<span style='color:darkblue'>AppraisersForum:
Our profession and our country are eaten up with cowards. They sit and watch. They quietly accept both the questionable and the outrageous without question, and rely solely on others to protect their worlds. Cowards are dangerous. Our soldiers, including our firemen and law enforcement officers, are largely worthy and brave, and most of us would stand up against physical attack; otherwise we are largely cowards. As someone wrote recently: "fat, dumb & happy." From a statistical perspective, I personally believe AppraisersForum participants tend to be considerably less cowardly and apathetic than the typical American as is demonstrated daily (and specifically by so many personally identifying themselves -- at at least some degree of economic risk -- via The Petition). We need to take further ownership and responsibility for our own wellbeing. We need to be brave and strong. There's just no one else who will do it for us.
I hope people of the Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC) are not cowardly; cowards in important postions of authority are the most dangerous. I hope they are paying attention to all that is happening and will take additional initiatives to promote the integrity and health of our profession, because they are very much needed. In the interest of all, including the states, the regulation of the appraisal profession must not be left up to the states.
It is not right to suggest that this is a states' rights issue. It is not. Appraisal boards are not elected representatives of the people of a state. Some appraisal boards work directly against the interests of the citizens of their state. The real, but hidden issue may actually be "Appraisal Boards' Rights." Some represent only themselves and coveat the rights to more power (see:
www.boardwatch.org/htmfiles/USPAP3.htm ). In the interest of protecting the public -- the citizens of the states -- the ASC must step up to the plate to protect the citizens of the states. This is because the appointors to state appraisal boards normally have no legitimate basis for their selections; and worse, those least fit to serve are often most likely to be appointed. Its not that the appointors desire to make grossly inappropriate appointments, it's just that inappropriate appointments are often worth much more (to the appointors' greater agendas) than the alternative appointment of the ethical and competent. Cash may not always be involved, but some form of quid pro quo often is. The integrity of the appraisal professions of the individual states are too often viewed as pawns to be traded (i.e., to be sacrificed) for other interests. This is not to say that such "other interests" may not be in the citizen's interests at times, but the trading of the integrity of the appraisal profession appears to be entirely too common -- not to mention the fact that it is often sold far too cheap. This is damaging to all the citizens of the states -- not just appraisers, and there is no reason to believe this phenomenon with the state appointors will ever change. We are sure it will not. It is just too tempting and too easy.
For this reason, the ASC must be surefooted and bold for the benefit of the states (i.e., the states' citizens, the public -- the states), and we must support them. If a state's real estate commerce is shut down for any period of time due to</span>acceptable behavior by its board, decision makers for that state will shapeup their board members for the good of the state, if not from the pressure of the real estate and banking industries. No states will be succeeding from the Union on this issue, and the citizens of the states will be much better served. There may even be less drastic means to encourage decent behavior from a few errant, arrogant selfserving appraisal board members across the country.
The recent reappointment of Mr. Ossie Smith to the North Carolina Appraisal Board (NCAB) is a good example of a harmful appointment trade-off. No one with any hint of credibility or ethics would even consider suggesting that Mr. Smith was appointed to the NCAB out of interest for the integrity of the profession. That's insane. We have seen his performance there, its unacceptable and it also had been reported to the governor's office. Likewise, I know of no one who has ever suggested he's a decent appraiser. Mr. Smith's appointment was strictly due to his influence in the tobacco industry. Plain and simple. He's there because he wants to be on this board (reportedly as a stepping stone to Raleigh or Washington, DC). His appointment appears to be part of the spoils of successfully promoting death and disease throughout the nation and the world for decades -- it has nothing to do with appraising. Our governor might even be inclined to concede this fact, because his intentions may have been honorable. Increased cooperation from the tobacco industry to ease off the equivalent of Joe Camel commercials to kids may be a good tradeoff if such as that was the intent. NC is currently figuring out what to do with its share of many millions from a tobacco liability settlement. Just in time too. As of this month it was announced that a full third of the state's high school students are now hooked on nicotine. (For that matter so is Mr. Smith, Bob Ipock and David C. Johnson.) Maybe the state will see a net benefit of less destruction, on the other hand, it may see more, I don't know. Regardless, because of this and similar appointments at the NCAB, one may aptly envision all the integrity of a table full of tobacco pushers with left hands on the bible, right hands in the air -- all lying their backends off. The image is fairly fitting. This is what one state's appointment system has done to its state appraisal board.
Another example is found in another recent post of Steve's where he writes as follows:
QUOTE:
"I do not know about other States but I certainly have little faith in Illinois. Our current Governor was involved with a license for bribe scandal. One of these illegal license sold was used by a trucker who hit a family on the expressway causing an accident that burned them alive. It is so bad the current Governor decided not to run again. His own party is eating him alive before this years election. This is the guy who politically appointed our current board. State independence would be disastrous here..." UNQUOTE
This may be the situation with other appraisal boards across the country too. If it were not for Steve's courage and integrity, we would not know about the Illinois board. If several appraisers in NC happened not to exist, we would not know about NC's board. To me, this suggests that there could very easily be many other states across the nation with similar corrupt and/or inept appraisal boards that have just not been revealed. This is incredibly harmful to our profession and damaging to the citizens of the states.
A means of screening and qualifying state board member appointees by the ASC would be vigorous manditory testing. Timed resolutions to case studies in the application of USPAP to hypotetical disciplinary scenerios might be an idea to consider. It might not do much to weed out the unethical (accept for the ones who are too lazy to learn what they are to enforce -- and NC sure has some of them), but it would go a long way towards weeding out the cognitively incompetent, and that's easily half the problem right there. More important it would eliminate the combination (i.e., unethical and incompetent) in a prospective member -- which is simply deadly to enforcement efficacy. The ASC has a dire calling for the sake of the states and the nation, and as members of the affected profession we have a dire calling to support them.
Regards,
David C. Johnson, Raleigh[/color]
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<span style='color:darkred'>Two letter word correction in forth paragraph: "acceptable" to "unacceptable" appears in a red bold font -- dcj</span>
