Next week, a joint committee will be holding a hearing with the Insurance Commissioner, Karen Weldin Stewart to discuss a BCBS issue and allegations raised by the partisan, Caesar Rodney Institute. DelawareLiberal may be in attendance at the hearing, but all of the questions will be issued by the members of the committee.
However, I thought it might be informative if we come up with questions that we would like answered. Hopefully someone will filter these to members of the committee. I’ll start.
- You have stated that there were no law firms capable of representing the office of the Insurance Commissioner in a lawsuit that you inherited from your predecessor. However, the name of the law firm in question, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, LLP is not named as counsel on the Chancery court decision. The law firm named is a local firm; Richards, Layton and Finger. What role did Stroock & Stroock & Lavan serve on the case?
- Your department has made the statement in the past that the OIC is not funded by taxpayer dollars. While this is technically correct, any monies remaining at the end of the budget year are redirected into the General Fund, reducing taxpayer liabilities. Do you feel that the OIC should be bound to austerity measures that have been implemented in other parts of state government?
So here’s the ground rules… They have to be real questions. We can’t ask questions like “is it true that you can’t read or write?” (I am sad that I have to even stipulate that). They should be pointed and not subject to pontification. If there are follow-ups, ask them too. You can even follow up on the questions someone else asked.
Tear it up.