October 27, 2021
There’s a lot going in among our divisions. Here’s a brief update of what’s going on in each division
Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL)
DOPL team members continue to work hard and succeed with SUCCESS goals in spite of increasing workloads, team member turnover, and the negative impacts of the Pandemic. We are grateful and lucky to have such dedicated team members striving to help licensed professionals and protect Utah consumers.
Office of Consumer Services
OCS has been working on a case with Rocky Mountain Power’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program (EVIP). $50 million was authorized by the Utah legislature to be collected in rates and OCS is now reviewing the EVIP to ensure proper oversight and fair treatment for the residential and small commercial customers we represent, as well as to advocate for best practices to maximize the value of the $50 million of ratepayer funds.
Division of Public Utilities
The Division of Public Utilities reached a settlement with Dominion Energy after a natural gas explosion and fire that destroyed an apartment building in Alta in 2019. The Division’s Pipeline Safety section, led by Al Zadeh, investigated the incident and determined that the Dominion Energy gas meter was not adequately protected from snowfall and its attendant pressures. Dominion has agreed that it is responsible to adequately protect its meters from snowfall and will contribute $100,000 from shareholders to add meter protection in areas it finds are inadequately protected.
Division of Corporations and Commercial Code
Corporations and Commercial Code has lovingly been known as Corporations or CORP for as long as it’s been around but we feel that has left out our article 9 folks. So we are happy to announce to the Department that the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code will now be abbreviated to DCCC or D-triple C as our new Director is fondly calling it. In other news DCCC’s website is now up and running, so please check it out! Our staff and DTS have been working hard this last month to get it updated to the new “One Commerce” look and feel
Division of Securities
Our Director and Staff have been busy presenting at different events from the Utah Bar Annual Securities Section meeting to the Utah Financial Planning Association Symposium, to the Women in the Money Conference. We are doing our due diligence to help protect from various types of investment fraud to helping people know how to spot investors scams.
Office of Property Rights Ombudsman
The Ombudsman’s Office is in the final stages of an update to the rules for the Land Use Training Fund that will make the fund more useful and responsive to the needs of those it serves. The Land Use Training Fund is a grant program that awards local governments money for training programs in land use law and dispute resolution.
Division of Consumer Protection
One of the big updates for the Division of Consumer Protection is a new database for investigations. As part of that, the Division rolled out a way for consumers to file complaints with the Division online! We are very excited about this new improvement for consumers.
Division of Real Estate
In 2020 and 2021 Real Estate has seen a drastic increase in new applications for the real estate and mortgage industries. In real estate, our applications increased 64% from 2019 to 2020. In the first and second quarter of 2021, applications increased an additional 69%. The mortgage industry has increased even more, seeing new applications increase 50% from 2019 to 2020 and in 2021 an increase of 95% in the first quarter, 153% in the second quarter, and 91% in the third quarter.