Scott, Cabinet to launch search for new insurance chief
By JIM TURNER
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, January 21, 2016.......... Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet plan to replace the departing insurance commissioner through a nationwide search, which they hope will be completed long before he leaves office and the start of hurricane season.
The job will be advertised at paying up to $200,000 a year, which would be about $65,000 above what outgoing Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty is paid.
"I just think we deserve an extraordinary talent once more," state Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said. "This will be a very significant pay increase. But I also wouldn't want to deprive ourselves of some talent that would explore this idea."
Scott and the Cabinet --- Atwater, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and Attorney General Pam Bondi --- also started moving forward Thursday with replacing outgoing Department of Revenue Executive Director Marshall Stranburg. The salary range for the new hire will be up to $150,000 a year.
In both cases, the salaries will depend on the experience of the replacements. Job seekers will have until March 11 to submit applications.
Cabinet aides would make recommendations on March 23, with Scott and the Cabinet members interviewing finalists on March 29.
Stranburg has announced that he will leave April 1 for a job in Washington.
Earlier this month, McCarty announced he would leave his job May 2 to explore "other career opportunities."
Unlike many other state agencies that are only under the governor, the Office of Insurance Regulation and the Department of Revenue are under Scott and the Cabinet.
Atwater said replacing McCarty will require a higher pay range because of the "dynamic" nature of the state's insurance industry.
McCarty, who has been the state's only appointed insurance commissioner since the Office of Insurance Regulation was created in 2003, guided the industry through the unprecedented 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons and a global recession. The 2016 hurricane season will start June 1.
McCarty is paid $134,157 a year to regulate an industry that is often in the state headlines. Stranburg gets $129,000 a year.
A year ago, McCarty and Stranburg were among three agency heads targeted for removal by Scott after Cabinet members questioned the governor over the abrupt departure in December 2014 of Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey.
Office of Financial Regulation Commissioner Drew Breakspear, who was also targeted for removal by Scott, remains in his job. Breakspear's spokeswoman Jamie Mongiovi recently said he has no plans to resign.
