The local, state, and national associations of Realtors® rightfully take pride in the Realtor® Code of Ethics to which all of their members subscribe. Indeed, this past year the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has spent a considerable amount of money on a public awareness campaign designed to better acquaint the general populace with the fact that members of the Realtor® associations are governed by the Code in their business dealings.

Recently, directors of the California Association of Realtors® (CAR) took steps not only to correct perceptions about ethical practices within the industry, but also to correct some of the underlying realities that cause those perceptions.

In a report issued in October of last year, CAR's Business Practices Task Force said this: "The current Code of Ethics structure to promote professionalism is not reaching its objective due to lack of reporting and effective enforcement." It went on to add, "While the Code itself adequately addresses most activities, the process for enforcement needs to be improved."

The Task Force's conclusions, and its subsequent recommendations, were based in part on some disturbing survey results done in the past year within the membership of CAR.

• Nearly two thirds of all Realtors® surveyed reported that they had experienced unacceptable professional conduct from the cooperating agent or broker in their real estate transactions in the past two years.

• In the past two years, only 4 percent of those Realtors® had actually filed an ethics complaint against another Realtor®, while 61 percent of them had a reason to file a complaint, but chose not to.

• Of those who didn't file a complaint, 40 percent expressed the view that the process is not worth the time involved, 24 percent said the complaint probably would not stick.

Those are pretty harsh survey results; and, remember, those are the members speaking, not the general public.

The survey of Realtor® members closely matched the observations of Association Executives (the staff professionals -- generally CEOs, not practicing real estate agents -- who conduct the business operations of the local Associations of Realtors). Fifty-nine percent of them said that they were aware of conduct within the past two years that should have resulted in ethics complaints, but didn't. The reasons these executives gave for the failure to file complaints were: (1) fear of retaliation, (2) complaint process is too cumbersome, and (3) complaint process is too time-consuming.

If filing an ethics complaint is perceived by Realtors -- all of whom have received training -- to be cumbersome and time-consuming, imagine how the process seems to a consumer who probably has no familiarity with the code and the procedures at all.

It is no wonder that the Business Practices Task Force recommended that "the Professional Standards Committee design and implement a procedure to expedite the ethics complaint process and thereby encourage more enforcement of the existing rules."

Not surprisingly, a substantial number of specific proposals were generated. Nine of them have been under review and discussion by a Work Group of CAR's Professional Standards Committee. One in particular, an "Ethics Advocate" proposal, was proposed to CAR's Board of Directors as a pilot program.

In short, the Ethics Advocate would be a person who is trained and well-versed in the complaint procedure and who would be available to help guide potential complainants through the process.

At their recent meetings in Long Beach, CAR directors approved adoption of an Ethics Advocate pilot program to be tried by selected local associations around the state. Details of this program will be discussed in the next column.