VA Dealer Board Reviews Salesperson Licensing, Budget Cuts
At its monthly meeting last week, the Virginia Motor Vehicle Dealer Board (MVDB) reviewed a recently enacted policy that salespeople must be employees of a dealership and not 1099 independent contractors. The board reiterated that in all renewal documentation, dealers will be asked to certify that all licensed salespeople are employees. When field representatives visit dealers for inspection, they will be checking to be sure that all salespeople are employees. Dealers who are not in compliance with this requirement will receive an initial warning. Thereafter, civil penalties will be imposed.
In other actions, the MVDB reduced four job position openings in response to the commonwealthês overall fiscal responsibility initiative. However, these reductions in open positions are not expected to seriously affect the ability of the board to undertake its responsibilities.
In addition, the General Assembly has voted as part of the budget bill to take more than $4 million of surplus in the Transaction Recovery Fund. The MVDB noted that it expects that any future surplus in the Transaction Recovery Fund will be examined and subject to taking annually as part of the Commonwealthês effort to balance the budget. The issue of the Transaction Recovery Fund was addressed before the General Assembly this year where three alternatives were created for dealers, either participation in the Transaction Recovery Fund, an individual surety bond of $100,000, or participation in a blanket bond of $1,000,000 that could be obtained by a dealer trade association for its members.
The Advertising Committee also said it will review advertising regulations to determine whether any changes would be appropriate. It was noted that while the statutory requirements govern much of what is allowed or not allowed, there are potential areas of interpretation under the regulations that could have a significant impact on the advertising dealers do. The Committee will take the opportunity to make changes where changes are necessary at the May 12 board meeting.
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