NHIDC

August, 2007

LEGISLATION UPDATE

The New Hampshire Interior Design Coalition (NHIDC), in spite of its recent unsuccessful attempt to pass its anti-competitive interior design title and practice act earlier this year is preparing to make another attempt to regulate interior design in NH. In spite of their previous unanimous vote to wait until January 2008 to propose a new bill, NHIDC is allegedly rushing to re-write a new bill to meet the September 2007 deadline, since it is not budget time, and they believe the ED&A Committee - whom President Maria Perron rebuked in her email of 3/19/07 as "not functioning at full capacity" and "moving too quickly to digest the enormous amounts of information" - will have more time to review their bill. She also stated in that same writing, "as citizens, we had expected more from our democratic process."

Totally ignoring the Committee's statement that they will not legislate a "turf war," NHIDC is pressing ahead with an agenda that does not have the support of the design community or comsumers. To continue to push for regulation without a mandate from the design community shows a lack of respect for our elected officials.

Indeed, even their own membership does not support new legislation, as is evidenced by the fact that when President Maria Perron called for a vote this spring on whether or not to continue seeking regulation, per her memo of 5/11/07 only 10 of their 54 members (less than 20%) voted in favor of pursuing some type of licensing/certification. The rest of the membership either voted to stop the pursuit, or did not bother to respond to NHIDC's multiple requests for votes.

Throughout the summer, Maria Perron has continued to lobby the Executive Departments and Administration Committee for their support for their new bill. Even though the documentation sent to the Committee was fraught with errors, confusing attachments, and misinformation, out of respect for their well-deserved summer hiatus, Live Free and Design! has refrained from contacting the Committee. We will now begin the process of advising the legislature of the corrections in their creative math, as well as provide facts to counter the rhetoric and errors.

At the appropriate time, we will once again ask you to contact the Committee and your legislators to let them know that you DO NOT support legislation.

YOU made the difference in the outcome of the last hearing!

September, 2007

LEGISLATION UPDATE

The New Hampshire Interior Design Coalition (NHIDC) has filed its new bill, 2008-H-2209-R to the legislature for this coming session.

The new bill, which is a certification act with provision to stamp plans for permits, is just one more attempt to create an elite group of designers and demote the majority who do not meet their qualifications, and ask the legislature to do their marketing for them.

NH Interior Designers oppose this bill for 18 legitimate, factual reasons, not the least of which is that titling laws are merely a way of getting a foot in the door, only to come back in a few years to pass a practice act. ASID-backed coalitions have attempted to do this time and time again throughout our country and this goal is shared by NHIDC. Of the four states with a practice law, three of them started out as title/certification law.

Governor Daniels of Indiana and Governor Ritter of Colorado vetoed similar registration bills this year.

When recently asked for comment on the new bill, Ann Marie Irwin, Chair of the Executive Departments and Administration Committee said that the Committee members "were not any too anxious to become involved in a turf war."

NHIDC claims they do not advocate turf wars; yet, by pressing ahead with another bill that does not have the support of the interior designers of NH, and totally ignoring the Committee's previous statements on that subject, that is exactly what they are initiating! To continue this relentless push for regulation without a mandate from the design community shows a lack of respect to our elected officials.

According to Madam Chair Irwin, a bill submitted by the September deadline will be heard in January. Stay tuned; at the appropriate time, we will once again ask you to contact the Committee and your legislators to let them know that you DO NOT support legislation. In the meantime, you can help now by contacting your fellow designers and industry partners (anyone you do business with) and asking them to join our growing list of supporters (no membership fees). The larger our group becomes, the louder our voice will be in inconvincing the legislature that the design community does not want or need to be regulated. Please contact us at livefreedesign@yahoo.com with the names of any new supporters.

YOU made the difference in the outcome of the last hearing! Click here for a copy of the draft of the new bill.

FALSE ADVERTISING?

A brochure offered at the "Parade of Homes" sponsored by HBRANH earlier this month ran an article which was written and placed by Maria P. Perron, which stated:

"New Hampshire has joined 26 states that register or license interior designers"

This statement is FALSE -- NH has NO laws registering or licensing interior designers, as Ms. Perron, President of NHIDC, should know. The licensure practice act (HB-881) proposed by Ms. Perron's organization, NHIDC, was defeated in the last legislative session nor are there any registration laws on the books. When asked to explain this misleading statement, Ms. Perron claimed that because they are "pursuing" registration, it is a "moot point." Indeed, misleading the public is not moot, but very important. The Consumer Protection Bureau of the NH Attorney General's Office, RSA 359-A:2 states:

"It shall be unlawful for any person to use any unfair method of competition or any unfair or deceptive act or practice in the conduct of any trade or commerce within this state. Such unfair method of competition or unfair or deceptive act or practice shall include, but is not limited to, the following:

II. Causing likelihood of confusion or of misunderstanding as to the source, sponsorship, approval, or certification of goods and services;"

Additionally, the forth paragraph would lead one to believe that HBRANH supports interior design regulation. HBRANH does not endorse this ad; they did NOT support the last legislation attempt, nor have they indicated any support of certification for designers.

See full ad below, left.

NOT ME! THEY DID IT!

In a 11/7/07 email, Maria Perron stated that her ad in the Parade of Homes brochure "did not present a falsity" and that "In the editing process, 'in the pursuit of' may have been left out, but I have no personal control over what is removed or not."

The Live Free and Design! investigative team has uncovered that this attempt to blame Home Builders and Remodelers of New Hampshire, an organization of impeccable integrity, for the controversal false ad is FALSE!

On September 9, 2008, Maria Perron approved and signed off on the ad as it appears in the brochure! Indeed, Ms. Perron had full control over the content of the ad and chose to print the false information.

Live Free and Design! is in opposition to any NH interior design regulation, and will continue to expose any misleading and blatantly false information perpetrated on the interior design community, consumers, and legislators.

If you are as outraged as we are about these falsities, please write to Ms. Perron at designers@nhidc.org and request that all future ads contain only truthful information.

Click here

to see Ms. Perron's

written approval.