At the time I'm writing this — September 8 — Governor Charlie Crist has yet to notify the staff of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation of his two appointees to the Citizens Mission Review Task Force (MRTF). This important eleven-member, statutorily created group was to begin meeting August 1 and provide a written report by January 31, 2009, about how Florida's property insurer can become, once again, a true "insurer of last resort." I'm hopeful that by the time you read this, the appointments have been made and the work of the MRTF has begun.

You may recall that, in 2007, lawmakers created a similar task force, but its funding approach garnered a line-item veto from Crist. In 2008, lawmakers avoided a gubernatorial veto by both funding and "staffing" the MRTF via Citizens. Unfortunately, they also allowed only five months for research and deliberations. Again we find that, at press time, about 20 percent of the available time to complete this important task has been wasted. This leads many to ask, "What if an appointing official never appoints…is there a penalty, do we just forego the task force, what happens?" No one seems to know for sure, but, should the opportunity present itself, the Florida Association of Insurance Agents (FAIA) would likely share its plan for restructuring Citizens with the MRTF.

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