How often do you think about the issue of data security?  Did you write a check today?  Did you make a purchase using a credit or debit card?  Did you make a phone call on your office, home, or cell phone?  Did you meet with a new client looking to buy or sell a home?

If you engaged in any of these activities, you most likely provided someone else with your personal information.  You may not think about how the party receiving that information stores and uses your data.  You may have never considered your own data security practices for client information.  However, with new revelations about how companies deal with personal data and data security, Congress is now concerned about how companies keep private the information they collect about their customers.

Modern business practices are evolving and consumers are changing the ways in which they purchase and pay for goods and services.  Businesses which once conducted transactions face-to-face using cash are now increasingly serving customers via phone, fax, email and the internet using credit cards, direct debits, and online payment systems.  Real estate agents and offices, long guardians of massive filing systems, are increasingly incorporating electronic data storage into their normal business routines. 

No fewer than four House and Senate committees have held meetings and approved legislation regarding data security.  All of the bills would:

• Define what constitutes “sensitive personal information,”
• Require businesses that collect, keep, or maintain such information to establish safeguards to maintain a secure storage environment;
• Establish guidelines firms must follow upon finding that a data breach has occurred; and,
• Establish a threshold for data breaches that require mandatory customer notification.

(NAR)

California housing starts declined for the fifth consecutive month during July 2005, falling 40.8 percent compared with the construction pace recorded one year earlier as reported recently by the California Building Industry Association (CBIA).  Builders are on-track to produce 180,000 new single-family and multifamily units in California during 2006.  According to the report, single-family construction was strongest in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario region, followed by the Sacramento-Arden-Roseville and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale regions.

AB 2100 (Laird), “Homeowner Association Reserve Accounts,” was signed into law on August 28^th.  Existing law requires homeowners associations (HOA) to provide their members a pro forma budget but not how and when they will repair or replace major assets of the association.  AB 2100 is vital to homeowners because it completes the budgeting process by requiring homeowners’ associations to provide members with clear and concise information on how much they will have to pay for regular and special assessment needs, such as the replacement of roofs or repair of building exteriors.

REALTOR® Safety Week is September 10-16:  The National Association of REALTORS® and the California Association of REALTORS® are committed to helping its members to stay safe while on the job, at home and on the road.

Safety Tips:

• Always keep a mobile phone at your side; program emergency numbers into speed dial.
• Meet all new clients at your office; verify their identity.
• Whenever possible, avoid being at the office alone.
• Take a personal safety course.
• Install deadbolts with full one-inch bolts on all entry doors to your home and the door to your home office.
• Make sure you know your route to and from each property you visit.
• When you are alone getting into your car, the first thing you should do is lock the doors.

President Ronald Reagan:  America’s 40^th President will take a place among great Americans from all 50 states in National Statuary Hall.  This was a measure authored by state Senator Dennis Hollingsworth which was approved in the closing hours of the legislative session.

The measure, SJR 3, will place a likeness of the former governor and president as one of two representing California in the nation’s Capitol.

The U.S. Congress created a place to honor great Americans in the capitol building in 1864.  The National Statuary Hall, was first built and used as a second chamber for the House of Representatives.  But after 50 years of use, the Congress decided to invite each state to contribute two sculptures, made of bronze or marble, for permanent display.  The entire collection now consists of 100 statues, contributed by each of the 50 states.

California contributed its two statues in 1931; one is of Thomas Starr King.  Known as “the orator who saved the nation,” King was credited with saving California from becoming a separate republic during the Civil War. California’s other statue is of Father Junipero Serra, a Franciscan Friar who established Spanish missions throughout California and gained prominence as an eloquent preacher.

Because it honors a former president, the Reagan statue will be placed in a prominent place of honor in the hall.  The placement will follow a ceremony at a future date in Washington, D.C., coordinated by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Congress.

Richard Tegley is a Realtor® and President of the Multi-Regional Multiple Listing Service Inc., (MRMLS); State Director of the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® and National Director of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Richard can be reached at (951) 533-9340 or email Tegley@surfcity.net

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