April 13, 2006
Two Beacon Mutual Items
1. According to the Projo’s 7-to-7 blog, Governor Donald Carcieri has called for the resignations of Beacon Mutual CEO Joseph Solomon, vice president for underwriting David Clark, and asked board members who have served since 1994 and those “personally implicated” in any reported abuse to resign.
2. Lieutenant Governor Charles Fogarty is claiming that part of what should come out of the Guiliani firm's revelations about Beacon is less oversight by the Governor...
"Beacon is not a government agency. It is a private insurance company chartered by the state. The State Department of Business Regulation should have full authority to regulate and oversee the company, but there should not be governmental appointments on the board.However, a direct reading of current law does not support Lt. Governor Fogarty's assertion that Beacon Mutual is a private company. This is from Chapter 410 of the 2003 Public Laws...
SECTION 2. Definitions…(2) “Fund” means the state compensation insurance fund known as The Beacon Mutual Insurance Company…SECTION 3. Creation of fund. – The fund is created as a nonprofit independent public corporation for the purpose of insuring employers against liability for personal injuries for which their employees may be entitled to…
In light of this posting, how can Fogarty actually think he has a case?
Beacon was set up to be "an insurer of last resort" in a non-exclusive market, not a monopoly responsible for more than 90% of the state's business.
I mean, Beacon is such a boy's club that it might as well grab a keg, hang some greek letters, and start hazing its new policy holders. Maybe Charlie Forgarty and Guy DuFault be co-chairs of the Pledge committee.
Personally, I'd like to see Mr. Solomon and the board fired and put on double-secret-probation
Posted by: johnb at April 14, 2006 8:45 AM