Backup Documents 04/26/2011 Item #15
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Agenda Item #: ~ Meeting Date:-+t-l-(p
Presented by: 'h A L A
Tallahassee Meetings
March 23-24, 2011
Commissioner Donna Fiala
March 23
· Florida Association of Counties (FAC) briefing 9-
11:30 a.m.
Secretary of the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Billy
Buzzett presented his approach to Growth Management:
· Intent is a more streamlined approach to land use.
· Last 3 years, 90 % of comp plan amendments have been in
compliance.
· "Alternative State Review" process since 2007 Legislature a
pilot in Pinellas and Broward and their municipalities,
Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa and Hialeah, is being considered
expanded to all local governments. Under this alternative,
expedited review, the state review is 65 days, saving 71 days
for a comp plan amendment.
· Amendments for RLSA's and "Optional Sector Plans" would still
be subject to conventional review.
· "Optional Sector Plan" program will be revised to increase the
minimum acreage to incentivize large scale planning. The pilot
program (since 1998) status will be removed and there will no
longer be a cap (law allows five and there are four plans
adopted).
· EAR 7 -year cycle may be an exercise of "pushing paper" and
as far as state requirement, may install triggering mechanism.
· Examining DCA, he determined 94 % of emphasis has been on
federal pass-through of funding (grants) and only 3 % has been
on growth management.
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. Focus has been on substance not on form. Now it is on form.
And there is a move afoot to form th is agency... and focus on
the,''substance.
. Goal is to refresh growth management while also recognizing
home rule of local governments in land use planning.
. Re interjurisdictional issues, Sec. Buzzett assured there would
continue to be a DRI process as well as DCA involvement,
oversight to some degree. There would continue to be a DCA
role in land use but it would not be as formal.
. Re Regional Planning Council's, Sec. Buzzett said the bottom
line is the budget. He didn't know at what level the state could
fund RPC's however he assured they'd retain their role in the
process.
FAC Legislative Advocates explained the pending Growth Management bill
in the House:
. Eliminates financial feasibility
. Repeal of 9J-5
. No mandatory update of capital improvement element (CIE)
. Eliminates transportation concurrency as a statewide
requirement... however retains as a local option.
. Eliminates school concurrency as a statewide
requirement... however retains as a local option.
. Senator Garrett Richter 12:15 - 12:45 p.m.
Discussed the Senator's Property Insurance bill SB 408 which
makes changes primarily to residential property insurance. We
wanted most a better understanding of what issues were
included in the bill that would affect Collier County. There were
several strike-all amendments introduced to the bill which make
it a moving target. I stressed the importance of including
available, reliable, and reasonably priced property insurance
and Senator Richter agreed to take those items into
consideration as the bill moves forward. SB 408 is currently on
the Senate floor. The bill addresses the following primary
Issues:
. Requires the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund to provide
reimbursement for -all incurred losses, including amounts paid
as fees on behalf of the policyholder, with exclusions;
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· Increases the minimum surplus requirements for residential
property insurers to $15 million;
· Allows insurers offering personal lines property insurance to
provide written notice of policy changes to their policyholders
without having to non-renew an entire insurance policy due to a
change in policy terms;
· Reduces the insurer's written notice of nonrenewal,
cancellation, or termination of a personal lines or commercial
residential property insurance policy to 90 days;
· Modifies current replacement cost coverage and actual cash
value provisions relating to dwellings and personal property;
· Requires windstorm and hurricane property insurance claims to
be brought within three years and sinkhole loss claims to be
brought within two years;
· Modifies provisions related to windstorm damage mitigation
discounts for residential property insurance and repeals the
provision requiring the OIR to develop a method correlating
mitigation discounts to the uniform home grading scale;
· Repeals the requirement that the Consumer Advocate prepare
an annual report card for personal residential property insurers;
· Changes the name Citizens Property Insurance Corporation to
-Taxpayer-Funded Property Insurance Corporation.
· Renames the Citizens High Risk Account the Coastal Account
and repeals the requirement to reduce the boundaries of the
Citizens' High Risk Account (wind-only coverages);
· Allows an insurer seeking to take policies out of Citizens to do
so in 45 days;
· Clarifies the ethics requirements for specified board members
of the Citizens Property Insurance Corp., and provides that
Board members abstain from voting under certain
circumstances;
· Allows an insurer to cancel or nonrenew a property insurance
policy upon a minimum of 45 days' notice based on a finding
that the insurer lacks adequate reinsurance coverage for
hurricane risk and other financial factors;
· Revises the regulation of public adjusters by placing limits on
public adjuster compensation, prohibiting certain statements in
public adjuster advertising, and revising the contents of the
public adjuster contract;
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. Removes the requirement that a privately owned property
insurer must offer sinkhole coverage, but requires Citizens to
continue to offer sinkhole coverage, with substantial changes in
coverage requirements;
. Revises what constitutes a sinkhole loss;
. Limits the authority of the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR)
to disapprove rates for sinkhole insurance.
. Revises procedures for insurers and policyholders relating to
standards for sinkhole insurance claim investigations and
revises the neutral evaluation process for sinkhole disputes;
and
. Provides changes to the procedures pertaining to sinkhole
reports by professional engineers or professional geologists
and repeals the sinkhole database.
In addition to Property Insurance, two other important county issues
were addressed:
. State Aid for Libraries - Floridians and Florida libraries need
$21.2 million for State Aid to Public Libraries and $1.2 million
for Library Cooperatives.
. Transportation Disadvantaged - I also talked to Senator
Richter about the importance of keeping the Transportation
Disadvantaged system coordinated through the CTD and not to
contract out the Medicaid portion of services to managed care.
He then pulled out an index card with 'Transportation
Disadvantaged" written on it and told me he had gotten the
message loud and clear, and had already spoken to Senator
Negron, the bill sponsor (SB 1792). The bill is likely to be
conferenced by both chambers, where TD will be an issue to be
resolved. At this point the House positionllanguage was
preferred: Non-emergency transportation services shall be
provided pursuant to a single, statewide contract between the
agency and the Commission for Transportation Disadvantaged.
The agency shall establish performance standards in the
contract and shall evaluate the performance of the Commission
for Transportation Disadvantaged.
. Representative Trudi Williams 1:30 p.m.
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· Commissioner Fiala met with Representative to discuss
fertilizer preemption of local government ordinances, CCNA.
Rep. Williams indicated she supported home rule authority and
would oppose any preemption related to fertilizer ordinances
setting stricter standards of application. Language removing
the local ordinance preemption was adopted to HB 457 and
passed the House last week.
Commissioner Fiala also discussed the importance of funding
the state libraries through the State Aid to Libraries program to
keep libraries operating normal business hours as a resource
for Collier residents.
· Senator Mike Bennett 3 p.m.
Provided update on the reform legislation to the Consultants
Competitive Negotiation Act (CCNA) legislation that he
sponsored (SB 276). Being on the county's list of 2011 State
Legislative Priorities, the CCNA reform provisions aligned with
the county's interests had been amended out of the Senator's
proposed legislation but other vehicles were being considered
at that time. The Senator indicated the lack of support from
other organization outside Collier County which made it difficult
to move forward with the bill. We discussed a strategy to move
the issue forward by other means which Senator Bennett found
acceptable. The opportunity to implement that strategy is tied
to the budget which has not begun conference as of yet.
March 24
· Office of Chief Financial Officer - 8:15 a.m.
CFO Jeff Atwater was out of town but his Legislative Director
and Counsel Ashley Mayer met with us to discuss Property
Insurance and the sinkhole situation in Florida causing
enormous insurance claims. Fraud was also discussed. In
addition, she mentioned that there was $700 million in claims
for Hurricane Wilma in 201 O! Re Citizens Insurance, she said
88 01<> of us are subsidizing 12 % of those in the State of Florida.
· Representative Costello - 9:30 a.m.
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The House sponsor of the CCNA issue (HB 135),
Representative Costello and I discussed the proposed
legislation and I relayed to him the discussion we had with Sen.
Bennett to find an alternative route for the bill. Regardless of
the outcome during this 2011 Legislative Session, Rep.
Costello told me he would file the bill again next year in the
House.
. Office of the Attorney General- 2 p.m.
Special Counsel for Open Government Pat Gleason
discussed with me the Sunshine Law and public records.
. Representative Kathleen Passidomo - Dinner
We discussed her first year in the Legislature and her
expectations as well as mine for our common constituencies.
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