Current Efforts

List of SLBR endorsed candidates for 2011 Local Elections (General Election Edition)

Salt Lake City
  • Mayor- Ralph Becker (incumbent)
  • City Council 2-Van Turner (incumbent)
  • City Council 4-Neutral
  • City Council 6-Neutral (Trustees voted to support both incumbent J.T. Martin and challenger Charlie Luke)
West Valley City
  • City Council At-large-Corey Rushton (incumbent)
  • City Council 1-Tom Huynh (REALTOR®) (open seat)
  • City Council 3- Karen Lang (open seat)
West Jordan
  • City Council 1- Neutral (Trustees voted to support both Chris McConnehey and Ellen Smith for this open seat)
  • City Council 2- Jim Lems (incumbent)
  • City Council 3-Ben Southworth (incumbent)
  • City Council 4-Cheryl Acker (REALTOR® and SLBR Director) (open seat)
Sandy
  • City Council 4-Chris McCandless (REALTOR® and unopposed incumbent)
  • At-Large City Council-Steve Fairbanks (REALTOR®) (incumbent)
  • City Council 2-Dennis Tenney (incumbent)
South Jordan
  • City Council 1-Mark Seethaler (open seat)
  • City Council 2-Kathie Johnson (incumbent and former SLBR member)
  • City Council 4-Steve Barnes (challenger)
Bountiful
  • City Council- Trustees voted to support incumbents Beth Holbrook (REALTOR®), Scott Myers, and John Marc Knight for re-election.
Draper
  • City Council- Trustees voted to support all three incumbents in general election: Troy Walker, Alan Summerhays, and Bill Colbert.
Cottonwood Heights
  • City Council 1- Mike Shelton (open seat)
  • City Council 2- Scott Bracken (incumbent)
Riverton
  • City Council 1- Sheldon Stewart (open seat)
  • City Council 2- Terry Clawson (challenger)
  • City Council 5-Scott Silcox (REALTOR®) (open seat)
Herriman
  • City Council 1-Matt Robinson (incumbent)
  • City Council 2- Trustees voted to support both appointed incumbent Raquel DeLuca and challenger Coralee Moser
  • City Council 4-Mike Day (incumbent)
Taylorsville
  • City Council 1-Neutral
  • City Council 2- Trustees voted to support both incumbent and former SLBR member Morris Pratt and challenger Kristie Overson.
  • City Council 3-Jerry Rechtenbach (incumbent)
Bluffdale
  • City Council-Heather Pehrson, Craig Briggs, and incumbent Bruce Kartchner
Centerville
  • City Council-Ken Averett (REALTOR®) and Kay Ashton
Holladay
  • City Council 4-Bob Neslen
  • City Council 5- Jim Palmer (incumbent)
South Salt Lake
  • City Council At-large- Former REALTOR® Shane Siwik (challenger) running as a write-in.
  • City Council 4-Roy Turner (incumbent)
  • City Council 5- Neutral
Murray
  • City Council 1- Trustees voted to support both David Nicponski and Phil Markham for this open seat.
  • City Council 3- Neutral
  • City Council 5- Krista Dunn (incumbent)
Midvale
  • City Council 1- Robert Hale (incumbent)
  • City Council 2-Neutral
  • City Council 5- Paul Hunt (open seat)
North Salt Lake
  • City Council-Trustees voted to support Brian Horrocks and Stan Porter
Woods Cross
  • City Council-Ryan Larsen (REALTOR®) in the general election

The Salt Lake Board of REALTORS® - Promoting Real Estate from the Ground Up

June 2011 REALTOR® Magazine article

Some of the biggest threats to our industry exist at the federal government level, hence NAR's dues increase to enhance federal lobbying and political efforts. On the state level, UAR works on dozens of issues that could impact real estate, especially preventing transfer taxes and fees and a sales tax on services that would financially injure REALTORS®. On the local level, local associations like the Salt Lake REALTORS® are tasked with protecting REALTORS® and strengthening the housing market working with county and city governments.

The Salt Lake Board of REALTORS® spends significant time and resources developing relationships with city and county elected officials to educate them on our policy agenda. Members of the Government Affairs Committee are assigned to monitor meeting agendas. The Board hosted city forums and networking lunch with local officials. Bryan Kohler and I meet with local elected officials frequently to provide information and advocate for REALTORS®. Issues that we have recently worked on with local governments include:

Business Licensing - Periodically, a city or county will explore the idea of requiring REALTORS® to comply with additional business licensing. We have resolved situations where REALTORS® have received citations for operating a business out of their home without a business license. We discourage cities from attempting to require a city business license from REALTORS® for having a listing(s) in their city.

Door to Door Solicitation - REALTORS® occasionally run into problems in some cities when they canvass neighborhoods. As state licensees, REALTORS® receive background checks and are exempt from most city ordinances that ban door-to-door solicitation.

Affordable Housing - An issue we have focused on a lot this year is educating elected officials on the correlation between increases in impact and development fees and home prices. We lobby local government to keep fees low to preserve affordable housing for their constituents.

Good Landlord Programs - More and more cities are adopting Good Landlord Programs to educate Landlords and regulate rental properties. The Salt Lake Board of REALTORS® has generally supported Good Landlord Programs, as long as they featured low license fees for compliant landlords. When done well, we believe Good Landlord Programs are a positive way for cities to encourage safer, higher-quality neighborhoods that protect property values.

Sign Ordinance - Sign regulation is perhaps the most challenging issue we deal with on the local level. Complicated legal issues related to freedom of speech and sign regulation create challenges for cities to make desired allowances for real estate signage. Legally, cities cannot regulate signage for content, so they must regulate real estate signs the same as all other signage in terms of content. We have worked with numerous cities to adopt specific real estate-friendly sign regulations that have later been changed due to legal challenges. The Salt Lake Board is part of a joint REALTOR®-Utah League of Cities and Towns effort to draft a model sign ordinance that will allow for reasonable real estate signage and pass legal muster at the same time.

Private Property Rights - The Salt Lake Board prides itself on its advocacy for the protection of private property rights. We do this through general advocacy on respecting private property rights, as well as directly working at the request of members to resolve specific issues where local governments may be overreaching. Examples of this include helping a REALTOR® resolve a code enforcement issue on behalf of a client, and lobbying cities on specific zoning decisions.

Whether in our interactions with elected officials or through our local elections efforts, we encourage local governments to be pro-small business, promote economic development, protect private property right, and strengthen the housing market.

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