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HAC Minutes:
Saturday, October 14, 2006
NPR Public
Library
I first want to thank everyone for your generous donations. We have had more donations this month then since the inception of HAC. We first want you to know we are spending your money wisely and are very frugal! With the increase of donations we have been able to first get professional banners made and I want to thank Chris and Vic for beating the streets to find someone that has given us a great deal on not just one banner but TWO and they were less expensive than just one sign at many places! We now have t-shirts and license plates available and are working with someone to have window clings for your car very soon! I want to thank Kim with Lickety Split Signs in Hudson for doing a great job on the banners, t-shirts and license plates. She is aware of our fight and has been great to work with! Another thing we are doing is getting a HAC phone!! It will be manned by volunteers but and all calls and information will be forwarded to the Board. I hope to have this up and running by next month!
In today’s meeting we will have lots of new information, we also have two guest speakers today. State Representative John Legg will be here and Lawrence Scott who is a Write In for U.S. Senate.
I’m going to get started by first saying how great out Rally here in New Port Richey was and I want to thank everyone who came out in the scorching heat to support us! We are growing in numbers each day and not only did we get new members and donations but we are getting our word out to more and more people each day. As of right now I am receiving almost 100 e-mails a day. I know you hear me say this time and time again but we won’t stop until all of Florida is on board this train!
Next I want to give HAC a little kudos! I am sure that all of your from Pasco County have heard that our County Commissioner have hired the Attorney Tim Volpe and his actuary to help fight for lower insurance premiums in Pasco. HAC and many of our loyal volunteers have been working on our County Commissioner for many months now and my own mother, Joy Timmons was the first to have contact with Commissioner Pat Mulieri. Well as of last week they hired him and we have a committee that has been formed that will be meeting with Mr. Volpe to help in this fight. He and the Attorney for the Pasco County Commissioners are also working with HAC to get a volunteer attorney to work with us. Let me first say that this is a great step for Pasco but is a small part of what HAC is doing. We want to help ALL Floridians even if it is one county at a time! Initially we asked Mr. Volpe if he would consider meeting with several County Commissioner but he will only work with one county at a time.
The next thing I want to talk about is the Governors Insurance Reform Committee Meeting HAC board members and some volunteers attended this past Thursday. I have to say it was a learning experience for us and an eye opener! We all arrived with lots of questions and our list of things we feel can bring relief to insurance premiums. The good part is that we all were able to speak and be heard the bad part in my opinion is that after many hours of listening to the committee what I finally got out of it was Let. Gov. Jennings last comment that then high rates are here to stay and will be going higher. At the next OIR approval for increased rates of Citizens policyholders it will reflect the higher cost of reinsurance also. We each pleaded with this reform committee to come to Pasco/Hernando where our rates are at the top of the list. Senator Mike Fasano talked about adding a small amount of relief by giving out between $500 and $100 to low income and working class people struggling with their high rates. He said it would be a one time thing and just a little help while there are fixes in the works. We also presented the points/plans put together by Wil Nickerson. I am going to let Wil tell you a little more about them and some of his views of what happened Thursday. Then we are going to hear from Chris about what he got out of the meeting.
Wil’s discusses the points and questions sent to the Reform Committee
Next on our agenda today is something that we have been pondering for a while and want your thoughts on it. Our name HAC Homeowners Against Citizens has become a hot topic of discussion. We have been called radicals, some people thing we are against Citizens (people not the company) and the fact that as we have grown over the past months we now are fighting for relief in soaring insurance premiums for all policyholders not just those under Citizens Insurance. We still believe Citizens Insurance set the tone for the ladder effect of rising rates but is not the only problem. If our name is changed we intend to keep our HAC because we have spent your hard earned dollars in advertising and such. We have come up with some alternate names with the letters HAC including my favorite from our Vice President Chris: Having Affordable Insurance, What do you all think? Also if you have any suggestions please let us know.
Well moving on…Next month opens up HAC nominations. The positions available are: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Webmaster, Membership Director, Charter Director, and two Director positions. We will be accepting nominations vial e-mail, fax, and in writing only. There will be no verbal nominations accepted. You can nominate someone from November 1st to November 30th.
We will not be having a November meeting as the Library has booked our date and with the holidays and many board members going away on vacation we will resume our normal schedule in December and then after the elections will have a greater idea who to target for change in laws. With all the new information we have recently learned we now know who to target and with what changes. We look forward to your continued support and will keep updating our website and posting on the HAC group.
State
Representative John Legg gave a power point presentation to everyone on his
thoughts about why the insurance industry is having difficulty keeping costs
down in the state of Florida. In his examination of the crisis he notes that the
rising rates are due to 5 facts including: Flood and Windstorm Coverage,
Re-insurance market, 9/11 tragedy, Hurricanes, and Sinkholes. His answers on
what can be done are:
*First, Florida needs to reverse the trend of containing the risk in our state
and spread the risk with our northern neighbors. *Second, as you may be aware, the legislature passed significant reform last year regarding sinkhole claims. We forced policyholders with sinkhole claims to fix their homes verses cashing out. We also require state inspection of sinkhole claims and allow for deductibles for sinkhole coverage. There is more to be done on the issue of sinkhole claims and we are continuing our work on this.
*In addition, the state of Florida will have to consider self-insurance. This is very risky but we must take dramatic action.
*Furthermore, a National Catastrophe Fund should also be considered, to add an additional layer of re-insurance for the state of Florida.
We appreciate State Representative John Legg attending our public meeting and giving us his thoughts on the crisis although we feel that he leaned a lot toward the insurance industry and not the people he is serving. We have copies of the power point that can be obtained at our next public meeting if you e-mail us.
Finally Lawrence Scott, a right-in candidate who is running for U.S. Senate, gave us his proposed solution to the insurance crises.
Based on a system that worked for American farmers in the 1930’s, it could make property insurance stable, affordable, and dependable. Mr. Scott suggested that Florida should establish a not-for-profit, coastal homeowners cooperative insurance structure.
"Under this cooperative framework, the managing board of directors is elected by the policy-holders. As is the practice with electric cooperatives, in a good year with no major disasters, a portion of the insurance premium could be returned to the policy holder as a refund at the year’s end. All hurricane-prone, coastal states would be included. In the event that Texas, for example, took a disastrous hit, all of the other state co-ops would help cover a portion of their cost.
Mr. Scott also talked about the millions of dollars that the Insurance Industry gives to political parties and candidates.
(He and his wife, Linda, became HAC members).
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For more information or to join/donate to H.A.C. Florida, Inc., contact us
at H.A.C., P.O. Box 395, Port Richey, FL 34673 |
