A Times Editorial Board recommendation

Florida’s chief monetary officer pays the state’s payments, oversees distributors and contracts, and audits authorities companies. The CFO’s workplace handles the state’s retirement fund and each the state’s monetary regulation and insurance coverage commissioners. The CFO is a part of the Florida Cabinet, which is chaired by the governor and likewise consists of the legal professional common and agriculture commissioner. The CFO is paid $139,988 a 12 months. The election is Nov. 8.

Chief Financial Officer – Adam Hattersley, Democrat

The state chief monetary officer job shouldn’t be significantly horny, however it will be important. It deserves a pacesetter who will assume for themselves and take an aggressive position in addressing the insurance coverage disaster. That particular person is Democrat Adam Hattersley.

Hattersley, 44, has a bachelor’s and a grasp’s diploma in aerospace from the University of Michigan and spent eight years as a nuclear submarine officer within the U.S. Navy. He earned a Bronze Star whereas serving in Iraq and taught electrical engineering on the Naval Academy. He moved to Riverview in 2009, and went to work managing information and monetary analytics for a General Electric subsidiary earlier than beginning his personal small enterprise, C-Suite Productions, a promotional firm that didn’t survive the pandemic. He was registered as an impartial for years, however moved to the Democratic Party earlier than successful a state House seat in 2018. He misplaced a run for Congress in 2020.

Hattersley is a reasonable Democrat who mentioned he jumped into the CFO race due to skyrocketing property insurance coverage charges. He didn’t assume incumbent CFO Jimmy Patronis was doing practically sufficient to get the prices below management for owners and small enterprise operators.

“Don’t vote with your heart. Don’t vote with your party. It’s time to vote with your wallet,” Hattersley instructed the Times Editorial Board. “Florida is in a major property insurance crisis, and the current CFO has done absolutely nothing to help fix it. We need to keep politics out of people’s money.”

Hattersley would overhaul the management on the Office of Insurance Regulation, push to require that insurance coverage corporations hold capital reserves in Florida as a substitute of siphoning them into out-of-state guardian corporations, and advocate for higher flood controls and different infrastructure enhancements to scale back threat ranges — and assist management insurance coverage prices. He would additionally wish to take a deep dive into why so many insurance coverage corporations have failed, one thing he says Patronis has been too gradual to do.

Anytime an insurance coverage firm fails, Florida legislation requires a division that’s a part of the CFO’s tasks to write down a report. In May, a Times evaluation discovered that the division typically doesn’t launch these monetary autopsies till years after the corporate went below. The Times requested for experiences on 5 of the insurers that had failed since 2014. The division had completed just one. That’s pathetic, and a sign of how little effort Patronis has made to unravel the property insurance coverage disaster.

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Patronis was additionally gradual to implement a program the Legislature handed in May that grants as much as $10,000 to owners to make storm security associated enhancements. Last week, Patronis lastly mentioned this system ought to be expedited, however owners nonetheless can not join.

Patronis, 50, is a former Republican House member from Panama City with deep Panhandle roots. Former Gov. Rick Scott appointed Patronis to the CFO job in 2017 when Jeff Atwater resigned to take one other job. Patronis gained the election in 2018. In his first full time period he has confronted a number of scandals, together with two state banking regulators accusing him of unethical habits.

On the plus aspect, Patronis led efforts to extend advantages for first responders affected by post-traumatic stress dysfunction and most cancers. He was fast to ship anti-fraud groups to the components of southwest Florida hit by Hurricane Ian, and he investigated after a Miami Herald report discovered that the Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Association typically denied care to youngsters, regardless of having $1.5 billion in property. The state has additionally acquired triple A rankings from ranking companies over the past three years.

But Patronis has been far too gradual to react to the insurance coverage disaster. He has additionally too typically engaged in tradition warfare points that don’t have anything to do together with his workplace. The state wants extra competence, together with in its Cabinet positions. Hattersley would advance that objective.

For Florida Chief Financial Officer, the Times recommends Adam Hattersley.

Editorials are the institutional voice of the Tampa Bay Times. The members of the Editorial Board are Editor of Editorials Graham Brink, Sherri Day, Sebastian Dortch, John Hill, Jim Verhulst and Chairman and CEO Conan Gallaty. Follow @TBTimes_Opinion on Twitter for extra opinion news.