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Crist defers to Bush on
insurance
The governor-elect won't meddle in a special session that is expected before he
takes office.
By JONI JAMES, Times Staff Writer
Published November 09, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG - If you want to see Charlie
Crist take the lead on Florida's insurance crisis, you'll have to wait 51 days.
In his first appearance after defeating Jim
Davis to become the next governor, Crist told reporters and supporters Wednesday
he will defer to Gov. Jeb Bush on policy matters until the Jan. 2 inauguration -
including on Bush's plan to have lawmakers return next month to address
Florida's crumbling insurance market.
"I would like the issue resolved as quickly as
possible. If that is what is decided (to have a special session), I would
encourage it," said Crist, who called the insurance crisis "Mission 1" for his
administration. "It is important to honor Gov. Bush."
Crist's comments came as he announced a
10-person transition team, led by former U.S. Attorney Roberto Martinez of
Miami, to build his management team. The daunting task will encompass everything
from deciding who will run the state's prisons to what budget proposals he will
offer to the Legislature for 2007-08.
In continuing to defer to Bush, Crist signaled
he won't push, until he is in office, for any of the insurance changes he has
said he would seek as governor, including requiring auto insurers who write
property insurance in other states to write it here.
Session likely soon
Bush wants to call a special session the first
week of December if he and legislative leaders can agree on less dramatic
changes, such as making it easier for insurance companies to buy backup
insurance from the state or providing state grants for low-income homeowners.
To political watchers, Crist's deference
wasn't a surprise. The attorney general, despite already being one of four
statewide officials who oversee insurance regulation, has never taken a lead on
insurance reform even as property insurance rates have shot upward. In fact, he
was largely quiet in the spring when lawmakers considered significant changes to
the state's insurance code.
Crist - flanked by his transition team at a
news conference at the Renaissance Vinoy Hotel - pledged to build a state
management team that would include members of "exemplary character," experience
and diversity, including some Democrats.
He noted one of his transition team members,
Miami lawyer Dean Colson, is a Democrat. Colson has been tapped previously by
Bush for the state's ethics commission and the Florida Supreme Court judicial
nominating commission.
Crist has required his entire transition team
to sign an ethics code pledging they won't lobby a state agency they work with
for at least a year after the transition.
"I will do everything to work with all
parties, all ideologies and to do what is right for the people of state
government," Crist said. "I want to reach out to everyone."
Web site offered
Crist - who will be the first governor from
St. Petersburg - encouraged Floridians to visit the team's Web site,
www.cristtransition.com, to file suggestions or apply for a job.
The transition team includes some of the same
individuals, such as Martinez and his campaign manager George LeMieux, who took
part in Crist's transition when he was elected attorney general in 2002. But the
task awaiting this team is far greater than when Crist inherited the Department
of Legal Affairs from preceding Attorney General Bob Butterworth.
The governor oversees 19 state agencies and
appoints citizens to boards that lead many more, including the Board of
Education.
Crist must decide in short order who will
oversee the building of state roads, lead the state's social services and
protect its environment, for example.
As a courtesy to Crist, Bush on Wednesday
directed all his agency heads to acquire voluntary resignation letters,
effective at the end of his term, from their management teams. Exactly how many
high-ranking state employees will be affected is unclear, but Crist said he
believed it included anyone overseeing individual divisions within agencies
overseen by the governor.
Crist's transition, however, is expected to be
less tumultuous than Bush's in 1998, when the Republican made wholesale changes
after succeeding a Democratic governor.
[Last modified November 9, 2006, 06:28:15]
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