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Appraisal commission trims conference CE hours, hears audit update and recruitment plan for vacancies
Summary
The commission approved reduced continuing-education credit hours for a multi-day conference, discussed a CE audit that flagged late completions and DocuSign-phishing concerns, and urged solicitation of certified-general appraisers to fill vacancies on the board.
The Connecticut Real Estate Appraisal Commission voted in May to accept continuing-education (CE) submissions with an amended recommendation to limit approved appraisal credit to sessions the commission deemed appraisal-relevant rather than the conference's entire program.
Chair opened discussion about a Yukon/assessors multi-day conference and commissioners questioned how much of the program was appraisal-focused. "I just wondering how much appraisal related matter is really in there," Commissioner Bob (speaker 5) said. Jen (speaker 7), who is running the conference this year, recommended approving Monday and possibly Wednesday sessions as appraisal-related, saying those days include appraiser-led presentations.
Commissioners agreed to approve 12 hours (six hours for Monday and six for Wednesday) for qualifying sessions and subsequently voted to accept the course list as amended.
The commission also received a staff update on renewals and a continuing-education audit. Maria (speaker 2), a department staff member, reported that as of May 1 she had received 56 renewals so far and had begun a pre-audit. "I have approximately 110 people that were fined for completing their CE late," she said, and added that 94 people had been audited via DocuSign to date; the audit remains in progress and a final cutoff for the review is expected next month.
Staff and commissioners discussed confusion among reciprocal appraisers about the mandated valuation-bias and fair-housing course and suggested that New York's recent alignment with AQB content and hours should reduce future reciprocity problems. The commission also flagged a communications problem: some appraisers mistook the department's DocuSign audit notices for phishing emails. Jackie (speaker 3) urged posting an audit notice on the state website; Maria said staff will explore adding the department's real-estate-appraisal address to DocuSign and adding a public notice to reduce confusion.
On vacancies and appointments, staff said one resume had been forwarded to the governor's office and asked commissioners to solicit certified-general appraisers and forward letters of interest and resumes. Commissioners discussed the governor's appointments process as largely word-of-mouth and noted statutory constraints such as congressional-district and party-balance rules that affect whom the governor can appoint.
During public comment, Mr. DeBazu (speaker 9) suggested hiring independent contract appraisers to review complaint-related appraisals to add outside expertise; commissioners acknowledged resource constraints but agreed the idea merits consideration.
The commission closed by asking members to submit bullet points for next month's agenda so staff can prepare an itemized old-business list.
