On January 8th, the Tennessee Real Estate Commission voted to revoked the authorization of all pre-licensing and continuing education courses and reset the expiration date of all from the approved date of December 31, 2012 to September 30, 2009.

All courses when originally approved are individually scrutinized and voted upon by the TREC. When they are approved the authorization is, by TREC rule, for the duration of a 4 year cycle period which originally ended in 1996, then 2000, 2004 and most recently 2008. The current cycle ends 2012. Until last year, the TREC had the option to approve a course for a lesser period of time which was typically used for the Core Course which was approved for 2 years and then just expired. The process of renewal used in 2008 was created by the TREC sometime in the past while Bruce Lynn was the Executive Director, and has been used in 1996, 2000, 2004 and again in 2008.

It is not the intended function of the regulatory board members to micro-manage or administrate the TREC. The Tennessee Real Estate Commission hires employees such as the Executive Director and the Education Director to run the TREC. Those employees along with 30 or so staff members handle the day to day tasks. It is obvious that previous Commission members realized the ominous task of attempting to revisiting courses being renewed in mass by the Commission members every 4 years. The task of renewal was obviously at some point delegated to staff. After all each and every course had be already been approved by the full Commission. It makes sense to make it a staff administrative function to orderly renew all previously approved courses in a timely fashion.

To accuse TREC administration or staff members of having acted illegally or improperly when they renewed all courses at the end of the 4 year cycle is just outright wrong. At least three members of the TREC were on the Commission in 2004 and all the current members sat silently as the process took place between August and December of 2008. Chairman Haynes can be heard twice during the January meeting stating that he has been on the Commission 10 ½ years. If they were paying attention to what is going on, why are they suddenly surprised by the process and declaring it illegal after the fact? Especially considering that the 2008 renewal process followed the same procedures that have been use for 12 years.

During TREC meetings, when considering discipline of an affiliate broker, Commissioners often ask, “Where was the broker? Why is he not supervising this agent?” If the TREC staff had been acting improperly for 12 years renewing all courses at the end of the 4 year cycle without the permission of the TREC, then I guess it would be fair to ask, “Where were the TREC members when all of this was happening over a 12 year period”?

It appears that TREC staff members have been just doing their job properly and with authority for over a decade when renewing the authorized TREC courses. To accuse a dedicated staff member of acting improperly to justify canceling all TREC courses is reprehensible.

The TREC members do have the power to withdraw a course authorization. However, the rules also detail the specific reasons for which the authorization can be withdrawn. There are simply no legal provisions to withdraw or shorten the authorization date on a course that has already been approved without a specific cause. To withdraw the authorization of all 1300 courses without cause clearly violates the rules established by the TREC and the laws of Tennessee.

The job of regulating an industry of professionals requires integrity and an eagerness to obey the law. It is not uncommon to have the actions of well meaning commission members reversed by the courts. However, it is unusual for commission members to blatantly violate their own rules and disrupt a process that has been working well. It will be interesting to see how the issue is resolved.