Guest AuthorFlorida’s state-run insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., is due for another investigation. This review is needed following the report “Revolving door of Citizens executives to companies with contracts raises questions” by Mary Ellen Klas of the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times.
The Herald/Times report found that at least three senior executives at Citizens went to work for private vendors of the organization that had received multimillion-dollar contracts. The public deserves to know if Citizens Insurance executives are privately gaining from their positions with the state-run insurer. Whether or not the contracts cited in the story provided the best deals for the public should also be examined through an independent investigation.
In 2013, the Florida Legislature wisely created a position of inspector general for Citizens. The inspector general is responsible for independent audits and investigations into potential fraud, waste and abuse. Nonpartisan government watchdog group Integrity Florida joined with Chris Gardner, chairman of Citizens board of governors and Citizens President/CEO Barry Gilway in calling on Citizens’ inspector general to review post-employment guidelines to ensure the organization is operating in a transparent and ethical manner.
The new leadership team in place at Citizens is demonstrating an improved level of responsiveness to even the appearance of wrongdoing. As this current story and others in the last few years have unfolded, top executives at Citizens have personally reached out to our watchdog group and other stakeholders for input and kept us informed on their efforts to make improvements to their policies and practices. We are encouraged by the direction of the current inquiry and look forward to reviewing the inspector general’s findings.
To further strengthen the ethics policies at Citizens, Gov. Rick Scott will soon take action on Senate Bill 846 that would apply some of the state ethics code to select Citizens staffers and its board of governors. We applaud state Sen. Jack Latvala, state Rep. Kathleen Passadomo and state Rep. Jim Boyd for advancing this proposal. Senate President Don Gaetz and House Speaker Will Weatherford prioritized ethics reform for the second straight year and they delivered on their Work Plan 2014 promise to continue to improve Florida’s ethics laws.
Under Senate Bill 846, the executive director of Citizens will have to follow the entire code of ethics, including financial disclosure requirements and gift bans. The bill closes the revolving door for the executive director and members of the board of governors from having any employment or contractual relationship with an insurer that has entered into a take-out bonus agreement with the corporation for two years after they leave the corporation.
But the new ethics bill left a few loopholes that should be closed next legislative session. For example, some elements of the state code of ethics would apply to the executive director, senior managers and members of the board of governors, but the rest of the Citizens staff is not included.
Integrity Florida supports state Sen. David Simmons’ ethics-reform proposal to close the revolving door at Citizens for all staff and we hope Citizens will back it as well. We encourage Citizens’ inspector general Bruce Meeks to recommend additional ethics and transparency reforms to the Legislature.
In the last few years, Gov. Scott has shown leadership by having his Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel conduct several reviews of Citizens that have resulted in transparency and accountability enhancements. Gilway supported those reviews and legislation that created the independent inspector general position. Gilway has also demonstrated a refreshing level of candor in legislative hearings.
The new leadership team at Citizens deserves credit for better external communications, openness and willingness to embrace reforms to increase transparency and accountability.
Dan Krassner is co-founder and executive director of Integrity Florida, a nonpartisan research institute and government watchdog whose mission is to promote integrity in government and expose public corruption. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
