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- Written by: Country Air Properties
LAKEPORT, Calif. — Lake County real estate brokerage Country Air Properties has added three agents to its roster: Suman Hartzell, Monica Swiger and Kathryn Carine.
Suman Hartzell began her career with Country Air in 2004 and closed $7.3 million in sales her first year, making her Rookie of the Year Runner-up that year. Since then she has explored other opportunities, but was not able to match the success she had at Country Air Properties.
“It’s like coming home. At other brokerages I was largely on my own, but nothing beats having an amazing team supporting me. In my first month back I got 4 listings and more on the way,” Hartzell said.
Hartzell works out of Country Air’s Lakeport office and specializes in residential and land. She is also trained to work with first time home buyers.
Monica Swiger got her license in 2021. She started her career at ReMax, but found the training was lacking, so she went to work for Country Air. As her career grew, she was recruited back to ReMax, but lack of leads and high fees forced her out of real estate.
Country Air reached out to her to come back, and she accepted, and in her first few months she took three new listings, one of which sold quickly, and is working on getting two more.
“There is a much bigger emphasis on training and support at Country Air,” said Swiger. “The company is involved in our success. Last weekend they set up a customer appreciation day where we were giving away free hot dogs and drinks, and I picked up a new buyer and another seller. It is a totally different world working here.”
Swiger will be working out of the Country Kelseyville Riviera office.
Kathryn Carine is a new licensee who lives in Clearlake Oaks but will be working out of the Lakeport office and focusing on residential real estate all around the lake.
She has been shadowing agents and getting training, and is sharing in two new listings. She took on the first listing on her own just three weeks from getting her license.
“I am so excited about coming to work for Country Air,” Carine said. “They are having fun making money by helping others, and that is my vibe. There is so much to learn, but I am surrounded by super agents who take time to teach me. I feel blessed to be here and work together in building my career.”
All three agents are recent graduates of County Air’s exclusive Success Express Real Estate Training course, which is eight half days of intense classroom education. This course has been taken by many of Lake County’s top agents and is commonly seen as the premier live real estate training program in Lake County.
Phil Smoley, owner/broker of Country Air Properties, welcomed the addition of these three agents.
“I saw potential in each of them, and so far, they are all exceeding my expectations. I am very proud of their work ethic and commitment to professionalism,” Smoley said. “This is my 40th year in the business, all of which has been in Lake County at Country Air Properties. I have had the honor of being involved in over 15,000 transaction sides during that time, and hired and trained nearly 200 people, many of whom have gone on to have remarkable real estate careers.”
Smoley encourages people considering a career in real estate to meet with him for a free consultation.
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- Written by: Editor
SACRAMENTO — As California faces mounting challenges in its homeowners insurance market, the Center for California Real Estate, or CCRE, brought together a distinguished group of expert leaders on Monday for a groundbreaking event aimed at identifying actionable solutions to one of the state’s most urgent issues.
This exclusive sandbox event convened nearly two dozen experts from the insurance industry, academia, government, and consumer advocacy for a candid, cross-sector dialogue.
With homeowners across the state grappling with shrinking coverage options and soaring premiums, the event offered a rare opportunity for collaborative problem-solving at a critical moment.
“We’re proud to host this vital conversation and deeply grateful to the experts lending their time and insight,” said Pete Peterson, dean of Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy, who served as moderator. “This is about cutting through the rhetoric and building forward-thinking, practical and sustainable solutions that protect California families and communities.”
Participants engaged in a facilitated discussion focused on developing both short- and long-term strategies to expand insurance availability, improve affordability, and ensure the sustainability of California’s insurance market amid escalating climate and economic risks.
Key themes discussed include regulatory and policy innovation; reform of the California FAIR Plan and wildfire mitigation strategies. Panelists also reviewed comparative models from other states and countries for actionable insights and best practices.
The insights and ideas generated during the session will be synthesized into a formal report to inform policymakers, industry stakeholders, and the broader public. This report will serve as a roadmap for driving meaningful progress and shaping a more resilient future for California homeowners. The report is anticipated for release this summer.
The sandbox event follows two prior expert panel discussions hosted by the Center for California Real Estate around the evolving insurance market crisis in the past year. To learn more about those events and other industry-leading CCRE programs visit https://www.ccre.us/pastevents.
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- Written by: Editor
SANTA ROSA, Calif. – Redwood Empire Vineyard Management Inc. of Geyserville has agreed to pay seven farmworkers $33,548 in lost wages and offer them reinstatement to resolve an unfair labor practice complaint filed by the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board.
The complaint by the board, or ALRB, alleged that Redwood Empire Vineyard Management, or REVM, retaliated against workers by issuing written warnings and failing to rehire them because they engaged in protected activity, including a workers’ rights protest, worker marches and other activities together with the local organization North Bay Jobs with Justice.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement with the ALRB, REVM will also rescind language in their employment contracts they require employees to sign stating that those who tried to negotiate higher wages would be immediately fired.
The company additionally agreed to rescind warnings issued against two workers, and to respect the rights of farmworkers to join together and speak up to seek improvements to working conditions without retaliation.
As agreed, ALRB agents will go to REVM’s worksite to read a Notice to agricultural workers about their rights under the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, or ALRA.
This notice will be posted at the workplace for 60 days and mailed to current and former employees. ALRB Agents will also provide training to REVM supervisors about their responsibilities under the ALRA.
The ALRB enforces the Agricultural labor Relations Act, which states that “it is the policy of the State of California to encourage and protect the right of agricultural employees to full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, to negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment, and to be free from the interference, restraint, or coercion of employers of labor, or their agents, in the designation of such representatives of in self-organization or in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.”
The ALRB is headquartered in Sacramento and maintains field offices in Santa Rosa, Salinas, Oxnard, Visalia, and Indio.
Those wishing to access ALRB services may call any ALRB office including the Santa Rosa office at 707-527-3256, or a statewide toll-free phone number, (800) 449-3699. More information is available at www.alrb.ca.gov.
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- Written by: Editor
The Employment Development Department, or EDD, just released a simpler online application for disability benefits — another step in modernizing California’s benefit programs and improving the customer experience.
"We're simplifying California’s disability application to serve our customers better," said EDD Director Nancy Farias. "We’re designing and delivering systems that are easier for everyone to understand and access."
Disability Insurance can be a complex public benefit program, with detailed eligibility requirements and required medical certifications. As a result, the application was often considered complex and confusing.
In response, EDD asked customers, employees, and advocates for ideas to make the application easier.
The new, online application includes:
- Revised instructions and questions that are easier to answer — using less technical terms.
• Help text with simple explanations right when they are needed.
• Reorganized questions to improve the overall application experience.
• Improved navigation through complex topics like the medical authorization and declaration signature pages.
• Relabeled page headings and titles to improve the customer experience.
For example, there are times when workers may want their benefits to start at a different time than when their actual disability began. But many customers said they had difficulty providing a date in response to, "Date you want your Disability Insurance claim to begin if different than the date your disability began." This prompt has been replaced with a simpler, yes-or-no question, "Do you want your claim to start on a different date?" If yes, customers are then prompted to provide a date.
EDD reorganized the application and revised the headings to guide customers through the application process and gather all information needed for application review. Some customers didn’t realize that an application for disability benefits was not complete until a medical certification, also known as Part B – Physician/Practitioner’s Certification, was submitted to the Department.
The updated online application includes more visible reminders at the beginning and end of the application process to help the customer understand this required step.
These improvements — and many others — will help EDD process applications more quickly and pay customers faster.
EDD’s commitment to enhance the way Californians engage with its programs and services is all part of EDDNext, an ongoing modernization effort to completely transform the EDD customer and employee experience.
EDDNext efforts include updating benefit applications, contact centers, the claims process, policies, procedures, and forms, to make the EDD experience easier and faster. It involves working with customer service experts, such as Amazon Web Services and Salesforce, to ensure EDDNext is forward-thinking and embraces the best technology and practices.
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