Las Vegas Realtors CEO suspended, accused of tampering with board election
Updated August 13, 2024 - 2:10 pm
Las Vegas Realtors Chief Executive Officer Wendy DiVecchio has been suspended from her post for 30 days due to allegations of interfering in the 2025 election of LVR board officers and directors, multiple real estate agents confirmed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The Review-Journal obtained a copy of an internal memo from LVR President Merri Perry to LVR members regarding the alleged incident, which stated the organization has launched an investigation into “allegations of election impropriety.” The memo didn’t name DiVecchio or go into detail on the allegations.
The LVR is the largest real estate organization in the state with close to 16,000 members.
“On August 8, our LVR leadership team was notified of an allegation of abnormalities in the processes and procedures in administering last week’s election for the 2025 LVR Board of Directors,” the memo, which was emailed to LVR members Monday, stated. “Immediately after receiving these allegations, LVR President Merri Perry called for an emergency meeting of LVR’s Board of Directors, which was held Aug. 9 and reviewed findings relating to how the election was administered.”
The memo further stated that “we do not believe the allegations, even if substantiated, affected the outcome of the election. However, the Board of Directors takes any allegations of election impropriety seriously and will work urgently to ensure that the process was administered fairly and appropriately and will update our members as soon as we are able.”
According to her LinkedIn page, DiVecchio has been with LVR for more than 25 years. The CEO is a paid employee and isn’t an elected official.
The Review Journal reached out to DiVecchio multiple times via phone and email for comment and didn’t immediately receive a response.
In a written statement to the Review-Journal, Perry said, “For the privacy and protection of our employees and staff, we are unable to comment about employment or personnel matters.”
The internal memo also stated that “out of an abundance of caution, the Board of Directors resolved to engage a neutral third party to investigate the administering of the election to determine if anything improper may have occurred.”
In March, a physical altercation broke out between two local real estate agents at a LVR Brokers Forum, ending with police being called to the scene.
The organization released a statement attributed to Perry that acknowledged the incident but did not name those involved.
“During the meeting, two of the Las Vegas Realtors members in attendance began to argue, leading to a verbal altercation. LVR leaders who were organizing the meeting tried to diffuse the situation and called LVR security to remove one of the members from the meeting. When the member continued to create a disturbance, LVR called the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, who eventually removed the person from the LVR building. There was no physical violence and no one was hurt. LVR remains committed to fostering an inclusive, positive and safe environment for its members and others, with safety being our top priority.”
Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.