TitleBytes News & Happenings

MLTA Under the Dome

Cami Pendell, Michigan Legislative Consultants

This year, MLTA held its Capitol Day on May 2nd and we had fantastic participation by association members. Because members took time out of their busy schedules to meet face-to-face with policy makers, that helped us to educate legislators and staff on issues important to the title industry.

Our advocacy efforts centered around ensuring that legislators understood what a valuable resource MLTA can be to them on land title issues. We also seized the opportunity to discuss one of MLTA’s legislative initiatives which is to amend the Marketable Title Act. SB 671 provides clarity to the act by requiring that a document carrying forward a prior property restriction would have to reference the book and page where that restriction is recorded in the register of deeds records. This is the same approach that Ohio, Indiana and the uniform law commission has taken to this issue. Our Capitol Day was especially timely for promoting SB 671 since the Senate unanimously passed the bill and it was referred to the House Local Government Committee.

In case you haven’t had the chance to attend a MLTA Capitol Day event, I would like to provide you with a quick overview of what takes place. In the morning, we hold a briefing to review the logistics of the day and to discuss the issues that we would be sharing with legislators. MLTA members then learn what small group they are placed into and the schedule of legislative meetings they will have throughout the day. This process helps to ensure that MLTA members won’t have to attend any meetings alone. Along with face-to-face meetings, each group is also provided with a small number of offices where they simply drop off advocacy materials. Between direct meetings and the drop off schedules, all legislative offices receive contact from MLTA. In addition to these meetings, MLTA also hosts a luncheon at the Capitol for legislators and staff to help foster relationships, networking and for additional opportunities to advance the association’s legislative initiatives.

To help provide you with more understanding of what a Capitol Day is like, below is insight that we received from first time attendee, Brad Miller from Amrock:

I really enjoyed having the privilege to be involved in the 2018 Michigan Land Title Legislative Day. The general structure of the day is very simple to understand and there was a great focus on the quality of interactions and idea sharing with the representatives and senators. The structure was laid out to support the first time attendees and the groupings were centralized to get each MLTA member in front of reps that they were constituents of which I felt was not only impactful at the land title industry level, but engaging on a personal level as well. The MLTA family really embraced the ‘first timers’ by being informative and empowering everyone to use their voice to the level they felt comfortable with. The collaboration between Cami Pendell, Marcy Lay and the legislative steering committee to make this event a success was astounding and I am excited to be part of the event again next year!

Capitol Days are an important advocacy tool for the association to help educate legislators and advance the title industry. Thank you to all of the members who attended this year’s event and we hope to see you again next year along with your fellow MLTA colleagues.