CSHB 205(FIN)-REAL ESTATE BROKERS/SALESPERSONS  1:57:03 PM CHAIR ELLIS announced CSHB 205(FIN) to be up for consideration. ELEANOR WOLF, staff to Representative Kurt Olsen, sponsor of HB 205, said this bill was introduced at the request of the Association of Realtors. Specifically, section 1 would increase the hours of education for a license applicant from 20 to 40. Section 2 increases continuing education hours from 20 to 30 hours. The realtors preferred to increase their hours rather than scrimp on the education content. Section 3 adds a provision that 7 years must elapse for anyone convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude to reapply for licensure. Section 4 adds language that allows a broker to live outside the state if he does not employ a licensee or his licensees are directly supervised by an associate broker. Section 5 provides that a broker who owns, operates or is employed by multiple corporations requiring real estate licensing is at a single physical address for all principle offices. Apparently there was an incident where one person owned three or four different real estate offices and was never appearing in any of them. Therefore, he was not there to oversee. 1:57:45 PM Section 6 states that all policies and procedures be made available to the public. Section 7 is a February 1, 2008 effective date. This coincides with the issuance of the renewal licenses. 1:58:45 PM SENATOR STEVENS asked if any other statutory language says a felony involves only "moral turpitude." MS. WOLF replied that other statutes say you can't be under indictment for forgery, theft, extortion, conspiracy to defraud creditors or any other felony involving moral turpitude or be convicted of such offense. The bill has added after a lapse of seven years. SENATOR STEVENS said he didn't think the bill said what the sponsor statement says. The bill just says "a felony". 1:59:22 PM CHAIR ELLIS asked MS. WOLF to get that clarified. 1:59:45 PM DAVE FEEKIN, Alaska Association of Realtors, supported HB 205 and said it is a modernization of the existing statutes relating to real estate brokerage. He highlighted that this bill increases the education time from 20 to 40 hours before a person takes the real estate licensing exam and remarked that at 20 hours, Alaska was the lowest in the country; however, at 40 hours it is still the lowest in the country. The Association supported increasing post-licensing education from 20 to 30 hours to have time to adequately teach the required course material rather than reducing the content. 2:01:21 PM Section 8 requires a broker to be responsible and supervise the actions of their licensees. He explained that the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in the 80s that a broker is not responsible for conduct that they had no knowledge of, but this provision makes it the duty of the licensee to inform the broker of issues needing his supervision. MS. WOLF clarified and apologized that she was looking at the wrong version of the bill before, but she needed more time to see if she used the correct sponsor statement. SENATOR STEVENS added that he went through the bill more carefully and saw that every reference to "moral turpitude" was removed. Saying "any felony" was tougher language and he was comfortable with it. 2:03:38 PM RICK URION, Director, Division of Corporations, Business and Occupational Licensing, Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development, supported HB 205 saying it is more workable for both the division and the public. 2:04:43 PM SENATOR STEVENS moved to pass CSHB 205(FIN) from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note. There were no objections and it was so ordered.