Question of the Day
We receive anonymous tips, and sometimes anonymous questions:
In light of the most recent scandal involving the corrupt insurance commissioner, wouldn’t it be more topical to ask whether the Delaware IC should be appointed rather than elected? The majority of voters have no clue what an IC does, how important that office is for our state, and that a qualified person of integrity should run it rather than people off the street because the voters can’t verify their backgrounds or track records if any. Thank you.
I completely agree. In fact, I never understand why the Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and the county Row offices (i.e. Sherriff, Recorder of Deeds, Register of Wills) are elected. I can see why the Auditor and the Attorney General are elected (although I would argue the Governor should be able to appoint them as well), so as to provide some check to the Governor.
The truth of it is these offices form the proving ground or bench for future candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor, which is why they are elected rather than appointed. Still, I think the offices of Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner are close enough to the essential functions of an administration (i.e. crafting a budget and regulating an industry) that those two offices should be appointed. And these offices are important enough that we need skilled officials running them (no offense at all to Chip Flowers).
Your thoughts?
DD, this is an interesting question that people in the industry (I’m one) have discussed from time to time.
Personally, I think it should be an appointed position for a 6 year term so that the IC’s term overlaps changing administrations and legislative control.
Interestingly, we are one of only 11 states that elect their IC per a 2010 report from the NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners).
http://www.naic.org/documents/members_state_commissioners_elected_appointed.pdf
The Treasurer doesn’t craft a budget. He/she writes the checks and facilitates the cashflow.
Even more bolstering my argument.
Treasurer should be abolished and folded into the Department of Finance. (Didn’t Markell propose the just opposite before he folded like a napkin when Nancy Cook threw a temper tantrum to protect her son’s job?) Either way, we don’t need both a Treasurer’s Office and a Department of Finance. Treasurer is a joke of a job that only exists for political purposes. But it’s not going to happen anytime soon, not with the state’s top two Democratic officeholders having built their careers there (Tom & Jack).
IC should be a cabinet agency, just like all the others, appointed by the governor. Attorney General and Auditor should be independently elected. Checks & balances & all that.
The rest of the county row offices should all be abolished and folded into the regular county government. There is no reason that we should be electing someone to supervise the recording of property deeds on a part-time basis. Ditto for running foreclosure sales and supervising wills and estates. (Register of Wills might best be folded into the court system instead of county government – I’m not exactly sure how all that works – but either way it shouldn’t be an elected job.)
Realistically, the parties aren’t going to go for this. That would cut off their farm team for county and statewide races. Plus, if I’m not mistaken, such changes would be constitutional amendments, meaning they’d have to pass two separate sessions of the GA – is my memory correct?
Can anyone tell me why the Department of Insurance is paying big bucks for an audit?
Does our State Auditor charge our state agencies for audtiting them?
And, are we (the people, it is our money Karen Weldin Stewart is spending like water)out the money for a failed incomplete audit if the Insurance Commissioner stops the audit?
I only have questions, not answers. However, appointing the Insurance Commissioner like most states and after the KWS debacle seems to be the way to go.
http://blogs.delawareonline.com/delawareinc/2011/08/09/doi-paying-22k-for-failed-audit/
One thing to try first is some basic procurement reforms. Not just for DOI but for the whole state.
It turns out that there are very weak statewide controls for all “professional services” contracts, which KWS has taken advantage of – aided by the “it’s not taxpayer money” dodge.
Who knows, there may be similar situations lurking in other departments.
I doubt that audits of other departments would find situations even remotely similar to those discovered in the DOI. The main point here is that Karen Weldin Stewart, without prior approval although she knew it was required by law, awarded outrageous contracts to her political cronies so they would pay her kickbacks, and the documentation for those contracts is either missing or incomplete. On top of that, $190,000 plus has disappeared and Stewart can’t account for it. There’s only one word for situations like that: CORRUPTION.