Good Morning,
Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is hosting a Statewide Town Hall on May 3, at 1:00. Joining us will be CAL FIRE and Local Fire Safe Councils. Learn about what is occurring on the insurance front and local Fire Safe Councils will be sharing their best practices.
Help us kick start Wildfire Awareness Month by sharing the invite with your constituents. You can register and submit questions HERE.
Regards,
Mary Beth Bykowsky | Outreach Analyst
Community Relations and Outreach Branch
California Department of Insurance
(916) 492-3536 | MaryBeth.Bykowsky@insurance.ca.gov
Thank you. I’m posting this for folks in So.OR.
cc: of email to Insurance Commission staff:
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to “attend,” as it were . . .
Here are some of my subject areas of burning concern:
“We” are paying billions for limited measures of doubtful effectiveness. Entities that make money should be subjected to some critical thinking.
We expend, and even sacrifice, a lot of resources and people on measures that are of little lasting value and technical relevance. We persist in applying traditional measures that aren’t, if you will pardon the pun, measured. We do not collect and make relevant data widely available. We tend to ignore fire science in favor of traditional assumptions, and expect different results. Again, “follow the money.”
I have a long background in this area, but I do not pretend to have all the answers, or even all the right questions. Teamwork based on evidence, not opinion, can go a long way to avoid spinning our wheels. But I am not holding my breath. I have an outline for an alternative that can provide a jumping off place for some new concepts. (WARNING: They will be met with vigorous opposition out of the chute. Use brainstorming “rules.”
“The suspension of judgment is the highest exercise in intellectual discipline.” –R. M. Gilmore
I’ll be happy to elaborate on specifics. We can drastically reduce losses, costs, and claims.