FIRM membership spreads to Marathon
BY ROBIN BOYLE
Citizen Staff
Just three weeks ago, two
Key West
neighbors read announcements that came in the mail that their wind
insurance probably would increase by 44 percent in the near future.
Something clicked in each of them and they found themselves talking to
each other about the fact that for one of them, it would mean paying out
nearly $9,000 a year.
Cindy DeRocher and Donna
Moody decided to see if their immediate neighbors got the same letters
and felt the same way — that is, mad as hell.
Thirty-two people came
over for a backyard talk. They exchanged information and started
planning how best to stop the rate increase. One of the neighbors
suggested the acronym FIRM, Fair Insurance Rates in Monroe.
The original 32 concerned
neighbors have snowballed into more than 1,000 members of FIRM in only a
few weeks. The grassroots organization is dumping thousands of letters
on various desks in Tallahassee, has a Web site up and running, and is
spreading up the Keys, bounding from island to island as more homeowners
get the news that their wind insurance is fast becoming unaffordable.
On Wednesday, members of
FIRM,
including new Marathon representative Colleen Repetto, took over the
cafeteria at Marathon High School to introduce the facts and get the
group to sign a petition that will land on the governor's desk in a few
days.
"We are going to try to
work up a frenzy here tonight," said Teri Johnston, who introduced the
program.
The goals of FIRM are
modest. The organization wants to reduce the rates for Monroe citizens
to the 2005 level, already the highest in the state by nearly double in
some cases. Once that is done, they want the state to take a clear look
at the rate structure and explain why the Keys' rates are so much higher
than anywhere else.
"We want them to know
this is a Florida Keys issue, not just a Key West issue," Johnston said.
"And we want to know why we are getting these high wind rates, we are
not getting wind events that are hitting elsewhere in the state, and
we've had just one flood in more than 50 years, yet we are being charged
the most."
The state created
Citizens Property Insurance in 2002 when big insurance agencies fled
Florida after Hurricane Andrew devastated the Miami area in 1992. It is
a "nonprofit company of last resort," Johnston said. The funds are
pooled by those who can't buy wind insurance elsewhere and is operated
by a board and the state insurance commissioner.
The Legislature, which
began its annual law-making session Tuesday, will vote on Citizens
requested rate increase. FIRM wants to halt that vote in its tracks,
through legal means, while the state conducts an investigation.
To find out more about
the organization, go online to
www.fairinsuranceratesinmonroe.com, or call spokeswoman Teri
Johnston at (305)
797-0955. |
