BRUCE CAGENELLO – ‘So much to be gained’

Up until last June, it had been years since Connecticut real estate regulators participated in the international organization, the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials, to the extent to which they wanted. The Department of Consumer Protection, which regulates real estate licenses and oversees the state Real Estate Commission, did not pay for officials or staff members from Connecticut to attend conferences, so the few who did attend went on their own dime.

But this year, Connecticut not only hosted the District 1 conference, but has managed to get a DCP employee elected as a director of ARELLO’s board. And Real Estate Commission Chairman Bruce Cagenello hopes to keep the ball rolling with some new legislation that would assure Connecticut’s continuing participation in ARELLO, something Cagenello sees as important to keeping the state’s regulations and practices up-to-date.

“I really want the state to get involved in ARELLO,” he said. “There’s so much to be gained.”

DCP employee Laureen Rubino was nominated for one of the director positions last June, when Connecticut hosted the District 1 conference in Mystic. Some people had asked Cagenello to try for the position, but he thought it would be better for a DCP employee, who works full-time in real estate regulation, to be nominated.

“I thought it would make much more sense for a member of the staff to be on there,” he said.

Rubino was elected as a director last month when she went to ARELLO’s national conference in San Antonio. The DCP did not authorize Rubino to talk to The Commercial Record by press time.

The DCP sent Rubino to the conference, an encouraging development for regulators since Commissioner Edwin Rodriguez was unsure in June whether the DCP could afford it. Since the DCP is a governmental agency that regulates many industries, and given budgetary constraints, its participation would have to be on a case-by-case basis, he said then.

Rodriguez would not commit to sending people to conferences every year, saying he would have to find out more about the time and travel commitment that would be required to nominate someone for ARELLO’s board. He pointed out that, although he realizes real estate drives the economy, he often has to put public safety and health issues above economic ones. If, for example, there were a choice between sending someone to a conference on food safety or to an ARELLO event, he said he would be inclined to choose the food safety conference.

But Cagenello said he hopes a change in funding could help keep ARELLO participation a permanent fixture of Connecticut’s real estate regulation community. He added that he wants to get legislation passed this year that would funnel some money from the Guarantee Fund, an account funded by real estate license fees and fines that exists to reimburse aggrieved consumers, back to the real estate regulators for education purposes.

Currently, when the Guarantee Fund exceeds $500,000, the extra money rolls over into the state’s general fund. So although real estate agents and brokers fund the account and provide much of the DCP’s income, they do not get back an equal amount of services. Of the DCP’s 170 employees, five work in real estate, Cagenello said.

Cagenello said he is hoping for a portion of the excess Guarantee Fund money to keep regulators up-to-date on education. A portion of that money could go to sending one or two people to ARELLO conferences, he noted.

The organization is helpful to real estate license regulators, said ARELLO’s former chief executive officer at the June meeting in Mystic.

Increased participation could benefit Connecticut’s regulators and consumers, according to Craig Cheatham. The real estate industry constantly evolves, and participation in ARELLO and exposure to other states’ problems and solutions can help shorten the time between what is happening in the real world and when new regulations are implemented to address those issues.

Despite some differences in real estate markets, most states deal with the same problems, and all ARELLO members are ultimately in the business of protecting consumers, Cheatham said. Connecticut has some obstacles, including the funding and structure of the Real Estate Commission, but Cheatham hoped that bringing the conference to Connecticut to expose the DCP staff and commissioner to the organization will be a way to overcome them.