The AI Corrupt & Sham Election Process
Echoes of the Sham Petition Process are alarming – The following sequence seems astoundingly corrupt. This time series has been confirmed by a number of highly credible sources.
In 2017, Appraisal Institute CEO Fred Grubbe essentially resigned in the middle of the night without warning. Apparently, people close to Fred were stunned by the lack of advanced warning.
In 2018 AI President Jim Murrett appointed Scott Robinson, former AI president, to lead a CEO Search Project and all of his 8 team members. At the Nashville national conference, Murrett said on stage that the Board of Directors selected the team, and then soon after he got back on stage to essentially say he was confused and meant to say that he picked everyone – it is widely assumed that Murrett is an FOJ (Inner Circle Friend of Jim Amorin) and most of the selections were also FOJ.
The team was comprised of:
- Scott Robinson, MAI, SRA, AI-GRS, AI- RRS, Chair (2016 President)
- Sandy Adomatis, SRA (Punta Gorda, FL)
- Roger Bush, MAI, SRA (El Cajon, CA – is currently the Region VII Chair and serves on the National Board of Directors)
- Joe Comperchio, SRA (Boston, MA)
- Woody Fincham, SRA, AI-RRS (Palmyra, VA)- he voluntarily stepped down for medical reasons
- Charlie Lentz, MAI (Orlando, FL)
- Sara Stephens, MAI, AI-GRS (Little Rock, AR 2012 President )
- Joe Woods, SRA (Columbia, SC)
Jim Amorin was interviewed early on but not selected, largely because he had no CEO experience of a large organization, except for his interim term after Grubbe resigned unexpectedly. This is an important concept later when I discuss his compensation.
The Board of Directors was about to ratify the new CEO selected by the CEO search team when Jody Bishop (now, surprisingly the AI vice president) made a motion to reconsider Jim Amorin who was passed over for the job by the committee.
And Michael Tankersly seconded the motion. You remember Tankersly, right? He was the guy that had no qualms with being personally selected by Jim Amorin to run against Craig Steinley who had already been selected by the National Nominating Committee and announced in public.
And then, as if magic… AI makes this announcement (bold my emphasis):
The CEO Search Project Team, composed of distinguished AI professionals, worked with Kansas City-based Tryon & Heideman, LLC, a third-party executive search firm, for nearly a year to consider more than 140 applications. Their combined meticulous and thorough vetting process included extensive research and comprehensive interviews that formed the basis of their report for the Board to consider. After conducting our own in-depth interviews and 10 hours of intensive discussion over two days, we concluded that Jim is best suited to be our CEO and hired him accordingly, as is our responsibility in the AI Bylaws.
And voila! Jim Amorin was made CEO!
Jim Amorin Seems Wildly Over-Compensated Given His Lack of Experience
Jim Amorin was president of AI in 2009 when AI had 27K members and in 2017 when it had 17K members.
At the Nashville conference in 2018, Jim was made CEO and given a 3-year contract. His 2018 compensation was reported to be $451K yet at the time, the CEO of CCIM, a similar-sized trade group (13K members versus 17K members), was paid $316K, with significantly more previous CEO experience. By doing a correlation, the CFOs of CCIM and AI both made $221K. Why would AI pay Amorin as CEO a 43% compensation premium over the CCIM CEO?
I’ll show you why. In 2017, executive compensation for AI was 44.3% of revenue while CCIM paid only 27.5%. Bloated compensation in a declining organization.
And in addition, his contract supposedly renews automatically 6 months prior to the start of the next one on February 21, 2021. This means that the upcoming mid-November AI Board of Directors meeting is the last chance the board has to reconsider another CEO. And more incredibly, the 1Q 2021 AI BOD meeting was conveniently scheduled 3 days after Jim’s contract renews yet AI February board meetings have generally been scheduled earlier in February. Coincidence?
And by the way, I’ve been told by several sources that AI may lose as much as $300K this year but Amorin’s contract incentives him for cost-cutting instead of for growing the organization. He has let people go so he may actually get a bonus!
After considering all of this, what does the Appraisal Institute Board of Directors actually do for their membership? There seems to be a lot of FOJ’s and CV-padders on the payroll at this time.
The recurring theme with this organization is the total exclusion of the needs of appraisers by the executive leadership – who pay a lot of dues and fees. AI’s corruption over the past 10+ years has resulted in the significant erosion of the SRA brand in the eyes of the public and the MAI designation is next unless changes are made to leadership. What a tragedy for appraisers. Isn’t this self-dealing behavior subject to RICO?
- GSE Exec Boasts Scheme to Slash Appraiser Numbers - May 2, 2024
- Valuation Connect Demands Licenses, Denies Fair Pay - April 9, 2024
- Appraisal Reviews for $3 – The Devaluation of Appraisers - January 16, 2024
everyone is getting theirs
I’m on my way to earning my MAI….and I hope the organization is still in structure by the time I get there. As a younger professional in the field, AI needs someone like me in another 10 years. Let’s hope it’s still around. As First Midwest Bank likes to say (and I cringe when I see their billboards) – “I’ve got ideas”
And what is this with TAF cozying up to AI again?
It’s a racket, they’re all profiteers these days.
All your future income is now belong to us.
I don’t know who is more corrupt, TAF or AI?
What I find devastating in this whole writing is the fact that AI lost 10,000 members in an 8 year period! That equates to a 1,250 member per year loss! While membership fee vary, simple math would suggest this to be an approximant loss of one million three hundred thousand a year or about ten and a half million dollars, not including other fees, education income, etc. And it does not seem to be getting better, especially on the residential side, which has suffered for years! And they wonder why appraisers are not signing up!
They’re incompetent; the field has screwed itself. Valuation sciences should be taught in college. What kid is going to come out of college and want to start at the bottom.
Teach the classes in college….I think that’s a big problem here. Or don’t change anything and be the island of misfit 60 year old toys.