This month we published two articles that I thought would be helpful to share with you that reflect some of the required changes outlined in the final report from the agency’s sunset review process.

Scott Kesner was appointed chair of the Texas Real Estate Commission on April 25, 2019. With more than 25 years of experience, this appointment is another highlight in Scott's long career.  Chair Kesner recently traveled to Austin from his home city of El Paso to meet with Agency senior staff and learn more about the Commission. He spent the day speaking to each director, learning about everything from enforcement to communications to technology. We sat down with Scott to ask him some questions about his experiences and learn more about his plans.

UPDATE:

AUSTIN, TX – The Texas Real Estate Commission is pleased to announce the confirmation of broker member Barbara Russell and public member Jason Hartgraves as new commissioners for terms to expire on January 31, 2025.  Governor Abbott nominated them to the post in March and they were confirmed by Senate vote on May 1^st.  Broker member Scott Kesner was confirmed and appointed as Chair of the Commission last week.

The Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) is pleased to announce that Governor Abbott has named Scott Kesner of El Paso as Chair of the Commission.  On April 24^th Mr. Kesner was confirmed by the Senate to serve on the Commission and his appointment as the Chair is effective April 25, 2019 and expires at the pleasure of the Governor. Mr. Kesner is the broker and owner of Century 21 The Edge with offices in El Paso, Midland and Snyder.

I would like to begin by publically welcoming the three new members to the Inspector Committee, who were appointed in February. Mike Morgan of Brownwood was appointed as a new inspector member, to serve a six-year term, and Robert John Daehn of Aransas Pass and Dave Motley of Garland were appointed as public members to serve two-year terms. In addition, Lee Warren was reappointed to another six-year inspector term and public member Barbara Evans was reappointed for an additional two-year term. I want like thank all of the inspectors who took the time to submit their applications.

Even without a legislative session, April is always a very busy month. So this year, that is especially true with our agency focused on the final steps of the Sunset review process as well.  We greatly appreciate the anticipated improvements this process will bring to the services we provide to the people of Texas and the license holders we also serve. It has always been this agency’s policy to partner with our license holders in order to better serve their clients, the ultimate objective of both the profession itself and our regulatory efforts.

Due to the amount of business we needed to conduct to both meet our obligations to advance the normal work of the Commission, and consider all of the matters highlighted in the agency’s Sunset Report, the Commission met for two days in February.  The Texas REALTORS Winter Meeting overlapped our dates, so we had several extra stakeholders in attendance – and they earned CE credit for attending! 

The Inspector Committee met on February 4. Among the business items taken up by the Committee was the election of the Committee officers for the upcoming Calendar year.  Lee Warren was elected as the chair of the Committee, Shawn Emerick was elected as vice-chair and Steven Rinehart was elected as secretary.  I would like to thank the outgoing officers for their leadership over the last year. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank a longtime member of the Committee, Brad Phillips who has completed his second, and final term on the Committee.