectively can be cost prohibitive. So the board decided to build its army.
Members seemed to have grown tired of the usual Advocacy Day format, so the state association president and his team decided to bring it outdoors. Instead of concentrating on a list of individual bills, the focus was a global message about improving the business-friendliness of the state of Connecticut.
"Michael Barbaro, our 2017 President, is incredibly dynamic," says Butts. "He went out to the local associations and personally sold this event. Having the locals on board was hugely helpful, and made all the difference."
The board agreed to give members as many reasons to come as possible: a $100 dues increase approved for 2018 would be discounted by $100 for all who attended; parking options were identified and made free of charge; buses from local areas were provided. Along with a BBQ, Butts' team found the best food trucks in the state, and had them serving free fare, from pizza to cannolis to gluten-free, until the lines were gone. The biggest draw of all was the legendary Hall of Fame Women's Basketball Coach Geno Auriemma, who led a lineup of dynamic speakers including the Connecticut REALTORS® president and key legislators, who addressed the REALTORS® and the 50 state legislators in attendance in full view of the gold-domed capitol building.
The overall expense for the outdoor rally was about ten times what the typical auditorium event cost the REALTORS®, but Butts says there wasn't a single event cost they would have trimmed: "When you're trying to save your state, it's not a time to skimp." In addition to the permits, food, transportation, and parking vouchers, there were 32 portable bathrooms, and a first aid station. Bold, professionally designed signs proclaimed "We Sell CT," "Build a Stronger CT," "Real Estate=Jobs," "Jobs=Growth," and "Homeownership Matters." Blue-and-white REALTOR®-branded umbrellas, distributed because there was no rain date, made a big impact in the spectacular photos taken by drones overhead. The high-visibility and highly photogenic event was covered by all the local news stations, including one live broadcast, and by media outlets across the state. Social media projected the energy of the Connecticut REALTORS® far and wide, and all the free coverage laid valuable groundwork for those legislative battles down the road.
Butts reports that the goal was to draw 1,000 members to the REALTORS® Rally; having met that (twice over!) the $100 dues increase was waived for the entire membership. Will the Connecticut REALTORS® repeat the outdoor rally format next year, given the great turnout in May? "We don't know what next year will bring," says Butts, "but whatever the Board of Directors wants to do, we're on board to implement the vision."
The real success, she notes, is not just that more than 2,200 REALTORS® came to the rally. It was in how they left: "Everyone came away energized to make a difference. That's our army!"
To learn more about how the Connecticut REALTORS® rallied in record numbers to show state legislators they mean business, contact Chief Executive Officer Cindy Butts at 860-566-8683.
North Bay Association Tackles Rent Control Ordinance in Santa Rosa, California
In the North Bay region of California, which counts Napa and Sonoma among its counties, agriculture and tourism are big—and so is the shortage of affordable and work force housing.
When Santa Rosa, the region's largest city, recently attempted to pass rent control and just cause eviction legislation, the 3,200-member North Bay Association of REALTORS® (NorBAR) joined forces with a strong coalition of business alliances to protect the rights of property owners—and to encourage government to meet the demand for affordable housing.
NorBAR does not deny that there is a shortage of affordable and workforce housing in the region; rents in Sonoma County have risen nearly 40% in the past four years. But denying apartment owners the ability to charge full market value for the use of their property, and limiting circumstances under which owner can evict a problem tenant, undermines basic private property rights, says Tracy Huotari, NorBAR's Chief Executive Officer. To solve the real problem, she notes, the city will have to allow development of more affordable housing.
The issue had been brewing for several years, when in August 2016, the Santa Rosa City Council passed a permanent rent control and just cause eviction ordinance. The next day, NorBAR and a coalition it had formed with the California Apartment Association began collecting signatures to prevent it from being enforced. They were successful in halting the ordinance, only to have the Council place it on the ballot for voters to decide, in a special election in June 2017.
NorBAR turned to NAR’s Campaign Services Team for help; it had already contributed funds from its own Issues Mobilization fund, and secured a grant from the California Association of REALTORS®. In addition to a major grant, the REALTOR® Party’s Campaign Services Team provided focus groups and polling to determine the campaign's viability, identify voters and craft the campaign messaging. The "No on C" campaign was both a get-out-the-vote effort and an educational force. "Our REALTORS® were deeply involved,” says Huotari, "they were out knocking on doors, registering voters, putting up lawn signs and making a big push on social media. Our coalition, 'Citizens for Fair and Equitable Housing,’ was amazing, uniting the chamber of commerce and groups from across many local industries. Its website, FairHousingForAll.com, remains a great resource." In addition to four targeted postcard mailings, door-to-door canvassers and TV, radio and online advertising, the 'No on C' campaign benefitted from the support of the influential local newspaper, The Press Democrat.
On June 6, the ordinance was defeated by 52% of the vote.
The next step, says Huotari, will be sitting down with legislators and getting them to solve the real problems. "The bottom line is that we need to fix the supply shortage," she explains, noting that the REALTORS® will be working with local units of government to look at removing obstacles to affordable and workforce housing. "We've got a number of understanding legislators in office, and we'll continue to work hard and use our PAC funds in the local elections process to support even more."
Meanwhile, the success of the campaign is having an apparent impact beyond Santa Rosa. For months, says Huotari, the rent control issue was being discussed in another nearby community, also within the North Bay Association's jurisdiction; it now seems to have "fallen off the agenda" in the weeks since the voters in Santa Rosa defeated the measure.
To learn more about how the North Bay Association of REALTORS® is protecting private property rights in the counties north of San Francisco, while keeping the focus on solutions to increase affordable and work force housing, contact Chief Executive Officer Tracy A. Huotari at 707-522-8169.
