Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-08-29-10:00AM-WORKSHOPFI m I& AUG 25 P 49 BRAZOS COUNTY , , 'in ~bdt7T f. ~ tYAk TEXAS BRYAN,TEXAS ry. DEPUTY NOTICE OF MEETING AND AGENDA BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT WORKSHOP SESSION THE COMMISSIONERS COURT OF BRAZOS COUNTY WILL MEET IN A WORKSHOP SESSION ON TUESDAY 29 AUGUST 2006 AT 10:00 A.M. IN THE COMMISSIONERS COURTROOM OF THE BRAZOS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 300 E. 26TH STREET, SUITE 115, BRYAN, TEXAS. 1. Call to Order 2. Presentation by John Simmang of Insurance Network of Texas regarding opportunities for County employees to purchase insurance for their homes and autos at a group rate. 3. Adjourn The Brazos County Courthouse is. wheelchair accessible. Handicap parking spaces are available. Any request for sign interpretive services must be made two business days before the meeting. To make arrangements, call (979) 361-4102. Office of the County Judne . 300 East 26'" St. . Suite 114 . Bryan, Texas 77803 . Fax: (979) 3614503 . 1. COMMISSIONERS' COURT WORKSHOP SESSION August 29, 2006 The Commissioners' Court of Brazos County, Texas met in a Workshop Session in the Commissioners' Courtroom in the Courthouse in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas, beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday August 29, 2006, with the following members of the Court present: Randy Sims, County Judge, Presiding; Lloyd Wassermann, Commissioner of Precinct 1; Duane Peters, Commissioner of Precinct 2; Kenny Mallard, Commissioner of Precinct 3; Carey Cauley, Commissioner of Precinct; Karen McQueen, County Clerk. Attached is a list of the citizens and officials in attendance. Attached is a transcript of the meeting. Vol g Page 4A 2 BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT Insurance Network of Texas Workshop August 29th, 2006 Sims: I will call the Brazos County Commissioner's Court workshop session open. We are meeting in the Brazos County Courthouse in Commissioner's Court room, 29th of August, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. and I will call this workshop into session. Second item on the agenda is presentation by John Simmang of Insurance Network of Texas regarding opportunities for county employees to purchase insurance for their homes and autos at a group rate. John, if you will. Simmang: Thank you sir. Judge, Commissioners you pretty much summed it up. What Travelers has is a group home and auto program that allows you to purchase these on a group basis. This is something that Travelers has done for about thirty years but they've only had for employers with five-thousand or more employees. So they have clients like Maytag, United Airlines and folks like that on this program. Recently, they decided to expand their program and we are one of their premier agents that they have chosen to partner with to try and put this together. I have with me Rhonda Janek; Rhonda actually heads up our personalized department and she's going through the packet with you all and give you more details on it, answer any questions you may have on it or anything like that. Sims: Ok. Janek: Thank you for your time, I appreciate it. If anybody knows Insurance Network, we've been here in business since 1943. I've been doing personalized insurance for 27 years so we're not going anywhere. Multi- locations; we've got 130 employees, and this department that handles this plan has 31 employees. So we're very well staffed and very capable of taking care of the needs of a client the size of the county. We do a lot of school districts, hospitals, private businesses, private schools; however, our specialty is anything that is 200 to a 1,000 employees. The way the program actually works is that you have the opportunity to structure it the way that best fits your organization. hi other words, we can offer payroll deduction which is great for the employees because there's no down payment and there are no billing charges. The policy is just defined however they are paid. We have Vol qq Page '0 3 some companies where the employees are paid weekly so the premiums are just divided into 52 payments. But it's not a must, we can also do; generate bill, mortgage bill, and EFT which is bank draft. We can do all of these of these or leave off the payroll deduct if it becomes a hassle on the administrative side. Some companies don't do payroll deduct but we encourage that they do because it is a benefit to that employee to save money on the payment, the billing charges, and the no down payment. But it's not necessary; it's just there if you decide you want it. If you don't want it we can have it and not really plan on it at a rate bill basis, bank draft or mortgage bill. Now the way that the program is offered to the employees is, again, we work with you on that. We do paycheck stuffers, we do direct mail to their home, and we do emails if the employee is using email. We do worksite posters and then we like to go to safety meetings, departmental meetings... we like to meet the people. The beauty of the program is that we can offer this (inaudible) program; hugely discounted rates. And we can also council them about insurance coverages. We take the time to make sure that when we are through that they understand what they are spending their money on. So many people spend a lot of money on home and auto insurance and if you ask them what coverage they have, they can't tell you that and they don't understand what it is that a big portion of their paycheck goes toward. So whether we get their business or not, we're gonna take the time to council them about insurance coverages. If we can't, for whatever reason, beat the price ...if they are on State Farm and they've got that sixteen-year-old boy that's had to at-fault accidents in the last year, they need to stay there as long as State Farm will keep them, but we're still going to look at that policy for some gaps in the coverage or there are things they need that they don't have or if they have things they don't need. We're going to have a discussion with them so they can go back and talk to their agent intelligently. The program is open enrollment which means they can sign on any time during the year. There is no enrollment date, so if we talk to people today and (inaudible) is an issue but then they get their billing (inaudible) sticker shock; they have a $300.00 rate increase then they can pick up the phone and call us and we can give them a quote and we can give them a quote and get their policy up and running. We do a assist them with the cancellation of their current policy; we have a form that we fill out that they sign, we send a nice letter to the current agent thanking them for the past service on the policy and explaining that they have an opportunity to purchase the policy through group basis. Now with that, the policy is still issued individually. The policy is portable; if they leave or retire, the policy goes with them and they keep the Vol` Page 4 1-f 4 same group rates. We can offer this to retired employees as well as your current employees. And we can structure the enrollment anyway that you like and are comfortable with. Just for grins, we took Kenny, and Kenny has been an insurer of ours for many, many, many, many years and he was with one of our most preferred companies which was Unitrin Al Kemper. We looked at the auto policy we have with Unitrin and we quoted it through the Benefits Plus program and the savings was a little over $2,500.00. So that's how deeply discounted these group rates are. It's a phenomenal, phenomenal savings for your employee. So this is a perceived benefit to the employee at no cost to the county. It fattens up the benefit package, we can do new hires as they come on board ...so it's a great program and we'd really like to offer it to your employees. There is no exposure; the participation agreement that the county signs has a `hold harmless' agreement in there that says no matter what you do, you're not responsible. If there's a problem, Traveler's and Insurance Network takes care of it. So it's a great opportunity. People are just really, really loving this. Traveler's has done it for many, many years and brought it to Texas about a year and a half ago and asked us if we'd be one of their pilot premier agents with the program and we have just taken off and run with it. It's been a great program. Do you have any questions? Anything to ask me about it? Mallard: Is there a size limit, a minimum? Janek: Well we have to have at least (inaudible) give us 25 employees, no problem here; and they would like for us to have at least 10 sign on board the first year. But if it doesn't happen, we've always got next year and next year. And this is how this program works; it's kind of trickle down effect, we get about 20% penetration the first year but the work of mouth is such that when you save a thousand dollars or in Kenny's case, $2,506.00 dollars on one auto policy, you share that with your co-workers. And so then... Mallard: I'll find some more people. Janek: We get call after call ...I mean we've been on enrollment six months ago and we get a call every week with one of the hospitals up at San Antonio. And at Vol Page 45 5 least once a week somebody calls and says, "Hey, I work in the lab and you saved so and so, can you..." "Absolutely, let's get your information." We can do it by mail, fax, email or however they want to do it. We fax them an application or we mail it to their home or we email it to them, they sign it; send it back, policy gone. Sims: Now how do you propose to reach the employees? Janek: You tell me how you want that done. We need a face to face because we want them to feel like they have an agent and that's very important for them to know that. If you have safety meetings, if you have departmental meetings; fifteen to twenty minutes of your time. We'll set up an enrollment booth, they can come see us, we'll have snacks and cookies and freebies and all that kind of stuff to give away so they remember us. We send them home with little refrigerator magnets so when they get that bill six months from now, they'll remember who it is they're suppose to call. We like to come out at least twice a year and we like to touch them either... Sims: Now if that's the case, we may have to provide this to every insurance broker here in Brazos County. Janek: Well, there aren't very many companies that do this. There's Traveler's Liberty Mutual, and Amaryllis which Amaryllis is not even offering in Texas yet. So there are only two companies that offer a group home and auto program. Sims: Well, we may have to offer them the same opportunity that yall have. Janek: Sure, I understand. Sims: I am not in favor of payroll deduction. Janek: And that's fine. Sims: All we're doing is doing your job for you. Janek: Definitely. Sims: As you well know. Janek: We were just ...that was a savings for the employee but it's not a make or break thing. Vol 4 -T Page 4(o 6 Cauley: How much of a savings? Janek: Well, it depends; the billing charges are five to seven dollars a month so if you had two policies, five to seven dollars a month is about a hundred and twenty bucks a year savings. Simmang: Well, Rhonda, is that five to seven dollars a month ...is that just on a direct bill or is it on the EFT? Janek: The EFT is a dollar a month if they decide to do bank draft, it's a dollar a month. And then, of course, the mortgage builder is going to charge or that they (inaudible) charge. Cauley: What about if you have an accident? Janek: Traveler's has a 24-hour claim service. Cauley: Here? Somebody here that you... a local agent? Janek: Well you call the number and they assign a local adjustor to handle it. Cauley: Oh. Janek: A lot of times if it's just minor vehicle, you just take it to the body shop and the body shop contacts the adjustor and then the adjustor comes and looks at it or they'll email pictures of the damage and then they just work on it and issue a check. Simmang: They follow the same rules and procedures that all insurance agents... Cauley: Everybody else... Janek: Right. If you just went in and bought a retail Traveler's policy, the same claim center handles all of your clients. Wassermann: Now the savings for Mr. Mallard was based only on auto insurance? Janek: Yeah, we looked at this home and his home was a savings of $238.00. Wassermann: How many vehicles? Vol g4 Page 4-7 Janek: Four. McLeod: What kind of driving record do you have? Mallard: No tickets, no accidents. Well I had one...Erik was riding with me when that piece of metal jumped up on my hood. Janek: Yeah, a piece of metal on the road hit his vehicle and the other was a comp claim with the windshield, didn't you? It's been a couplet of months but I think you had a two-year-old comp claim. So he did have some activity but it wasn't voracious. But that was four vehicles. Wassermann: Four? McLeod: With that kind of savings, you... Wassermann: I have seven, I'd like for you to look at mine. Janek: I would love to. Absolutely love to. Wassermann: And I don't have a sixteen-year-old either until next month. Janek: Now also keep in mind that we are an independent agent so we represent Traveler's; they do the group program, but especially if they are not doing payroll deduct, we are going to look at all the companies we represent and if there's a better savings of like policy coverages, we're gonna offer that to the employee. In other words, if Encompass happens for whatever reason ...it doesn't happen very often ...but if it does beat Traveler's or they don't qualify for Traveler's and maybe they qualify for Encompass, we're gonna offer them that alternate quote just because: A., we're counseling more coverages and B., it's a savings opportunity. Ninety-five percent of what we do will be done with Traveler's but we want everybody to get a quote. Simmang: Generally, the only time it doesn't go with Traveler's is if they don't qualify with Traveler's. Because their discounts are substantial. Janek: Oh yeah. Simmang: As Rhonda pointed out while ago, it is and on-going, open enrollment process so it's handled at the time that's important to the employees. Vol ?4 Page I--g 8 Janek: Uh-huh. (positive) Simmang: For instance, with me, we wrote this out to our agency with our May I" group renewal. We put this in with our open enrollment meeting for our health insurance. Well, my auto insurance, it didn't fit me at the time because I'm with Kemper Unitrin and I've got a replacement cost endorsement on both my vehicles. Well, Traveler's doesn't offer that until today or yesterday? Janek: Sometimes it will. They said August or the first of September. Simmang: Ok. But, when they came out with that and I decide I'm ready to look at that, if I can keep that, well then it's going to get important to me and then I can go to them and talk to them. But it's up to the employees. It's not a once a year type thing as she pointed out. The other thing is, is that this is geared towards setting it up the way that you all want it set up. When you voiced you opinion about no payroll deduct, no problem... we're not going to push you on payroll deduct. As far as the amount of on-the-job time that we require from your employees, we realize that this is an organization that is responsible to how tax dollars are spent. So you don't want your employees out on meetings all the time. And that's why if we can schedule it to have a minutes with something else, go away, the employees will have the information to contact us, they will spend no more time with this program at that point than they do with their current home and auto right now. Janek: And it could be done on lunch hour, email from home, however... Sims: Well, why would you need our permission to do that? Janek: To contact your employees? Sims: Yeah. After hours. Janek: Well, we're not going to solicit in the home. In other words, if we passed out the packets and they do the quote sheets, they can fax them from home or they can email from home and then we can respond back to their home email address is what I'm saying. Simmang: What this is set up as...this is set up as an employee benefit. Something that the county says, "Employees, this is something that we have for you. This is a benefit that you get from working with us. Whether you take it or not, that's your decision. Now let's say that you do have an employee that takes it, the Vol 94- Page 49 9 nice part about it is that they leave you're employment, retire, or whatever, they get to keep the same product, the same price, nothing changes. Mallard: We have a lot of folks that live out in the country so they have, do they have a farm and ranch program? Janek: Yes sir. Traveler's does have a farm and ranch program but we also work with other carriers that you can make sure that it's the competitively better priced one out there. Mallard: There's certainly an advantage to that. Janek: I remember saying, "Well my home is with Traveler's Retail.", and had been for years and years. Well, when we did our program, I had Jaclyn look at my home and see what (inaudible) but if it's plus (inaudible) the retail line, I had my home; it's a very small home, insured for $90,000.00. She did a comparison and said, "Rhonda, you're really underinsured, it needs to be $140,000.00." She added some endorsements, bumped the coverage up and it still was over $400.00 a year savings over what I was paying Traveler's Retail. So that's how deep they discount their prices for the employees. Jeans: What about farm equipment? Janek: We can schedule that. All of that can be scheduled that's not a problem. Peters: What about umbrella policies? Janek: Umbrella policies, boat polices, motorcycle, RV, travel trailer; all of that can be looked at. Jeanes: Eighteen-wheeler? Janek: No. Commercial. Sorry. Mallard: You're gone too far. That's too big of a farm. Sims: What are you asking from us then? Janek: We're just asking if you're interested in the program, let us get the participation agreement in front of you, if you decide you want to do it then you sign off. You let me know how I can get the word out to the employees... what's convenient for you. Ten minutes... Vol 84 Page So 10 Sims: You know that that is basically and endorsement of your product? I mean, you know, let's face it. If the Commissioner's Court says, "Hey, we've got a deal for you, this is benefiting you." It's not benefiting us, the Commissioner's Court or saving tax dollars. And it is an endorsement. Would you not say that John? Simmang: I mean I'm not necessarily arguing that point but, I mean, is an endorsement necessarily a bad thing? Sims: Endorsement is not a bad thing but do we not have to allow any other insurance company that wants to come in and do this? And what kind of time will that take up of our employees I understand after work. That's their time; they can do anything they want to. Janek: Uh-huh. (positive) Simmang: If you wanted to allow others to do that, the good part is in Texas, there's only one other carrier that does this. Janek: Which is Liberty Mutual. Simmang: And they are not competitive in this area. So as far as the time that you go, you want to look at it and say, "Ok, we open it up to look at them." And that's fine too, or if you want to say, "This is the program and ok, do any employees have problems with it? Are they happy with it?" That's yall's decision. Obviously within the law. Sims: Right. I don't want it to be...and I understand, people don't take a look at their insurance policies near as close as they should to see if they're fully covered or they're over covered. And I do understand that but are we looking at our employees and saying, "You idiots, we're gonna make you look at something that's better than what you've got now or whatever." Simmang: No. Janek: No. Sims: I understand that but you don't know the perception around here John. I understand that but my concern is that... certainly I heard what you said, you can take them to a place and have cookies and all that good stuff to make a sales pitch but I don't want them to perceive that we're endorsing anything. That we're endorsing your company that we're endorsing your product, Vol 24 Page 51 I1 whatever that may be. We're saying, basically, what we want you to do is say to them, you can save money, employee. Janek: And we can even put a letter together for that effect. The Commissioner's Court is not endorsing this nor are they... whatever the verbiage you want on that that will make you comfortable with it. I've not run into this, even with the school districts, they're like, "(inaudible) teachers are paid. We can help them save money." And you know they're held to standards and strict rules and regulations as well. And I've not had one of them say, "Well we need to see if anybody else in the state is gonna come up and..." Sims: Have you approached the Cities on this? Janek: No. Simmang: No we have not approached the Cities. Janek: Not at this time, no. But schools and hospitals and not of them have felt like it's an issue and... Sims: How did the schools handle your contact with their employees? Janek: We went to their teacher in-service days. And we went prior to school starting. They even had teachers come in two weeks prior to... Sims: Ok. Janek: ...and they would let me speak in front of them...the staff. And then I would have a little booth set out there and they would stop and just pick the forms and pick up the freebies and then they're emailing and faxing them to us and we're getting back with them. Mallard: So do you have like a direct mail or something that we can put, send to all the employees to get started? Simmang: Actually Kenny, a clarification I'd like to.... excuse me...Commissioner Mallard. Mallard: Uh-huh. (positive) Simmang: I'd like to make a clarification because you said you had something we can send. Our philosophy behind that is; we do the sending for you. We don't want it to cost you money. What we've done for our other clients that have Vol gq Page 5a 12 chosen to do this; either we purchase envelopes from them or we get their logo from them, print it on the return address because we want it to look like that it is coming from their employer because you know if you see something from insurance that goes off to the side. As Rhonda said, we like to do about four touches a year by either letter or personal in one of these visits that we talked about. But we do all of that for you. Janek: At not cost to the county. Simmang: And anything that we do is under yalls approval. I don't know who we would work with. If yall said, "Hey, we wanna see the letter before anything goes out.", then we'd certainly give it to your HR or whoever. Janek: And any changes in that letter. If you wanted to make sure that verbiage was in there about this not being endorsed by the County Commissioner's, this is just an opportunity as an employee for you to save money. That's not a problem; we could put that wording in there. Whatever yall are comfortable with. Mallard: Well, I recognize that it's bringing in one insurance agent to come in and market to the county but I see that there's a pretty good benefit to that in offering that coverage. It may not work out but I think it certainly has an opportunity to work out. I think it's shown just by looking at my coverages that there is a difference on that and a considerable savings. I don't know if everybody can save as much as I did but I mean if it's several hundred dollars that's a considerable amount of money. Janek: (inaudible) attract and retain employees as well. (inaudible) and it's no cost. And with insurance, I'm sure yall pay a percentage of that and this is something that is absolutely no cost to the county. Sims: But how would it help attract... whether they come to work for us, whether they are working for us or not, if they talk to a cousin of theirs can they get the same deal? Janek: No. Simmang: If they go to work for someone that offers this product. Janek: Yeah. Simmang: So if they talk to their cousin and their cousin works for someone that offers this product and they go to work for that person, then they can. But if you are Vol ~ L+ Page 63 13 out on the street, can you go to a Traveler's agent and get this on your own? No. Janek: You get the retail price which is what I had prior to our agency signing on board with this. Jeanes: Ok, if they leave here? Janek: It's portable. The price stays the same; they can keep that same group price. Peters: Now that's if they leave retiring though, what if... Janek: They quit, leave, retire... Peters: Oh, if they quit? Janek: ...take another job... Simmang: They could go to work for the city, they go to work for A&M, and they can take this with them. Janek: Yes, the policy... Peters: If they go to work on their own, self-employed they should... Janek: They'll have it. The policy is portable. Mallard: Well, it's an advantage to them. Once the agent and the company gets the customer, as long as they're a good customer they would like to continue that process with them. So, I think that's great that you'd be willing to do that. I always look at it that if somebody comes up with a good idea; why not allow them to run with it. I don't see why we have to go out and try to find somebody else to come in and compete with them. Nobody else is coming and knocking on our door. Having an opportunity like this. Nichols: Judge...? Sims: Yes ma'am. Nichols: We have had people come and knock on our door. Several years ago; you were a member of the court then, when we had an unfortunate ordeal in the courthouse with a couple of vendors. The court decided not to allow vendors Vol , k Page S 14 in again and that's something that you're going to have to consider because yall agreed, as a Court agreement, you passed it though Court. Sims: We ran one of them off, didn't we? Nichols: Yes. Janek: Was it a home/auto program or something else? Mallard: Cancer policy. Janek: Oh. Nichols: But since yall did pass that in Court ....if you're going to do this, don't you have to rescind that? Sims: I don't know. We'll have to take a look at it. Nichols: Ok. Because we've had some call and we told them no. Peters: I mean I don't know what the deal was on that one, but if it really didn't turn out to be a benefit to employees, I could see why the Court would not want to have somebody in here doing something that's taking up time but doesn't really benefit the employees either. This sounds interesting to me. Nichols: It does, but the Court... Mallard: If the employees can save a pretty good chunk of money, that is a benefit. Nichols: ...they're going to have to make a change. Jeanes: Can we cut their salaries? Sims: Save money for the county taxpayer. Mallard: Judge, we'll let you do that. Nichols: The only real concern I have is payroll deduction... Janek: And we don't have to do that. Nichols: ...if they can draft their personal accounts, that's the way it should be. Vol 24 Page 55 15 Janek: Or we can send them a bill to their home. We can do a combination like we offer payroll deduct where I work but my husband and I keep our bills separate and he pays the house insurance so when went into the program, I just had them bill him direct for it. Sims: How come he only has to pay the house insurance? I have to pay them all. Twenty-six years ago, I didn't know what it was going to be like. Wassermann: Amen. Sims: Ok. Any other questions? Mallard: I guess at a future time if we decide to do that, what would be involved in that process? Janek: You just give us a call and we'll send an agreement over here and they look at it, sign it, and send it back. And then when covered issue that is strictly for the county and at that time we'll structure how yall want to present this to the employees and work from there. Mallard: A direct bill is like a monthly billing for their...? Janek: Yeah. They just bill them like (inaudible) Mallard: A monthly and, or... Janek: Or quarterly, or semi annual... Mallard: Yeah, but the direct bill is the least expensive? Simmang: No, the... Janek: EFT. Simmang: EFT is the least expensive. Mallard: I'm sorry, well... Simmang: The direct bill is they mail the bill to the house and then you either mail the check back to them or pay electronically or however. Mallard: Ok, I was thinking that... so a bank draft type deal is the least expensive. Vol 9q Page 5CQ 16 Simmang: Bank draft is the EFT. That is the least expensive. Janek: Or paying in full (inaudible) in escrow. Mallard: Right. I guess that's a pay in full or whatever. Ok. Janek: And that's kind of what yall are looking there. That's kind of the (inaudible) point that we can do for the employees. A whole packet that we'd pas out. So, again, any of the wording can be changed. It's just however yall want to do it. We tailor it to each and every employer that we work with. Mallard: Obviously, we are group of elected officials and each elected official has their employees and they actually are autonomous in how they operate that, we can get the word out to them but I don't see how there would be any kind of a true group meeting or an in-service meeting like the school districts. Janek: We can do it department by department or precinct by precinct. When you have safety meetings or if the crews meet at 7:00 o'clock then get out there at 6:45 and have donuts and coffee and talk to them about it. Mallard: Yeah. Janek: I mean we've done hospitals where I've had to pick up all three shifts. Mallard: Well here you've got...in the sheriffs office if they desire this then they have shifts for them. Janek: We can do all three shifts. Not a problem. Simmang: And we're use to dealing with shift with because we did that over at Bastrop County when their benefits. We just completed that so we are use to scheduling however we need to schedule. Sims: How do you present this to someone? Do you take and say, "Hey, bring me the information you have on your car, you house, your whatever...", and yall sit down and plug it into a computer and it spits out... Janek: No sir. Sims: ...then they will know the savings that they would make? Janek: That would take up too much time and you're paying them. Vol ~ 4- Page 57 17 Sims: Ok. Janek: What we do is we have a little quote sheets and we ask them to bring a copy of their home policy and their auto policy. Sims: All right. Janek: We send the quote sheets with them, ok? They get the information and they fax it to us, email it to us, or mail it to us. Sims: Uh-huh. (positive) Janek: That way they're not sitting there on your dollar filling out these sheets. We do not allow that. Then once we get that information, we do an apples to apples quote, identical to what they have now and then if they're missing any coverages... you know it's a very important endorsement is identity theft $25.00 a year. And it pays up to $15,000.00 if somebody steals your identity. Whatever expense you have to go through to get that straightened out. Sims: My wife stole my identity. Can I collect $15,000.00? Janek: Absolutely not. That's a very important endorsement so if there's endorsements missing, we're gonna make sure that they get an apples to apples quote and then we're gonna quote on all that should be written. But again, that's not going to be done on county time. Wassermann: I have an insurance question. When I purchase the second house; even though I had been with State Farm on my home here in College Station since '84, and all my cars, my fleet, they wouldn't insure my second home. They would only insure it because I had been with them that long. Why is that? Janek: Well that would happen... when they had the mold crisis and so many companies pulled out of this state and they quit writing property completely... this is one reason why I'm such an advocate of Traveler's. They stayed. They allowed us to continue writing homes throughout all that. We had twelve carriers and two of them said ...Dennis Devlin was Vice President and his head was on the chopping block once a month up in Hartford, Connecticut because he would not cut Texas off. He believed that strongly in the state and he will forever have my undying loyalty because he allowed us to keep our doors open in the personalized department when for eighteen months nobody would let us write homeowners policies. And that probably Vol q4 Page 58 18 was during that time frame and State Farm was like, "We're not taking on any more homes until this mold issue is settled and we know what we're looking at as far as exposure." Wassermann: You are exactly right. But you know, that was a real hardship for me... Janek: That was hard, yeah. Wassermann: ...yes, because who am I going to go to... Janek: Exactly. Wassermann: as a new customer if you won't take me. I have no claims against them. Janek: Well, Traveler's would have done it. Traveler's was... Wassermann: Well, that's good because that was a toughie at the time. Janek: I was sweating bullets to try to keep my department open. Wassermann: Was for me. Janek: We have about 9,000 clients in the personal line so we're a very strong first line department but we still need a constant influx of new clients, new customers to maintain. And that really crippled us when the other carriers pulled out. Wassermann: Well I felt like pulling out from State Farm but then I said, "Who's going to pick me up?" Janek: You'll really feel like pulling out from State Farm if I get to quote your insurance. Wassermann: Well, I'm probably thinking that right now. Sims: Any other questions? John, thank you. Rhonda, thank you. Vol S4 Page 6? 19 Janek: Thank you, I appreciate it very much. Any questions, you can just call. Sims: We'll take a look at this and probably get back in touch with you. Janek: We appreciate that. Sims: All right. Anything else for this workshop? I hear nothing so I will adjourn this workshop. End of tape. Vol 94 Page 20 of 20 The foregoing minutes of the Commissioners Court Workshop held August 29th , 2006 , have been examined and approved in open Court this the a{tL day of , 200X,- , in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas. S Duane Peters Commissioner, Precinct No. 2 Carey Ca ley, Jr. Commissi ner, Precinct 4 Attest: c are re 'Kan McQueen County Clerk Lloyd Wassermann Commissioner, Precinct No. 1 Kenny Mal d Commissioner, Precinct No. 3 Vol W Page BRAZOS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 021 ?e DAY OF , 20 06 AT le ~ ` co AM/pm to&s"/aj Name Organization &.e4q R-P- dwou WAA l . t 1~eI ~o . `fR SCI'PAGE ~c a