Lobby Day
On May 6th, UTA members and members of the California Mortgage Association, met with legislators and/or their staff, to advocate for AB 1158 and to share their concerns with SB 681. The annual ‘Lobby Day’ event began with a briefing by UTA and CMA’s California Lobbyist, Mike Belote.
The 21 members then created four ‘teams’ that each met with four or five Assembly members and Senators, all of whom serve on the Assembly or Senate Banking or Judiciary committees.
“Our ‘team’ met with five different legislators and/or their aides. There were 19 total offices to visit. We spoke with people ranging from the aides to actual Senators who had aides with them to keep notes. AB 1158 is the UTA bill of which we wanted a ‘yes’ vote and SB 681is a disruptive bill which we either wanted a ‘no’ vote or at least a deletion or our modification language of Section 5. All five offices that we visited were engaged with favorable outcomes to both UTA and CMA. It felt like a most effective day,” said Liz Knight, President of PLM Family of Companies.
Of the 19 total offices visited, eight were directly with Assembly members or Senators, including Senator Tim Grayson, Assembly member Mike Fong, Assembly Member Avelino Valencia, Assembly Member Blanca Pacheco, Assembly Member Diane Dixon, Assembly Member Blanca Rubio, Assembly Member Esmeralda Soria, and Assembly Member Phillip Chen, the sponsor of the UTA supported AB 1158. “Assembly woman Soria’s husband is apparently a foreclosure expert who buys at third party sales so she was extremely interested in AB 1158,” said Kayo Manson-Tompkins, Managing Eviction and Foreclosure Attorney, Steele, LLP.