Commissioner Search to Continue
The state’s search for a new insurance commissioner to replace outgoing commissioner Kevin McCarty will continue into April. The four-member Financial Services Commission (Governor and Cabinet) is responsible for selecting the next commissioner by majority vote, with the caveat that the Governor (Rick Scott) and Chief Financial Officer (Jeff Atwater) must be on the prevailing side.
The Financial Services Commission interviewed Jeffrey Bragg and Representative Bill Hager for the position at its March 29 meeting. Bragg is the former executive director of the federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Program and oversaw the federal flood insurance program when he previously was with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. State representative Hager previously served as Iowa’s insurance commissioner and more recently has served as an expert witness in insurance and reinsurance matters in addition to being an arbitrator in reinsurance disputes.
After the interviews, CFO Atwater moved to offer the job to Hager. Governor Scott, however, said that he was not prepared to concur with the motion. The lack of agreement between the Governor and the CFO therefore precluded a final decision. Governor Scott then announced that the Financial Services Commission would reopen the application process through April 15 and further evaluate applicants at its April 26 meeting. “We’ll take more applications, but I don’t think we eliminated these two,” Scott said after the meeting. “We’ll have another conversation April 26.”