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good afternoon and welcome to the suburban Realtors Alliance regional legislative update my name is Jamie Ridge and I'm president and CEO of the SRA also from our staff we have Pete Kennedy our communications manager will be acting as a host of the meeting I want to say a special thank you to our guest panelists this afternoon who have set aside this time to provide us with the latest legislative news from Harrisburg this is a special group of friends that are with us and I want to tell you why I say that from the Pennsylvania Senate representing the ninth district we have Senator Tom Killian not only was Tom a crucial leader most recently with the passage of HB 24 12 out of the Senate he has been one of our industry strongest supporters over many years including the 13 years he served in the House of Representatives I'll tell you just a story a short story of how this past support has impacted all of you in 2016 we were advocating for legislation that would stop municipalities from preventing real estate settlements by withholding use and occupancy permits there was a point in the process where the legislation stalled in the Senate and we were desperate to keep it moving on track I was at the Capitol one day and ran into senator Killian outside of the Senate chamber I described the problem to him and with no hesitation he made a call that got the legislation moving again that legislation was signed into law and has become act 133 of 2016 which I hope you're familiar with by this time without his quick intervention who knows what whether it would have seen the light of day so Tom welcome you to the seven-step the webinar and thank you for all you have done for us as the author of HB 2412 which he will tell us about in just a few minutes representative Tom pollen shock does not need much of an introduction to all of you his leadership resume in our industry is incredible past president and the Bucks County Association of Realtors and the suburban Realtors Alliance as well as the 2006 team president of the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors those were his high-profile roles which don't tell the entire story before ascending to all those leadership positions Todd was fighting for each of you in Washington DC and Harrisburg and locally to ensure that important legislation that is vital to our industry was promoted and passed by our elected officials at all levels that's the kind of work often behind the scenes that our members don't always hear about but Todd was not looking for accolades he just cares so much about our industry as you'll hear and what we stand for the dream of homeownership that he gladly volunteered for that hard work so Todd we're grateful for all that you do and thanks for being here with us thank you Jamie it's my pleasure finally we have PA our PA our CEO Mike Magee to round out the lineup no one has spot harder through this pandemic on your behalf than Mike I'll tell I will let him describe those efforts during a segment but I will also tell you that he has been fighting for many years on behalf of the industry many of you may not be aware that Mike was the founding CEO of the suburban Realtors Alliance then called the Realtors legislative alliance in 1998 from 1998 through 2006 Mike built a solid foundation for our organization which we are still benefiting from today he understands the challenges we are facing at every level of government and his experience has been invaluable to PA R and all of us throughout this challenging time so thanks again to all of each of you for the pianist's for being with us and with those introductions out of the way I'm going to ask Mike the opening question Mike P AR has been working tirelessly on multiple levels to assist our members during this time can you describe those efforts and also the parallel effort to convince governor wolf to deem real estate essential thank you thanks Jamie and thanks for having me and thank you to these suburban there's Alliance for all of your support as we've been trying to work through the legislative process thank you to the the local Association CEOs you've been pretty partners throughout the years in really every aspect also Thank You representative pound chuck for your leadership on House bill 2412 and to Senator Killian again I go back to him when he was a member of County Council he's always been supportive of Realtor initiatives so just to give you a little bit of an idea of what PA R has been working on on behalf of the Realtor organization I'm immediately after the governor issued the the closure order the leadership team line officers president Festa and a number of the other president elects we we felt that it was important for in particular deals that were already in a pipeline to have a system to go through and the really the only way that we could make that happen was to get an industry-wide waiver for the real estate industry so we submitted a request to DCED as many of our other other businesses did but we didn't find out until early April that our waiver was going to be denied in the meantime the DCD had posted information that they were following federal guidelines what's called the sista guidelines CSC is a that were modified on March 28th and in the March 28th revisions they clearly identified real estate service providers as essential to the continuation of the economy so we modified our request our initial waiver request and asked the governor to again deem like real estate as life-sustaining the feedback that we were getting from the administration offline was that we were not likely going to get an industry-wide waiver but what we saw in the meantime was that they were somewhat listening to us because they were dropping guidance documents through the Department of State that addressed what could and with real estate transactions that were under agreement prior to March 18th and what in-person activities could or couldn't happen but it was our opinion that those those guidance documents were actually more confusing than they were necessarily helpful and we continued to push for a industry-wide solution and a statewide solution and one of the things that that I can tell you that we've we've addressed as we've gone throughout this whole process some of our members were not used to the idea of opening real estate on a statewide basis and what the leadership falling back on was our mission statement and that was that our mission is to promote a predictable and safe real estate transaction and it was our opinion that the governor's approach was was not creating that and that is why we continue to pursue a waiver again we were not having a whole lot of luck in the administrative realm so because we weren't able to have a dialogue with the administration we chose to turn to our legislative friends and we initially supported Senate bill 613 which would have required the governor to follow the CICIG ID lines one of the drawbacks of that approach which we would acknowledge is that it encompassed far more businesses than real estate so the governor vetoed that legislation when it crossed his desk unfortunately that was also passed mostly under partisan guidelines or partisan boots when representative contracts saw that that that Senate bill 613 was vetoed he teed up legislation that was specific through real estate now let him talk about that more but that was our next and best option that we thought was pursuing legislative legislation through 2412 part of the reason we thought that is we had also supported a lawsuit that had been filed against the administration we filed an amicus brief that suit ended up all the way in the US Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the administration so again that left us very little alternative but to pursue a legislative remedy and allow real estate to open on a statewide basis we are helping a lot Todd get into this but the the bill did pass it's currently on the governor's desk he has publicly stated his doubts about the legislation and his inclination to veto it I will point out that we have had over almost 8000 responses to our calls to our call to action so our hope is if we get enough pressure on the administration on the governor that will have an impact on his decision but we are also preparing for what other alternatives we might have whether it is trying to do a veto override trying to work on another piece of legislation but our real hope is that the administration would reach out to us and craft a a solution that we think is workable and hopefully through an executive order so I'll stop my overview and then turn it back over to Jamie and I'm sure there's gonna be questions later great thanks Mike senator Killian welcome glad you are with us it looks like your audio is off there you go good to have you have you with us Tom way to be here let me ask you this question Tom can you tell us a little bit about your efforts in the Senate to help address the issues that your constituents have faced do it you know due to the Cova 19 pandemic well as you know we've moved several bills as did the house try to get things open back up I've also we've done a letter to something specific in a district get a letter with some other members House members to the governor to whom chester county in the yellow phase of it it's been very frustrating I mean the governor's dug in you heard a speech that if you wanted to if you wanted to open up your business responsibly you were surrendering and any politicians that support you were cows I mean that's where he's at uh can you tell us about moving the the bill through your committee yeah we you know the bills came over from the house we had in our committee we got some D votes we all know and I think when the realtor bill free know in committee three no votes we were only one one vote shy on final passage of course your efforts the pressure you put you put on members was extraordinary and so we only had we were one vote shy of a veto-proof vote you know we three three and a third technically and we had we had we were thirty three we needed thirty four so and that was all because of the realtors lobbying and all the work you did behind the scenes and convincing members why this was the race because it is the right thing to do it makes no sense right that's that's a very good point we we did have strong bipartisan support especially in this last vote in the house as well as some very strong statements including from Senator Denham on in in the Senate and so we hope that will weigh on the the governor's decision whether it's with this legislation or moving moving forward with a better executive order that we can all understand and that it will apply to all the counties Todd can you tell me just a little bit about your idea for HB 2412 how that came up and and how you convinced your your colleagues to move it so quickly because that was that was warp speed absolutely Jamie thank you so much I also want to really quickly want to do a shot do a shout out to Senator Kelly and when when this was coming over to the Senate he took my call right away and we took we spoke about it and he was able to to call up a committee meeting on record time and moved out of this committee very quickly so I want to thank him for that personally for forgetting that done for that for us as everyone knows those process usually takes a lot longer than that and he was very responsive and immediately was able to get that piece back to the floor of the Senate so that it could be considered so uh Thank You senator for doing that for us a little bit about the bill itself we Mike elaborated about to it a little bit we were we were hoping for six thirteen it was a little too broad base for the governor actually everything is a little too broad base for the governor for some reason but we needed we needed to attack this I mean I think most so you know I've been a realtor now for about 18 years prior to taking this job I my license is current I'm not I'm not actively selling houses this trust me this is a full-time job but I do have a current license and nobody better better than me and Realtors know how easy it is to do this transaction safely excuse me everybody knows that you know we can we can do it with minimal impact minimal groups of folks and that's why we in the legislation we came up with that we came up with the idea of let's let's go soup-to-nuts on how we're going to do this who we're gonna allow in and we looked at it from from basically the initiation at the initial stage of somebody somebody wants to go see a house all the way to final closing what are they gonna be the impediments were they be the barriers to getting this transaction done and the actual language of the bill was crafted by one of our SRA leadership guys and one of your state leaders Chris feeling we kind of Pam hammered this side we said okay we gotta let inspectors in I'm gonna let appraisers in you could have virtual tour people because that's gonna be the future looking at homes virtual tour photographers we got to be able to do the we have to still be able to do in-person settlements we do the car window ones now because some of the notaries that are allowed to do the virtual notaries aren't equipped for it they can't you can't get those systems in place and some banks are not even accepting virtual notary signatures anyway so we knew that had to go as well we also put the piece in and the Senate actually made it stronger for us in the Senate amendment where we had we were we've put in conditional use rocks but seized the Senate gave us full blanket use and occupancy is to trans to transact so that so that that doesn't hold up there there are miss valleys in the Commonwealth that their code people aren't even at work the other there's it's impossible to get a use of occupancy so we wanted to remove that barricade too so that was that was where the thought process that come up with twenty four twelve came from and then yeah just old-fashioned making phone calls and talking to colleagues and it wasn't I will tell you that wasn't a heavy lift everybody realizes that it's a pretty easy transit transaction to do with minimal impact to do normal safety impact and I just needed a call and get him on board we I think we at final had about fifty five co-sponsors including twelve or thirteen Democrats so Todd I understand that you're the first round of this legislation and the house led to a meeting with top staff from governor Wolf's office and can you tell us a little bit about that meeting perhaps the discussion and you think that this second vote the final vote might lead to two more of those types of meetings well I would hope so Jamie yes absolutely when we were crafting the language and and getting it done we did reach out to the governor's office to talk to them they were very uh they were very cordial and took a meeting with me I was talking to some of his direct cabinet folks one of his deputy Chiefs of Staff and one of his legislative affairs folks and and actually a member of the banking industry was on a phone call with us as well again trying to hammer out what would be okay what would not be okay we talked about that I talked about the transactions of the people in limbo that bought a house but but couldn't sell their house so they're stuck with two mortgages and I talked about the ones that sold their house but hadn't currently moved into the new house so they were living in a hotel they had no no housing and and I think I think in the governor's first iteration of when he did come out with the partial real estate stuff that is probably one of the reasons why he did the up to March 18th thing to be able to close those transactions that that were in limbo and I think it made no sense to us that hey if it's safe to do those it's safe to do transactions so that was the onus on why we push that I will tell you from the governor's staff everything to them with safety safety safety safety and they just weren't being logical on what's safe and what's not I'd spoke them about hey you can go into a Lowe's and I have a hundred people but you could do a real estate transaction with one or two and you know this is this is these people's livelihood I mean at this point you know folks that folks have a cabin
fever there is an increase in depression suicides there are there are outcomes that are bad that he's not realizing by by keeping people cooped up like this so real estate transaction seemed like a very easy thing that we could do and not only that that one of the nice side effects is a breeze revenue I mean you got transfer taxes that taxes go back to the state taxes go to local it just did I didn't see any downside to putting this industry back and it was something that was near and dear to my heart so we just ran with it senator Killian that that leads into a question that I have for you I don't know of any member of the sinner in the house that knows more about the budget than you do you've got that Business and Finance background and as well as it's the experience of balancing past state budgets and so question for you as you know from a budget and revenue perspective how do you think this will compare to the last recession we had in terms of revenue and and how you'll deal with that well the numbers are actually worse which ties in to why we should begin opening business in the southeast the south southeastern I mean we want to do it statewide but here in the southeast were the economic engine for the Commonwealth over 40% of the revenue comes from the piti and sales coming from the southeast another reason why we need to open up open up businesses but we're looking at probably anywhere between a 4 and a 6 billion dollar deficit more likely we were going to do nothing like I'm certain we will do a five-month budget because we really don't know what our revenues are we don't know you know tax has been switched off till July 15th you know our biggest months are usually April so we didn't get those revenues in April so we'll take the revenues that we have get through five months and as you get in the fall look and also getting handling the Fed money that's coming down and what we can and can't use it for so I think that's what you're going to see you're going to see an interim budget and then we're going to come back to the fall we'll be talking in the mean times because numbers start to roll when in July July 15th we'll begin to see the tax revenues but this is this is what the numbers watch this is a lot worse than the last recession and it seems to me that real estate is is one of those industries that may has such a huge impact on the state revenue and it seems like it's the safest one to get back to work so we know we know that you are making that argument with the governor and we just encourage you to keep making the harshing it for us yeah and because you're exactly right you do you all know better than maybe you buy a house you're buying furniture you're you're at Home Depot you're all you're spending a lot lots and lots of money and and that was one of the reasons and working closely with you that we made sure in the Senate that you know there was a there was some talk about putting them all together like a previous vote and we made a strong case that it would be a lot smarter keep the realtor separate really puts the pressure on the governor to sign this one because it makes perfect sense and he can't say well it's all it's too much it's too much so that was the that was the one fight we had was to it was a fight I mean I was mad and we talked in our leadership and explaining that it would be a much better position if we do the Realtors as a standalone bill but we had added legal services as well but and I'm hopeful that he will find it because of that that it doesn't have all the other things that thanks senator Pete I know we have some questions coming in from the participants what do you have for us one of the questions that came in was from a a member asking about what amendments were made when it went through the Senate you know if somebody had read the bill a week ago what changed since it was voted on on the house yesterday Representative Paul and John could answer that a being that the bill was initially amended in that in the house to include the legal services that was one of the amendments that we had from one of my colleagues to to add that in it mainly that was also one of the loopholes that we wanted to clean up because a lot of attorneys do do real estate transactions so it did kind of tie together with with respect to that when it went over to the Senate the Senate the Senate an amendment it was a it was it was almost to tolerate but we kept all the all the intricacies of the bill the the difference they did was they they really actually made it better for the practitioner by ramping up the use of occupancy part of it it went from a conditional use or not use and occupancy in the original bill where the buyers and sellers would have to negotiate the terms of who would be responsible when they got there Houston occupancy and the Senate bill just gave a blanket use and occupancy to get the transaction done which was actually better so that was the the main change in the bill it also specifically mentioned commercial real estate the original bill was vague in that it included commercial real estate but you could make an argument but maybe it didn't so but by the Senate amendment it fixed that as well by specific specifically in naming a commercial real estate in the bill those are those were the main ones in it I know you're getting that someone's gonna ask about the open house amendment that we tried to do in the in the House of Representatives I try to do that on the last day a procedural vote would have been required to suspend the rules because you don't we we can't amend on third consideration in the house they can in the Senate and so we try to suspend the rules to add no group open houses if we follow coded we're not doing group open houses anyway but that's what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle wanted and they did a little politics on us and voted to not allow the suspension of the rules so we couldn't get that amendment in we thought it might happen in the Senate it didn't but the way the language is written it's strong enough that it follows the CDC guidelines you're not going to have those giant Group open houses anyway okay thank you that you did answer a question a lot of other people have been asking about open houses let's see here so how would changing real estate to essential in NPI impact the pandemic unemployment Assistance Program the Realtors still qualify for that program if the industry is considered essential no bike or somebody else can answer that Oh what been explained to us is that the two are not necessarily one in the same just because you were you would be deemed essential would not necessarily disqualify you for unemployment compensation the big issue or test is has more income gone down as a result of the pandemic so you would still apply for the unemployment compensation share what your earnings are and that would then show what you would otherwise qualify for in terms of unemployment compensation okay combining a couple of questions here do with any idea when we might expect a response from the governor and what is the back-up plan if he does veto it I mean I'll start off and then if Todd or anybody else wants to chime in I mean he's been on the radio I think it was yesterday he was very specifically asked would he be inclined to sign the bills that were headed his way and his answer was no so he certainly signaled what his intention is he has ten days to make a public veto or signing of the bill so it's kind of unclear whether he's going to drag that process out or or whether he's going to do anything quickly you know then then the next question is what's what's next if he does veto it one of the options is to ask the House Majority Leader and Senate Majority Leader to run a veto override that is a much more complicated process that we would have to go through in terms of just the politics of it and as I think Todd pointed out earlier we are two votes short in the house on get having a in override majority so we would have to keep not only the people who lived for us this time but we would have to flip at least two other people to know for us if there was an override vote we continue to encourage our members to respond to the call to action if the governor does veto the bill you are going to see our social social media messaging change in all likelihood where we're asking you to call the governor's office and take the message off of 24 12 but continue to put the pressure on him that we need him to make to identify real estate as an essential service so that's that's the likely next step and again not to get too much inside baseball but you know we are Jamie and I were talking about this a little bit earlier when we're doing when he was hosting a congressional Town Hall asking Democratic members of Congress you reach out to the governor I mean really that the people that seem to have the most ability to get through to him are people within his own party with his within his own party again not to be partisan about it but we think those are the most impactful kind of behind-the-scene conversations that can happen so and and you know we could try to run another bill which again is something that we'll evaluate but again our our main goal is to try to get the governor's attention and you know have a conversation with him about possibly even doing an executive order to open real estate on a statewide basis so that we don't have to continue going through the legislative process thanks Mike I have a question I'm seeing from Andrew Wetzel what did mr. Paul and Chuck mean about the you know process if a municipality is not working someone has to either accept responsibility for what may happen after settlement or escrow funds which no one wants to do being essential in a red zone still has a roadblock yeah yeah I'll take that Jamie it actually it that was one of the reasons why we had that that put into the actual bill it's it's actually not a road black the way it the way it'll be right now is the use of documents um some of these felonies don't even have use in occupancy some of them are nothing but a sidewalk and a GFI inspection some of them are more intricate what this does is it just gives you a you get a yes from that Township to transact the property now what the buyers and sellers negotiate on their own is is part of the negotiating process hey you know what I'm on I'll be on the hook for this or that 90% of that stuff's gonna be uncovered during a home inspection anyway maybe not that Sidewalk cracks or something like that but most of that stuff's going to be covered and negotiated in the normal in the normal real estate transaction so so I don't see the roadblock on that as long as the buyer and seller can negotiate the terms the township will not be an impediment to you moving on really quickly while I have your attention this takes like I don't know if you can see it it takes like two minutes no probably not it says sign 24:12 everybody get yourself Ian's load social media with the governor today and and everyone get your little sign 24:12 signs out we're putting them all over the place to try to get him we're doing hashtag sign 2412 just to try to get the word the governor because the way this is gonna get the way he's gonna acquiesce on this is by pressure right now his it leaves leaning I'm not signing the bill but if we can put enough pressure on him and show them that this is something that could be done and respectfully to don't go attacking him on social media with you know all kind of harsh stuff about him or his secretary of health just you know just push that we can do this safely if you get the word out that we can do this safely that's the number one concern for him and and and that's that's where I see let's go it again I'm a freshman I'm at the furthest Center on the on the how to's because he's been doing a lot longer than me so what Thanks everybody covered it well they're the objects we have the governor can either sign it or veto it or do nothing if he does nothing in ten days it becomes law so but I I think you know depending on the pressure he gets to see we see what he does and then you know then the Mike like explain it we can look to do an override vote but now and that would put I would like to see it because we'll put some of the some of the folks in really tough position but then again you know you have to do you have people having to choose between doing what I consider right and what their constituents want and what their if you're in the Democratic Party with what the governor wants and then and there will be a lot of pressure on not to override the government governor because that's a real slap in the face to the guy who had your pardon so I'm hopeful that he'll just realize it just makes perfect sense both from a safety standpoint and from an economic standpoint and all they'll sign and go from there Mike do you want to talk about the call to action that you have actively going right now yes so I think there's someone's asking what can an interval individual agent do or a broker do we've we've stood up a campaign called housing is essential and its own housing is essential that work that includes a letter-writing campaign to the governor it it includes a phone call patched through to the governor's office we are encouraging you to respond as agents share it with your clients and customers we've had almost 8,000 responses since the bill passed yesterday which is a tremendous response but the fact that we have 35,000 agents in our association means that we're about 25-30 percent participation we need more than that and we need to continue to put the pressure on the governor's office to let him know that we're serious and we have been since day one but again this this goes back to the basics of politics and people listen to their constituents it's one of the reasons we had overwhelming support in both the House and the Senate because you were active you got engaged and we just need you to continue to push the ball forward and and have your voice heard and again we're hearing from you're you're telling us your clients and customers are frustrated to get them involved because the more that this goes beyond just us as Realtors it just adds to our message and the base of support so again it's housing is essential work I do want to point out Mike that we spoke a little bit about this before the webinar we are seeing our own County Commissioners and County Council members from Delaware County so Bucks County Delaware County Chester County their Democratic commissioners and council members have have been reaching out to the governor and asking him to number one consider possibly changing the calculation for the metric and taking long term care facilities out because we are seeing a vast majority of complications coming in at those places so they are they are pushing as well this is not a partisan push at all and that does that does give me some hope that even if we're not successful with the legislation we could see a vastly improved executive order that is a result of the legislation and also pressure coming from outside thank you so another question that that came in is regarding appraisers and with the possibility of permitting appraisers to enter properties when an interior appraisal is required by lenders so and maybe just as a broader question HB 2412 how does it affect some of the you know other professions related to to real estate that are realtors yeah I think I could take that beat that's we built that in we went from the start of the transaction all the way to the settlement table and everything in between we kind of built into the legislation I'll tell you I like to give them a shot at all the time one of our SRA leaders and and one of your state leaders Chris feeling I guess I think he's your advice for the first vice president right now is was the guy who crafted the legislation with me he put it down on paper and then we kind of knocked it around and look at what are we missing what are we missing and we kind of covered everything home inspectors are allowed to enter the property again all this is going to be done using for the the CDC guidelines and the you know following following bad slicer the the social distancing but that so yes home
inspectors can come in and go out appraisers can come in go out a lot oh right now I know some folks trying to refinance homes because of the great interest rates they can't because the appraisers can't get in the houses they will be if this legislation passed appraisers will be allowed in photographers video virtual tour folks it's all built in for the process for anyone that needs to get in for the sake of a transaction will be able to go in by themselves the homeowner ovo at that time while they go in it's go go in and then go out so again everything can be done with minimal personal contact of any kind but yes the appraisers are covered by that as well I see a question coming in from Vince range who is one of our board members what is the likelihood of an executive order being put in place if the veto does occur so an improved executive order what's the likelihood of that I mean I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility it is you know since the the legislation has gone to his desk we're hearing a little bit more he's crackling or static that the gun that the administration might want to talk to us but again it's it's still kind of early in the process and I'm I'm the stents we're getting is you know he doesn't like to have his back put up against the wall through the legislative process so if he does you know it that that would potentially open the door to have that conversation but I don't think it's a remote I think it's a realistic possibility that we might get that and Jamie if I could elaborate on that real quick prior to us going on the final vote in the house I got a call from the governor's office that he was opening up Marshall real estate services you know it wasn't statewide and it was it had it had a the enforcement up to an including license getting your licensees so that was unacceptable but by us putting this pressure on he's moving he's he's opening up counties faster than he wanted to and and he's moving with this stuff so I do think that you know even before this bill dolphins are sign it veto it let it become law in 10 days or do an executive action where it becomes a moot point so that is it that is a fourth possibility that that I'm sure he's probably weighing out Senator Killian you were in office you know during the the Great Recession 2008-2009 and we we came out of that very strong fashion balancing the budget getting things back on track so what are what do you see moving forward with with this pandemic and and what are you thinking in terms of helping to kick-start the economy once again well you know we got to get the businesses open first and foremost because that's where we got our tax revenue and I think once once we get beyond this and and we're getting we are getting closer that things start picking up again but which it's it's going to take a while I mean we have a significant deficit and a lot of will depend on what the federal government gives us you're talking about another right around the money for for the states so we'll see how that plays out but just is this going to take some time I mean we're not looking to raise taxes yeah that would be in in this climate I think a really really really foolish thing to do so I think we just gotta get once we know we got people back to work hopefully by early fall everybody in the green which I wish you would define how you get into green haven't even told us yet at least able to find how to get to yell but they've not defined how to get to Green excuse me so no we got to see the ball really is in his court right now Mike Mike beyond HB 2412 can you tell us a little bit about you know PA are moving forward what what you've got planned to get the industry you know moving again and and what kind of safety regular not regulations but guidelines are are you putting in place to help our Realtors operate in this in this new environment yeah and even to address maybe a comment that somebody had made in the chat here that questioning what we have provides the governor have not provided to the governor significant documents I think that we have provided to him and as well as to our members on number one president Festa set up a a task force look at the the other states in the country that have best practices in terms of CDC guidelines in terms of how you operate a showing developing a couple of forms for our members to use as part of a real estate transaction and we actually gave that information to our contacts at the governor's office and said hey here's our recommended way that the industry can move forward and they have a copy of that hopefully if they re shooting at any potential guidelines sorry the lawnmower is going on behind me there if they are looking at me other guidelines they're going to take those into consideration we also sent them a six-page letter which again we posted on our website outlining some of the contradictions and inconsistencies that we saw in the guidance documents that daos has issued as well as well as how it compared and contrasted with what they allow contractors to do and probably the lowest hanging fruit on that one is why can you have for renovation or repair people in a house at any particular time and why how is that at all rationale that you would say that can't happen for a real estate transaction when literally you could have four people four contractors in your house for eight consecutive hours and have they have less stringent PPE requirements then the governor has on our members in their guidance documents that was actually another area where we actually did get a response from the governor's office saying hey we want to work with you to provide some guidance and that was what we heard from them so that that's that's really the frustrating start thing on our end is we keep opening the try note the lines of communication we try to create the the breadcrumb trail as to how we think things can effectively work for our members on a statewide basis we I am optimistic though that we are going to hear a little bit more conversation just because the amount of pressure that the last week week-and-a-half we've been able to put on you illustration through the legislative process as well as again the work that you guys have been doing with County Commissioners and and members of the delegation congressional delegation so III think there's at least some practice for us to try to explore and get the line of communication back up and with the administration so how about a little bit of a change here and and we have a state representative and a state senator on line with us and I'd like to ask both of you for your constituents Realtor constituents and your districts what's the best way to get in touch with you if they have questions about unemployment or there are other issues that you might be able to help them with for uh for me just my staff is working remotely but they check our voicemail constantly and then for the unemployment and we've got a lot of them working on just call the office at area code 6.0 four four seven three one six three and leave a message in we'll get right back to you at any issue that's that could be unemployment unemployment compensation but any issue that's what were there for and we have the base you heard mix suddenly soon cause I got to say you heard from Steve I was on the zoo before this Steve brought we're talking about unemployment and I got another one at 3 o'clock but the problems are enormous but we do have liaisons we can go to it's still taking some time to get to know get folks through but we can sometimes expedite a little bit time thanks Jamie and for me if it first specific unemployment compensation claims we're getting a ton of those everyone wants to speak to me directly I'm not the expert on that I have a great staff member name is Kira rumble she's my district manager so email her at K Rumble like a rumble seat K are you in Delhi at PA House GOP comm PK rumble at PA House GOP comm for unemployment comp stuff that goes directly to her she she's been able she's been very helpful now just be patient we do have a lot we're getting in a data with it but by all means if you're in my district please reach out there or we can we're there to help anything else it'd be best to just you know either email us you can email me mine's - just eat pollen shock at PA House GOP comm you can send me or our phone number is the best way because we check it continuously - one five eight two two one eight four zero two one five eight two two one eight four zero we are working remotely right now but starting Monday we're going to be staffed at least partially four days a week got a run port and starboard with my two staff members I'll be in the office we will not be accepting appointments yet and when we do it'll be what it'll be by appointment only we won't be doing walk-ins we're actually in the process of putting up you know plexiglass wall and Anna door buzzer so that we can protect the folks our constituents when they come in for when we need now face-to-face meetings we're not we're not starting that yet obviously but but two and five eighty to one eighty four zero would be your best bet and we will get back to you it may take a day or two but we will look back you and and we'll address what everything and also let me give you my email it's it's T Killian Klos and at PA CENTCOM and then my person for you can always call the office and I'll get back to you but you'd also email Theresa in my office and that's T delcamp o T DLC ampo at PA send gov so what I would emphasize with these emails is that we have we have over 50 state representatives and senators in our four counties and so if you will please contact your own state representative or state senator we have a lot of realtors and Senator Killians district and a lot of Realtors and and representative Paul and chalks district but it's much easier if you talk to your own member of the house with Cyn and then we won't overwhelm them with with calls coming outside of the district so we will post a link on our Facebook page right after this webinar that will show you how to find out who your Perez if you don't know that already all right Pete any more last questions from the audience well on that on that subject of contacting representatives a couple people had asked for the best number to contact the governor and I wonder is that is that a good idea to call my phone or is our other methods you think more effective what there's bad that's part of our housing is essential dot or campaign and it's literally a patch-through process so if you go to that website and either send an email or don't directly patch you through the governor's office to make that call okay and one other question I don't know if this was was addressed already but is is there anything that the legislation are that the legislators can do in Pennsylvania to help ensure in future emergencies that real estate is considered life essentials so we don't have to fight this fight again in five or ten years of it if it happens again that that's all part of the executive order so that depends who's the governor at the time god I hope we don't have to get through this a situation like this again but we are actually we're drafting a bill in the Senate right now I'm doing with three other members to limit the powers of the executive orders that they they can't go on you know we're still under executive order on the opioid crisis which I'm not saying that's we shouldn't be but they should go on and on we're drafting legislation that after 60 days the legislature gets the way in whether to continue or not okay no just a lot of a lot of thanks to to the to the legislators and to pay are coming in for everyone's hard work on this but I think we've run through most of the questions now okay great just quick Jamie yes I just want to I just want to I want to thank that PA are and SRA a lot of folks on this this call don't know that that both you and Mike have extensive backgrounds with working with legislators and so we've met two really good guys running that running the ships for us and because of the work that that's been done PA our did a ton of legwork on getting this getting this through we've been in contact every single day myself my and MPA are working on this working on language working on what our next step is and you know this this is why this is why we we have our association at times like this to get this done so PR has been fantastic and you know I know what I know what sra has been doing for years through working with our municipalities it's the reason we're at a really good good market where we're at so I wanna I want to personally thank Jamie and like and your organizations for the work you did on this you helped us get over the finish line in record time I just want to thank you for that and finally senator Gillian absolutely thank you so much for removing this bill and being a champion for us all Phoebe you've always been good to our association and to the organization and I'm thrilled to be able to work with you now through the legislature thank you let me just add to that you know every industry wanted to be open everybody wanted their own bill if it wasn't for the strength of your association and and Todd's work in the house it wouldn't happen by far and I've said this many times and I deal with lots of different lobbying efforts the realtors are your association is way out of everybody else with in seconds you have the emails out the contacts out and that's why that's why you've got a separate bill and that's why we're poised maybe to have the governor do the right thing in the next day or next few days so congratulations for all your hard work thank Senator Mike any final parting words of encouragement for for our members again just thanking everybody keep up the good work keep the messages going into the governor's office again as I started off thank you for the partnership we have with the SRA and the local associations and again Thank You representative pollen shock and Senator Killian they've always been real tour champion so and a pleasure working with you great all right with that I will I will close this off I want to say a special thank you to Senator Killian representative pollen shocked our friends Mike McGee for all that you are doing at P AR this has been a great one hour and thank you again for taking time out of your very busy schedules and as always for your friendship and the way you champion for us so thank you very much and thanks everybody for joining us for this webinar thank you
