Manager of State Government Affairs Jim Clayton previews our first Capitol Conference in two years.

In this podcast, he talks about the unique format of this year’s event, our exclusive breakfast program featuring House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and the expert analysis you’ll get about our biggest challenges in the state. We’ll also recognize our latest RPAC Hall of Fame inductees.

Listen to what Clayton has to say.

Full Transcript:

Kelli Jessup: Hello, and welcome to the IR weekly podcast, keeping you up to date with all the latest news in the REALTOR® world. I’m Kelli, and I’m very excited about our episode today. We’re quickly coming up on one of the biggest events in the REALTOR® year. Our annual Capitol Conference in Springfield. This event is always packed with amazing opportunities for our members to show the power of their collective voices and get vital updates on our advocacy efforts on their behalf with so much to talk about, we thought there’s no one better to come and talk about it all than our Manager of State Government Affairs, Jim Clayton. Welcome back to the podcast.

Jim Clayton: Thank you, Kelli. Appreciate it.

Kelli Jessup: So, are you getting excited for Capitol Conference?

Jim Clayton: Oh yeah. I, I can’t believe it’s only about a less, or not less, but a little more than a week away. The planning, the different scenarios we’ve had to do and how big of a day it is. You sit there and look at your calendar and go, OK, it’s two weeks away. It’s three weeks away and you get more and more excited. And then when it’s finally that last week before it’s here, we’re excited.

Kelli Jessup: So, let’s just jump right into it. There’s a lot to get to with the Capitol Conference this year, if I’m correct, by the time this is released, it will have sort of officially kicked off already. What can you tell me about the let’s talk real estate sessions that took place yesterday?

Jim Clayton: Yes. So in lieu of our typical Lobby Day, which most people, or most members have experience where we have nearly 1,000 REALTORS® down at the Capitol building and we’re in the Capitol building, we’re in legislator’s offices and we’re getting those one-on-one discussions. We obviously with accessibility of the capital this year, didn’t foresee that the capability of having that same kind of group being in there. So, we still wanted our REALTORS®’ voice to be heard. We still wanted to show the strengthen, our advocacy and our connections and relationships with these legislators. So what we did is we put on six different Let’s Talk Real Estate discussions with legislators spread out throughout the state all at the same time yesterday. Talking everything in the real estate industry, getting their thoughts on new development ideas, initiatives to bring back, building and development of housing, especially to Illinois. And what better ways we can do now, or what actual legislative matters that are realistic are going to be in the pipeline to achieve some of those things.

Kelli Jessup: Yeah, that sounds cool. And I mean, it’s all in their local areas for the members to hear.

Jim Clayton: And they were very well attended. Our members anytime they get a chance to be in front of the legislator and see those relationships, they always show up.

Kelli Jessup: At those events, can you kind of touch on who is sitting down with the legislator and interviewing them at the SLCs and kind explain what the SLCs are.

Jim Clayton: Each member of the General Assembly House and the Senate has what’s called a State Legislative Contact here from the Illinois REALTORS®, one member of ours that is dedicated liaison, if you will, or that dedicated voice within that district to represent the real estate industry or represent REALTORS® in general. Each state legislative contact for these six Let’s Talk Real Estates we did were either going to be the host of the program or the actual interviewer and a discussion. And it just allows for the legislator, who’s a professional politician, to get a sense from a professional in the real estate world. You know, you have your politician, you have your legislator that is going to have a certain view of real estate and certain ways they can impact real estate in either regulatory or legislative way.

Jim Clayton: It’s all policy driven. And it just brings that legislator a better understanding of not only our industry, but our advocacy efforts, how tied into our members are, how engaged they are. Most of them are falling along with what you guys are doing. So you know, it’s just a great way not only like I said, to strengthen those relationships, but at the same time for a legislator to really understand a REALTORS® perspective in the real estate industry, especially in Illinois.

Kelli Jessup: That was a really good breakdown of it and explanation, I didn’t give you a heads up on that question, but thanks for sharing. Um, so the session on the 29th is what most people think of when it comes to Capitol Conference. Can you kind of tell us about the events taking place the day prior? We think we have a YPN session, the annual REALTOR® of the Year Banquet.

Jim Clayton: Yeah, the ROTY as we like to call it, the REALTOR® of the Year Banquet. We’ll actually have some of our legislators that are actually REALTOR® members attending that as well. That banquet, obviously we award or celebrate the REALTOR® of the Year from the Illinois REALTORS®, but every local association has a REALTOR® of the Year as well. They get honored at that as well. And then we have the YPN events and leadership development is in town. So, it’s a kickoff to the lobby day, as far as Monday, with the ROTY, the YPN and leadership development. It just kind of kickstarts the week and gets us all geared up for the big day on Tuesday.

Kelli Jessup: And after ROTY, there’s always an unofficial YPN after party.

Jim Clayton: I’ve never pretended as one of those.

Kelli Jessup: No, I think I’ve seen you at one. So then of course the big day itself is on Tuesday, the 29th this day has a lot of parts to it. So, can you just kind of guide us through what’s going down starting with this special session at 7:30?

Jim Clayton: Like I mentioned earlier, typically we would be having some briefings in the morning and everyone arriving in town and then a lunch and a legislative update, and here’s our big issues. Here’s our big talking point. And then collectively we all head to the capital. Obviously, we can’t do that this year for various different reasons. So, at 7:30, we have a very exclusive breakfast with the Speaker of the House Chris Welch for our members that are in town. Then we just have a lot of advocacy programs and a lot of ways to still connect with the legislators and a lot of ways to hopefully get in front of some, get to meet some and get to share our views to some. But the day is going to be filled with highlighting and educating our members with everything we do on the advocacy level and everything we’re facing at the capital now, which that huge laundry list of 700 some bills we’ve had for the 102nd General Assembly that affected real estate or private property rights, at this time when Capitol Conference happened, that’s third reading deadline.

Jim Clayton:

That means that’s the last week for a bill to make it OK. So, we are down to a handful of high priority bills left that are in those situations that either we’re going to try to be stopping or helping get through. It’s a huge week for the state government affairs team. Typically, this Capitol Conference doesn’t align with a third reading deadline. So not only legislators will be on high alert and be forced to be in their chairs and to take votes and not get off the floor. But we’re also going to be there trying to do that very thing and lobby our positions as well. It will be a fun, fast-paced day. I think our members will really get a chance to see how quickly things can change in the legislative process, especially during a week, like third reading deadline. It sounds like it’s going to be, it’ll be an exciting day.

Kelli Jessup: Oh yeah.

Jim Clayton: Oh yeah. Each week of session’s a fun week

Kelli Jessup: We usually have Greg St. Aubin, our Vice President of Governmental Affairs, do a little update that will take place. And then, are there going to be any awards given out?

Jim Clayton: We will honor those RPAC Major Investor Hall of Famers as well. We will be awarding members with the Political Involvement Award members that just have within not just the last year, but over a consistent time period have gone above and beyond. What member engagement is with legislators and advocacy efforts and their engagement on the local level, going to city councils, um, speaking, sharing the realtor, voice accounting boards, arranging coalition meetings, arranging stakeholder meetings, and then actually contacting legislators, senators and representatives that they are assigned to, or that’s within their district that share our voice. What’s great about our SLCs and what’s great about our members that are really tied into legislators is, you know, when I am calling a legislator to speak on a position of a bill, sometimes you hear something you don’t want to hear, and sometimes you’ve really got to filter yourself almost in the sense of, OK, I don’t want to anger them or, you know, we want to make sure everything’s even keeled. What’s great about our members sometimes is they’ll call a legislator at one in the morning and say, why are you doing this? You know, just to hear that different perspective, but to hear that personal voice, that you’re a friend of theirs say, “hey, I know what you think this bill does, but here’s how it affects me. Here’s how it affects this industry.” There’s no better form of communication, or conduit to legislators than our members.

Kelli Jessup: Right. I think we covered everything that’s happening so thank you so much, Jim, for joining us this week and giving us a preview of what is sure to be an amazing Capitol Conference this year.

Jim Clayton: I would always appreciate the members and their engagement and how many attend this event. I think that given the circumstances of the last year or last two years, our members have been able to adjust and adapt and be flexible with all the different scenarios they had to do with their own professional world in the real estate. And, you know, we’re going to have to ask them to do that one more time. So it’ll be a lot of fun. It will be a lot of educational advocacy efforts as well. And it’s just a great one of our favorite days here. I’m getting more and more excited because we got a little taste of being back with our members live and in person in the fall and winter business meetings. But this one feels a little different and it feels like we’re slowly getting back to normal.

Kelli Jessup: The last Capitol Conference in person was 2019.

Jim Clayton: Oh, wow! We did one from nothing but zoom videos at Capitol Conference at home. Then last year we did a production on our third floor with the leaders. Yes. Which was amazing, but there’s nothing that beats, you know, seeing our members. We got the best members in the world and seeing them and seeing how excited they are and then watching them interact with legislators. It’s going to be a really fun day.

Kelli Jessup: It’s a really exciting day. You can just kind of feel the excitement.

Jim Clayton: All that. Yeah. It’s like almost like a tournament or something’s coming up, you know,

Kelli Jessup: So, it’s cool. All right. Well, thank you. That’s it for this week’s IR podcast. Thank you all for listening. And as always give us a rating review on your podcast app choice. And if you want any more content, simply search for Illinois REALTORS® on your favorite social media app, we’ll see you next week.