CARNY TO CONGRESS
Presented by Bay Water Boat Club.
https://carnytocongress.com/
CARNY TO CONGRESS
CARNY TO CONGRESS EP 15 - Hillary Cassel
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Presented by Bay Water Boat Club.
Welcome to the Carnage to Congress podcast. I'm your host, Adam Botana, along with my great co-host, Jake Emily.
SPEAKER_00Good morning, Jake. How we doing, buddy? I'm good. For those watching, I'm gonna be kind of at an angle here.
SPEAKER_01At an angle here, we are uh it's been a rainy day and uh uh we are in a uh a bus. This is gonna be the Carnimobile for the next few weeks for me. Uh that's where we're gonna be riding in, so that's where we're here. So this is complimentary of mom. So we're gonna take this up there, so it'll be a lot of fun. So we're gonna cruise up. So I'm leaving tomorrow morning early, and we're gonna drive to Michigan. So it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm excited. It's gonna be quiet, it's gonna be peaceful. It's gonna be a good time. It's gonna be a good time. And for those of you that can see in here, man. It's really nice. It's very nice, very nice. Very nice. So very lucky. Uh, but yeah, so we're getting ready for Michigan, cruise around there for a little while. Uh, we're gonna have a great uh guest appearance uh later on. We're gonna have representative Killary Cassell, really presentative Hillary Cassell. Uh she happened to be in town. She's gonna stop by and talk to us a little bit, maybe talk to us about property insurance, what we can do. Uh it will be exciting. And I'm sure 10% of our uh actual listening crowd is from Tallahassee. It's kind of funny, you can see that. So it's Beethoven, Naples, Fort Myers, and then Tallahassee. So a lot of lobbyists listen there too, a lot of people in the process. So say hi to you up there. So all our good friends, all our all our buddies. So what's going on, Jake? You got the girlfriend in town. You know, you got that going on. What's what's happening?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so she she moved in last week. Uh I mean, I have a headache from all the perfumes I've had to smell of hers. You know, it's been a good time. Uh I I really enjoy having her here. It's she's already got a job. She's she's gonna, or she's she's got an interview, but I already know she's gonna get the job. Uh it's something, some kind of facility up in Port Charlotte, some giant it's like Gartner. No, it's uh it's a Jamie Brothers. No, it was like something point. Something point. Something point.
SPEAKER_01We'll have to we'll have to research it and find out exactly what this point is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I can't remember exactly what it was called.
SPEAKER_01It's a nurse, right though?
SPEAKER_00No, she's dude, she'd technically be considered in the state of Florida a a CNA, CNA, certified nurse's assistant. Okay, and there's like different, I guess they're different per state, they have like different names or whatever. Um, but she's actually taking an administrative role, so she's gonna be the one like scheduling, doing like the back end and stuff. She's she's making more money than she was making up there. Nice, and more than me.
SPEAKER_01So there you go. Nothing around with that.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, yeah, but I'm still a little kind of like, well, I mean, she's only been here for three days. Been here for no longer the breadwinner.
SPEAKER_01You know, well, you've been at this jockey for so long. You I mean, you've definitely stepped up as website. Yeah, I actually got a raise today. Oh, congratulations. Yeah, it was very should have been happening a year ago. Yeah, but you know, just saying a year ago.
SPEAKER_00I'll send that to Mark. No, I went in today for uh I had a meeting. We were supposed to meet on Monday, but I was out Monday and Tuesday. And then I went in there today and I just started going in about like what I'm doing, what I'm working on. He's like, that's not why we're here right now. He's like, I'm giving you a raise. I just wanted to let you know. Congratulations. So it was cool. Thank you. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01I like it, I like it. So the girlfriend settling in. How's the cat? How's Bella? Is she uh freaking out?
SPEAKER_00Or she So you know that there's a new cat now, Lucy.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Lucy and Bella?
SPEAKER_00Lucy and Bella. Couple girls, okay. Yes, and uh it's been Are they hissing and growling and only Lucy, dude? So the the kitten is we'll call Bella the kitten because Bella's like six. She was born in 2020, she's my COVID cat. Lucy, I think, is like 13. Okay. So she's very much like, leave me alone, little kitten. I don't want to play. Uh, but it is they're they're very much coexisting. Bella wants to play, like she'll walk up and then she'll start growling or whatever, or Lucy will, and then Bella will like look down and then look at her and then go away, and then like kind of look back, wait. So Bella definitely wants to play. Nice. Um, but they're using each other's litter boxes, and I guess that's like a thing because we have two litter boxes, one for each of them, and then one's using one of them, and then the other one's using, so they're not using their own litter box. Nice, but they haven't killed each other.
SPEAKER_01That's a that's a bonus, that's a bonus. So I think I think we're I think we're good. Good, good. That's a lot of fun, a lot of fun there. Exciting, exciting times.
SPEAKER_00That's that's as exciting as it's been. So a lot of sleep, dude.
SPEAKER_01Um, I'm sure, I'm sure. Yeah, we're running around here, so we're we're getting out of town here. I'm getting out of town here for a couple weeks, so it's been kind of crazy. So we're gonna do a couple next podcasts. They're gonna be uh me up in Michigan and uh Jake down here. Uh so we might be right inside the concession trailer. We'll see what happens, see what happens. We'll be slinging cinnamon rolls by Omar. So we'll go out there and do the Carnegie Congress and we'll back to the roots all the way. Uh so I'm actually gonna be in Midland, Michigan. So stop by and see me if you're there. Say hello. We'll be at Omar Cinnamon Rolls. We're right there by the main event. So come on over, see us there. We'll be slinging sugar and cinnamon and lots of fun. Uh, mom's coming up, friends coming up, girlfriends coming up too. So it'll be exciting to see what happens with that. Uh, but yeah, so we got a lot of good, good times going on there. So uh we might uh just have our our guest has just arrived, actually, and she's gonna just pop in and say hi, Representative Hilary Cassell. Welcome to the Carnegie Congress podcast. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_03I'm doing great. It's a pleasure to be here, Representative Botana.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Thank you for coming, driving all the way across the state to come over here and hang out for this whole little podcast. So it's nice to link. We got nice digs here, though. It's not bad.
SPEAKER_03Well, I'm a team player, and when my colleague needs some assistance and needs someone to uh step up, I I tend to do that. So happy to be here.
SPEAKER_01Glad to glad you have you uh uh uh on the team over here on the on the West Coast and uh across the out too. So let's just jump into uh what is going on in Florida with uh property insurance. I know that's a lot of people. I know you've done some door knocking. I know some other friends have been doing some door knocking locally. I was talking to a potential member of Susan France, and a lot of stuff people talk about is property insurance. You know, they want taxes lower and they want property insurance. What's kind of going on with the market? Kind of give us a cap from the beginning to the end over the last four or five years, what has happened with property insurance in the state of Florida.
SPEAKER_03Sure. So just so your listeners know a little bit about me, I am an attorney. I spent 20 years practicing law. And the last 17 of those years, I've really focused on property insurance. I've represented pretty much every insurance company in the world and switched to representing policyholders about 10 years ago. So I basically represent people against insurance companies. Think about in the worst times of their lives. You know better than anybody. Obviously, your district suffered um catastrophic damage as a result of Hurricane Ian. I'm somebody who comes in after they've suffered that loss. The insurance company doesn't do right by them, and they need an attorney to handle it. And that's what I do. Um, so I actually, before I ever ran for office, I was an advocate and I um started to get engaged in the legislative process, just going up and talking about what's really a complex issue to be an advocate for everyday Floridians. And I started to realize that while we, and I can say it as a we now, as somebody who sits on the other side of the desk, um, you know, really want to do our best to learn everything we can about these um areas that we deal with. It requires a level of expertise when you're talking about something as complicated as insurance. So I ran for office, I won, and I'm running for re-election in November. But property insurance is the number one issue impacting Floridians. And we've been in a crisis since 1992. There's some data that says it even predates that, but we've been on this hamster wheel of a crisis. Um crisis.
SPEAKER_01So you're talking about Andrew, right? Because Andrew is kind of like the beginning of the problem. I mean, we are in a peninsula that's surrounded by 90 degree water. Um, you know, my issue that I always have is I don't care, I'll pay for it. But when I have a problem, give me my money, pay me back. You know, I pay you, I pay my stuff on time, and there's a hurricane. Well, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta wait a second, you know, we gotta research this. That really aggravates me. And I've had a lot of constituents that come to me and complain about that. And these people, like you say, are down and out. Uh, they're hurting really bad, and they're just what is the old saying?
SPEAKER_02They deny delay, deny, defense. Ah, gotcha. That's that's what I was talking about. There's a there's a book that talks about that.
SPEAKER_01There's a, you know, and it's just like it's just ridiculous. I mean, I I just don't understand it. So, what is what have we done in the legislature? Now, I will admit when I was outdoor knocking uh in gated communities, uh, maybe might have been threatened to be arrested a couple times and you know, people chase me around the community.
SPEAKER_02But when I I can absolutely absolutely see that happening to you a thousand percent.
SPEAKER_01You know, Forest Country Club ever needs anything, they're not not gonna get anything from me. They're just send me a letter to please restrain, please control yourself or something. It was crazy. But, anyways, I knock on doors and somebody will come right to the door. First words out of their mouth, I don't need a new roof. They'd be like, no, I'm not here for that. I'm running to be your state representative. This is my face, much better looking face than this one. On here, there you go. Um, and I, you know, and I understand I was talking to club members. Oh, we gotta we got a new roof for just our deductible. It was, you know, $20,000 or $10,000, I got a new roof. But yeah, so what have we done? I know assignments of benefits were bad, AOBs, but what what did we do? And then where are we at now?
SPEAKER_03Sure. So you have to understand the marketplace first and what crashed to understand where we got. So after Hurricane Andrew, big insurance companies really left the state. And so we were left with what we consider to be what are more small domestic insurance companies, meaning they're based out of Florida. They don't really have backing from the large insurance companies that you see. And those smaller insurance companies rely very heavily on reinsurance. Reinsurance is just a fancy way of saying an insurance company has insurance to protect them when shits the fan, for lack of better word. I hope I can curse on here. Um bleep it. But um, so basically, what people don't realize about the reinsurance, it's the number one cost driver for insurance. So when you get your premium and you get that bill in the mail, 40 to 50% of what you're paying is actually going overseas to international companies. And that all stems from the fact that we have small insurance companies in the state of Florida that don't have the funds in the bank in their bank accounts to cover the amount of policies that write. So they need somebody to basically fill their bank accounts when they can't pay the bills. And that cost is really the number one cost driver. And I think that's really the next step that we need to have conversations about. I've actually filed legislation two out of my four years in Tallahassee that would deal with what's really the only domestic option we have here in Florida for reinsurance. And the moment we lower the cost of reinsurance, we immediately get money back into people's pockets because it's the only place that we dictate when insurance companies save money, they must return it to the policyholder, to the consumer. If an insurance company saves money on the stadium marketing, because we all know they're all in the stadiums, but they cry they're poor. But anyways, don't get me on my soapbox. Um, but if they save money on marketing, they don't have to send that back to policyholders. But if they save it on the cost of reinsurance, back to consumers, it goes. So I think the thing that we need to focus on being forward thinking and future thinking is dealing with uh a domestic option here in the state of Florida, which is our Hurricane Cat fund.
SPEAKER_01Gotcha. I think that's good. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that that makes a difference, and there's bad actors all across the board. All I mean, all sides. All sides. Insurance companies, there's bad ones and there's great ones. Uh attorneys, there's good ones and there's bad ones. Definitely there. So there's a couple there. I might have to run out because our insurance, I have my not my insurance, I'm an AC guy because my AC is down. So I might have to run out here pretty soon. But we'll get it figured out. I can handle it. I think Jay can get that. But like, kind of dive in how, like, you know, there's good insurance companies or bad insurance companies, and there's bad attorneys, you know. There's just like, you know, PonSco, it's bad. This is not bad.
SPEAKER_03But just kind of jump into that a little bit and I'll be listening as a lawyer, I don't necessarily want to disparage my colleagues. Um, but there's, you know, there's bad doctors, right? Every industry has their positives and negatives. Uh, the reality was there was a lot of reforms that we passed that really focused on the consumer side of the issue, and we never really focused on the insurance company side of the issue. So I'm of the mindset that we tackled an area that needed some tackling. I personally think we went a little bit too far. We don't, consumers no longer have really any tools to hold the insurance companies accountable. But we never then turned sort of the coin and looked at insurance company behavior and how we modify the insurance company behavior to make sure that when we've taken the tools away from the consumer, that the insurance companies now don't have all of the tools in their toolbox and then take take bad decisions and and and and treat consumers even worse than some of them were before.
SPEAKER_01Hey, this is Adam Botana. Thanks for tuning in to the Carnegie to Congress podcast brought to you by Baywater Exclusive Boat Club, the only family-owned and operated boat club in Southwest Florida. We have over 60 boats down here in Benita Springs. You want access to pontoons, deck boats, water slides, bar boats. We got it at Baywater. Come on down and see us. We're two miles west of 41, right on Bonita Beach Road, exit 116 Alpha 75. Give us a call at 239-495-0455. Again, that's 239-495-0455. Or look us up online, or just Google BW Boat Club. BW Boat Club. BW Bo Club.com. AC guy is on the way. So we're we got a few minutes. Um just getting back to the insurance companies and uh attorneys, it there's always a cat and mouse thing, right? There's always things that happen. I think I I went back in time, and the big thing in Miami was uh Miami, um, was the Spanish tile on the floors. People were were buying full turkeys, Jake. Okay, they go buy a turkey, they say they're taking it out. It falls, it cracks a tile on the floor. Oh, I gotta redo my tile. Oh, that tile doesn't match, then I gotta redo my cabinets, and it turns into problems. And that's kind of what happened with assignment of benefits, right? You know, with the roofs because they have the tile roofs. If you're in Florida, metal roof, simple as that. That's what I say. I just no more, you know, just metal roof. It works good, it's great. The tiles look pretty, but it just turns into problems. So I know there's things that happen there, and there's bad actors like we were talking about before. But I th the problem I have is you have folks that are, you know, four foot of water in their house, and they have flood and they and they're trying to get the insurance, and then it goes back, well, it's wind, or it's flood, or it's a scrape, you know, and I and there's there's both good arguments on both sides. But like I like uh Representative Cassill was saying, we went a long ways, you know, and there's a lot of stuff that was bad, but I think we got kind of caught up. Um, you know, frivolous lawsuits are always a problem. I think loser pays across the board, you know, will eliminate a lot of that aggravation. So there are certain things I see about it. Being in my district, District 80, uh was 76. You know, we had Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island, Boca Grand, you know, from uh Hurricane Ian to Irma to uh Helene. I mean, every everyone that was different, different areas. You know, Hurricane Ian, Gasparilla got, you know, a ton of wind, wasn't as bad, you know. But Irma, they got wrecked up there. So it every little place is like, but I mean, we don't stone any hurricanes for the next 10 years, we'll be fine. Uh, but that's just kind of kind of where I'm seeing just people talking to me, just constituents, saying, you know, I need help. Can you help me out? Um, I always hear what I don't like is unless somebody knows me, they're not getting taken care of by their insurance companies. And that's not good. We can call the, you know, uh, what's his name here? Wowski. Walski, I always mess up his name. Great guy. I like him. Uh it's insurance uh commissioner at the same story. Does a good job, but again, how to get to it, how to find that. Like, oh, how do you pull that lever? Shouldn't be that hard. When these people are are down and out, it's a problem. Uh, I think uh I think there's gonna be, you know, if we have another storm, we're gonna have some real issues. And I think you're gonna have a lot of people really upset.
SPEAKER_03So we're gonna have a lot of people unable to fix their houses because the insurance companies are being gonna be in positions where they don't have to pay what's rightfully owed. And I think we're gonna see that should should we get another hurricane, which it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Absolutely. So, Representative Cassell, tell us about your district, where are you from, uh, your area, the whole nine yards.
SPEAKER_03So I have the honor and privilege of representing District 101 in Broward County. I represent five different cities: Fort Lauderdale, Davy, Dania, Hollywood, and Hallendale. I like to say I have the heart of Broward's economic infrastructure. If you ever get an opportunity to come to Broward, more likely, you're coming to my district. If you're flying into Broward through Fort Lauderdale Airport, you're in my district. If you're coming and visiting the Hard Rock uh hotel, you're in my district. If you're coming to Margaritaville or the horse races or to the port to go on a cruise, that's my district. And that is uh where I call home.
SPEAKER_01Nice, nice. So it's Dania Beach.
SPEAKER_03What are the other Davy, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, and Hallendale.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you got the uh casino.
SPEAKER_03I have the hard rock. The hard rock. Come gamble here in my district.
SPEAKER_01All right, I like it. So that's I'm representing the sales district. So what are the what are you looking forward to this uh this session? What do you I mean, what no? Let's let's back it up. What are you most proud of last session?
SPEAKER_03Oh goodness. I had a really successful legislative session last year. I passed several pieces of legislation. I think my primary job as a state representative, I think I have two, two, two jobs really. First and foremost, it's constituent services. I need to actually be there for my community. A lot of people need help. A lot of people need governmental services or just need help somewhere, and I'm the office that I want them to call. So I'm really fortunate. I have an incredible district aid. Shout out to Connie. Um, she is just truly an incredible human and loves to help people. So, first and foremost, my my focus is always on my constituents and the needs of my district. But then I think my number one job is to bring home home money. The reality is my cities need money for infrastructure projects. My local community organizations need money so they can continue to fund projects that are going to give backs directly to my district. So I'm a big believer in constituent services and bringing dollars home. And this year I was fortunate enough to bring home over $41 million in money that will go specifically to um issues and organizations in Broward County, but also that can um impact the state as a whole.
SPEAKER_01Nice, nice. That's great. Uh, what are the number one uh appropriation that you brought home that you thought you just mostly hit hit home for you?
SPEAKER_03Oh, wow, what's my that's so hard to say. I'm really selective in the projects that I take because I want to be able to deliver for my community. Um, as somebody whose grandmother had dementia, my grandmother had dementia and she moved in our home and I saw what toll that took on my parents. The last two years, I've been really fortunate to bring home money to Hollywood, one of my cities, where they are opening up a very specialized adult daycare facility that's going to give some respite to caretakers that when they need to go to work, they're gonna have a place to be able to send their parents, um, knowing that they're well taken care of. And it's really a community, uh, we're utilizing a community center, which is underutilized and specifically transforming it with these dollars to a facility that will be able to take care of and provide arts and crafts and and and exercise and things for these adults to engage in and give respite to the caretakers back at home. And that for me is a project dear and near, near and dear to my heart. Um, I do a lot of work in the Jewish community back at home, a lot of Holocaust work, making sure that the Holocaust survivors that we have um are able to receive, you know, food. They're old, they're in their 80s, 90s, hundreds, um, and they need help. So making sure they get those resources. Uh, I yeah, I mean, I can't really pick my it's like asking me to pick my favorite child, but I only have one child, so he's my favorite.
SPEAKER_01Very good, very good.
SPEAKER_03His name's Shepard, he's 10, he's the cutest boy ever.
SPEAKER_01Where's he at right now?
SPEAKER_03He is uh having the best summer summer of his life. He is at slepaway camp in uh Waterville, Maine. He has been gone for seven weeks and he comes. Home on Tuesday, and I can't wait.
SPEAKER_01Awesome, that's great. Sleepaway camp, Jack. Did you ever go to sleeve camp?
SPEAKER_00I went to church camp one time. Uh that was I'm sure there's some stories, Jake. It was in the mountains in Tennessee. Oh no, so just nice, you know, a lot of Pentecostal preaching and tongues flapping and falling out.
SPEAKER_01Holy Spirit. Okay. Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I I remember uh when I was a kid, we did uh camping. As far as camping, we did Boy Scouts one time, right? And that was fun. So we had a tent out there, and we went out there with a bunch of us there, and that's some strange rash. No, it was about enough camping for me. You know, usually I'm uh used to being in a trailer or uh, you know, something as a as a kid growing up on the road. It's that kind of camping tent. I don't know. I wasn't uh I wasn't too keen on a tent, but it was you know, something different.
SPEAKER_03Well, this kid is in a bunkhouse like you've never seen on grounds like you've never seen. I want to hang out there. His lakefront has sailboats and pontoon boats and a huge, you know, one of those like big things they jump on. And um he's no cell phones, right? No there's zero technology.
SPEAKER_01Jake and I can agree with this. This is awesome. No, it's really good.
SPEAKER_03Zero technology, no girls, it's an all-boys camp. Um, but he's whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
SPEAKER_01Come on. You know, he's dead.
SPEAKER_03Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, sorry, I didn't know.
SPEAKER_03They do their first like boy-girl mixer at 12. And I literally had a meeting this summer when I went up for visiting day and was like, I don't think 12 is appropriate. My son will not be doing that, but he will. But no, so they um he he's living his best life, but no technology. Um, and what I really love about it for him, being an only child, it really gives him an opportunity to one, learn what it's like to live with other kids, but he's learning how to become a young man by really like the camp is a very positive camp. Everything is focused on, you know, team building and confidence building and self-esteem. And he comes home every summer, a totally different kid. I mean, the things that he tried this summer, he got into sports journalism and he tried lacrosse and he was in the play. And he like he's tried things that I don't know if he would have tried without this opportunity. So I'm a I wasn't a big believer in at first when he first went away. He was eight years old. I thought it was too young, but um, he's really thrived and he loves it. And he constantly reminds me that his summer camp is like his legislative session. He gets seven weeks and I get seven weeks for legislative session. So we're even is is what he was what he tells me as his reason, as his reason why he gets to go.
SPEAKER_01Smart kid, smart.
SPEAKER_03He a little too smart.
SPEAKER_01So, you know, this this podcast is sponsored by the Bay Water Social Boat Club. What's your favorite kind of boat? I know you grew up in boating, I've heard. Uh you've been out boats quite a bit. What what what what's your ideal day on a boat?
SPEAKER_03A boat that I don't have to drive or lift a finger or have to have to wrap a rope and tie a knot. I want to do nothing. I want to be a passenger boat princess. I want the margaritas ready to be drank. I want some good music, and I don't care where the boat gets me as long as it gets me from A to B. I don't care about the boat. I like it. I like it.
SPEAKER_01It's a good answer. Good answer. Best answer we've had a conversation in a while. Uh, we got Jake out on the boat for a first time, and that was a while ago. But now his girlfriend's down, maybe we'll have to uh to get her out and say that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she's uh, like I said, I've told you this before, she's tan, so she looks like she's from here. I don't. Um, so yeah, we'll definitely have to get her out on a boat. Uh, she'll enjoy that.
SPEAKER_03She wants to be a passenger boat princess, also. Yeah, I promise you.
SPEAKER_00Not when she's driving, though, because she wants me to drive all the time. That's what I've been doing driving.
SPEAKER_03You should, it's you should.
SPEAKER_00Is that a thing?
SPEAKER_03Yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I'm supposed to drive.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Never let her drive.
SPEAKER_00I learned something today.
SPEAKER_03Ever.
SPEAKER_00Now kept the camera on you the whole time because your reaction is pricey.
SPEAKER_03She should never drive. And if she volunteers, she really doesn't want to drive. And you tell her no.
SPEAKER_00Can I can I be honest though? Yeah. She parks better than me. I'm trying, man. I'm trying. Well, who cares? I told her last night, I was like, you know, if I had to run from somebody, I could get away. But I cannot back into the driveway into the garage like she's happening. I knew what you're doing. Yep. Thank you. I'm not saying that. Well, criminate myself.
SPEAKER_03Nobody cares about your parking except the person next to you, and we don't know what they're.
SPEAKER_00It's into the garage. I just can't. I can't. I can't compete. She's better. She's good. She's good. She's got this.
SPEAKER_01Well, get the tennis ball. Get the tennis ball. Set it where you know you get up into the window and you tap the window.
SPEAKER_00You think I didn't do that? I have a Corona, like a taco. Uh huh. It's like a pinata. I've had it since COVID. That's what I'm using as the tennis ball. You just go to the corona thing and then you're good. Stops. I like it.
SPEAKER_01I like it. No. Um, no, that's a great answer. That's just just sit there and have a good time, kick back, relax.
SPEAKER_00Sounds like uh somebody uh should join the boat club.
SPEAKER_01I think so. Yeah. Call call me. 239-495-0455. Look us up online. bwboatclub.com. Bay Water Crusader Boat Club, the exclusive club of Southwest Florida. Um, you got a dog?
SPEAKER_03I do. I have a golden doodle.
SPEAKER_01So why I'm saying this, we got Nugget running around, and then the little one is here. She's here. Uh Lily May. Lily May. She got 200,000 views on that little little uh chasing the mouse on the screen.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I saw that one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, chasing the mouse on the screen. That's Lily May. He's there with Jake. They got the same color eyes, both raccoons. She's sweet. She's very sweet. She's probably one of the sweetests. Maybe that one will go viral again. Yeah, there you go. The nugget and uh Lily Mae there, so they're running around. So you got a dog, right?
SPEAKER_03I got a dog. His name's Judge. I'm a lawyer. I never want to be a judge, so I figured I'd name my dog Judge. He's a golden doodle. Um, got it.
SPEAKER_01I'm a good neighbor.
SPEAKER_03I'm a good neighbor. Uh, but no, he's my son's dog, and I'm really excited for my son to come home and take care of him.
SPEAKER_01Nice.
SPEAKER_03Nice. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Right. So um looking forward uh onto onto the future here. What else do you got going on right now? What is you you've got some other stuff in the hopper, I would imagine?
SPEAKER_03I have re-election in November, uh-huh. Okay, which is really my focus right now. Uh, you know, it's gonna be a it'll, it'll, it'll, I will win. There isn't a doubt in my mind I will win, but it's gonna be a challenging re-election. Um, I'm already out knocking on doors and meeting with voters and reminding them of, you know, the success that I've had in Tallahassee the last four years and um why I think I'm the best person to keep my job. Um, you know, and so my focus right now is on re-election. I will always focus on insurance as a legislator in Tallahassee. That's my area of expertise. And whether it be property insurance or health insurance, you know, I filed a health insurance bill last year that dealt with a lot of issues that everybody faces from prior authorizations and down, you know, issues that you face when you go to get services from a provider and they deny your claim or they take a lot of time to get you that referral. Well, that's because we haven't dealt with that led that piece of legislation in 20 over 20 years, and it's something that we need to take a look at. So I'll always work on insurance issues. Um, and I'm sure something else will will pop up. But for me, right now, my focus is re-election.
SPEAKER_01The dogs just went crazy because they know the big boss is here. Grandma's around, so she's hiding. She's not gonna get on camera, but she's got her coffee, she's sitting in their passenger seat there. See, mama's a passenger princess.
SPEAKER_02So uh she should be, you know.
SPEAKER_01So uh, but she's up there in the the Chihuahua and Nugget are running around like crazy. So uh, but yeah, no, so that's it's gonna be fun. It was uh it's always been fun to work with you in a legislature and just talk and see how bills. I know we ran bills together, just talking about insurance with voting, and uh might repeal some of that law um because it's really annoying. And boating is a tough, is a tough situation, you know. My big things that I want to do for our area is bring home money, is always a big thing. Didn't bring home that much money, I don't know, you know.
SPEAKER_03Uh but you've you've brought home you've done really well for your district with after the hurricanes and stuff.
SPEAKER_01But the main thing I really want to work on is just roads and our areas, a big thing that we want to work on. And there is some stuff in boating, uh, not boating, it's boating, uh, just on boats. Um there's some things that happen, and people realize that you know our Southwest Florida is one of the major meccas for boating. It's not as big as Miami or Tampa, but there's a lot of people out there. So there's more, I think we need to have more education, maybe a few more rules. There's a couple things that comes with bow riding. If you've if you watched Qualified Captain, that is a um uh website out there, uh, Instagram, Facebook, they're always talking about people riding on the front of a boat. We really need to to limit that because it's just people just don't know, you know, and that's something that we're gonna work on over the next couple of years. So we'll see where that where that ends up. Uh, but always excited to get back up to Tallahassee. I'm excited to get on the road right now, up to Michigan for a couple weeks and hang out.
SPEAKER_03And hopefully you have some cooler weather.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah. So it's uh I was looking at the radar, uh, the weather next, it's like tops out at 80, which is amazing, you know. And last year we had um, what is it, Northern Lights that popped up, which was pretty crazy. Uh, you know, that was probably a couple years ago, but you know, it's always great. Michigan is awesome. My family's been going to this fair for uh close to 70 years. 70 years. So my mom, my we talked about this. We've been in the cardinal industry for over 70 years now. Uh this was our first place that she went, way back in 57. So uh it's pretty wild. It's a great town. We're excited to go there. Larry uh was out there, drove a truck up for me. I'm driving this up there. Uh, he missed his plane the first time. Uh so of course he was at the airport and he made it back, which was surprising. I talked to him last night and I could talk to him, so it's good. So he made it back. Uh, but we're ready to get out of here. So you're gonna see us in the trailer next week, uh, running around the next couple weeks. So it's gonna be fun, Jake. We're gonna have a good time. How are we gonna how are we gonna do this? What do you think?
SPEAKER_03Can you bring back a cinnamon roll? I want to try one.
SPEAKER_01We might have to do a couple.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we've only been asking them for seven years.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, I know. Eight years. We'll get you to Mississippi, buddy. I need to go. You can't go to Michigan right now.
SPEAKER_00No, probably Mississippi.
SPEAKER_01You could hang.
SPEAKER_00My mom lives in Mobile right now, so Oh, does she? Yeah, so she's not far. Not bad. I mean, she's on the way at least, so I could just drive 12 straight to her and then drive the rest. Kind of come back a little bit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, come back a little bit.
SPEAKER_00I mean Jake doesn't Jake doesn't like flying. Well, to be fair, last year I flew 24 times. Wow. Or no, it wasn't, it was 2024. I sp I flew 24 times. Nice. Um, but the relationship that I'm what that I'm in, I've been in a long-distance relationship for three years, and she just moved in last weekend. You guys knew each other from high school, right? Middle school. Middle school. Actually, sorry, uh elementary school. Wow. I think it was fifth grade's elementary school, right? Yes, fifth grade, yeah. Impressive. Long time. Long time. That's good. That's good.
SPEAKER_01Excited. Excited for you. Thank you. He's so happy. He's so happy. Yeah, we'll see what happens. But um, no, so we're we're looking forward to that. I mean, uh, we've had a we've had a couple near close uh encounters and boats lately. That's why you join a club, but sometimes you have situations that are not good. We had a boat almost uh got caught underneath the dock a couple weeks ago. I talked about that on a show earlier today. I was down in Naples, a friend of mine give me a call. She goes, Adam, is this your boat? I go, Yeah, it is. And it's right above the water line. It was full of water. A little Mako skiff. My mom is looking at me right now with her eyes big. And uh I go, yeah, that is. And what had happened was we have some hellacious storms right now. So obviously, we're gonna look about not sending people out when we have these storms, or they have to secure the boats properly. Friend called me, she was out, storms, they tied up the boat, and these storms have been nuts lately, like 40, 50 mile-hour winds, wave. So, where this boat was parked, it was pushed against the dock, and it has bilge pumps out of where it pumps water out. But what is happening, these waves are coming, and it was just filling the boat, and the bilge pump couldn't keep up. So a friend called me and like, this is your boat. I'm like, Yeah. So then I'm calling the member. Oh, it's it's a little low, and we're like, You need to get out there. So they got buckets and started bailing it and got it out, and uh it the motor never went below the water. That's the important thing. Uh, bad things come in threes, so we're making sure everything is good to go right now. Uh, but we got it got it out, it's fine, it's good. Hose it out, running. They were able to drain it back and drain it and everything like that. But um, yeah, it's boats. Never, never a good situation. Never a dull moment, it seems never a dull moment. Uh it's always uh it's always fun and exciting, and something's always happening at Baywater. So now my air conditioned technician guy is there, so you guys can knock it out. With Jake the Millennial is gonna take over and ask some good questions about the process. How how because you've asked me a lot about the process. How is it being a woman in a process in Tallahassee, just you know, because you got clothes, you got stuff, you got everything right there, and I'm gonna run and get my AC fixed.
SPEAKER_03I think you brought up the clothes because I am known for being a bit of a fashionista in Tallahassee.
SPEAKER_00You see your little flowers on your shirt. Never seen a shirt like that.
SPEAKER_03No, no, I mean I had to bring my A game for the podcast. I don't like to think of my role in Tallahassee versus like male versus woman. When, you know, I I've operated in so many male-dominated industries as an attorney. I've learned to hone my skill set and what makes me unique. And being a woman is a component of that, but I don't look at this world anymore as, oh, well, I'm a woman and I'm treated differently, or I'm a woman and I need to do X, Y, and Z. I'm there to do the job and I'm the right person for the job, and I do the job really well. And I don't, I don't think about it in those terms. I mean, there are there are things that you have to think about from a perception standpoint as a woman in this process, but I don't think it's different from perceptions you might get as a man, too.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So, and uh, this is gonna get me in some heat, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. What do you say to the people that think that women can be a little too emotional? And to make some very because like that's one of the biggest arguments that I've heard from either side, left or right. I don't really think it matters, is they they kind of get the uh the emotional card.
SPEAKER_03We're gonna get that card always. I think the reality is there are components of that that just exist that make men and women different. Um, I also think there's a human component to politics. What I do every single day impacts actual people. So there is a human side to the work that we do. We hear horrible stories of awful things that have happened to people in the state. A lot of the times the work that we do is reactionary to very emotional situations. I passed legislation my very first year that was as a result of a four-year-old boy being murdered by his father in a parent murder-suicide situation where the mom had been going to the courts and seeking help and asking for an injunction because she was receiving such horrendous messages from the father, but all of the angst and violence was directed at her and was never directed at Grayson. So the court said, Well, we're not worried about Grayson. Well, what are you gonna? What's the first thing to do to hurt a hurt a parent? You hurt their child. And that's exactly what happened. And she knew it was gonna happen. So here I am dealing with some very significant and impactful legislation that is going to help people in, you know, these types of situations moving forward, but we've lost a four-year-old, beautiful little boy as a result of it. So I don't think you can take the emotions out of it. I think it's what allows women to bring a different side to it. I'm not somebody who believes I should cry on the floor of the House of Representatives. Um, I'm also a 20-year trial lawyer. So there's a level of composure that I think I carry that maybe others don't have that training, but it's it's an emotional process that we partake in.
SPEAKER_00Well, because like the caveat, I think that most men in most cases aren't emotional. They can be heartless in some situations. And I where I feel like a woman kind of can understand more aspects of any type of situation, especially something like that. That's heartbreaking.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and and you know, I think you need that human component in politics. Um, so I think women belong in politics. I think we have a different way of delivering, a different way of understanding, and sometimes dealing with those harder subjects that need an empathetic, more empathetic voice to bring it to life, right? Because we're talking about words on a paper. At the end of the day, the story I just told you resulted in words on a piece of paper that are now law, but there's a story and there's a why. And for me, uh, and I think it's why I've been very successful in the legislature is everyone's gonna know my why. Why is this piece of legislation necessary? Um, but I think that's why women are a powerful component and a necessary component in politics to bring that heart and that love center back to shaping um our future.
SPEAKER_00Ultimately, at the end of the day, the only people who can create life are women. So I I agree with you. They most definitely deserve uh just as much opportunities as men. And I sound like I'm talking from the 1920s right now. Um I just had a really good question I wanted to ask you, but I think I lost it. Um so I I, for example, and this might not make much sense. So during the three, the the the triad of hurricanes that we had in Milton, the whole nine. Um I personally, amongst thousands of other people, had to go through the trial of you know getting a hold of the insurance companies. And I just want to give you my experience, and maybe you can help me understand as to why the last two hurricanes. So for Hurricane Ian, painless process. They came out, everything happened, but then when we had the hurricanes that I think were like a month apart or a few weeks apart, um denied across the board on absolutely everything. Uh, when the first one came through, we didn't even have enough time to get everything put in before the next one hit. And we got denied on the first one, and then we did one for Milton and then got denied on the second one. And uh so what why why was it so different? Which this the damage was significantly different from Ian from Hilton, you know, the from the other two. But at the end of the day, it's like we still we basically had to eat that loss for the last two.
SPEAKER_03So the difference between the two were the reforms that were passed in Tallahassee. So all of the existing laws that were on the books that provided a lot of the consumer protections and tools that consumers had to hold insurance companies accountable in those denied scenario cases, were all applicable in Ian. So you had better behavior from insurance companies because they knew you had an opportunity to get an advocate, whether it be a public adjuster or an attorney, if they didn't do right by you. Um, those reforms were no longer, those, those uh policies, those positive policy holder consumer protections were no longer on the books after Hurricane Ian, or Hurricane Ian was grandfathered in. So now you have insurance companies who know there's not really that much that you can do anymore because you would take that claim and you would bring it to a lawyer like me.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03And let's say you had $30,000 worth of damage, I can't take that case anymore. Whereas before, if I said, yeah, you've got that damage, don't worry, I'm gonna get you your money. And when I win for you, they're gonna have to pay me in addition. So what that did is it gave some leverage to you as a policy holder. Now I look at that same case and say, the insurance company is gonna fight me for three years. I'm only entitled to a percentage of it. And when it's all said and done in three years, you're never, you're still never gonna have enough money to pay for your damages. You need $30,000. So if you then have To hire a lawyer, pay out of pocket, pay your lawyer out of pocket, you literally start on day one with never having enough money to fix your house. And a lawyer like me who knows the fight that I'm going to have to undertake to get a percentage. Whereas before, if the insurance company wanted to fight me for three years and lose, I would get paid my three years of time. But now I take from your settlement. So you're never going to have enough money. And then I'm going to be fighting them for three years. It's not, it's not a good business decision anymore. As much as I want to help you. So by taking that tool away from consumers, you could you would have taken that deny. They they are they're going to start off by denying your claim to begin with, knowing that your road to get recovery is impossible. Isn't is impossible. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I have uh an insurance question because it was, it was a, I mean, if the if it had been a category five, does that mean that the uh deductibles are waived? Because there was a lot of controversy about when Hurricane Ian came through, they categorized it as a four. Um and there was there was uh apparently the weather cams went down, all the stuff that they used, the instrumentations that they used to monitor. Uh so it never went to category five, but there was a huge conversation that there was a you know conglomerate of insurance companies that got together and you know made sure that it never hit category five due to the fact that supposedly if a category five does come through, all the deductibles are therefore waived.
SPEAKER_03So you have that component, and then you have the same component, like at least with Helene and Milton, like in that scenario, because they were back to back, the insurance companies can only charge you one deductible. Um, there's there's a there's a lot of gamesmanship.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03There's a lot of gamesmanship that gets played, whether um, you know, if the hurricane, should a hurricane deductible even apply when it's a tropical storm, or I had scenarios where on the East Coast you had tornadoes that resulted from the wind, but it wasn't a hurricane. It was an actual formed tornado. And rather than applying the what we would call an all-other perils deductible, which usually is gonna be a thousand to 2500, you're getting charged a hurricane deductible, which is likely to five or 10% of your total premium, which is gonna be much higher than that smaller deductible, but they're gonna apply hurricane. Well, because the tornado came during the storm. And and and they're right in that application, but are they right in the policy? Like, is that really how we want to treat people, knowing that it's a tornado claim that was that that came about because of a hurricane, but that's not really what caught what caused the damage. So there's a lot of gamesmanship in in the categorized, you know, how we categorize them and what were the wind speeds and where were the winds located in relation to your home. But I do find that there are a lot of carriers that in those scenarios, when you're reaching a category five, like there's not much for them to fight you on. Where they can fight you is exactly what happened with Helene and Milton. So my firm is the only firm to have successfully tried to to a you know jury verdict here in Lee County, a Hurricane Ian claim where the carrier denied um blaming everything on the wind carrier denied all of the damages, blaming everything on flood. Um, and we were successful um in in getting a very full policy limit uh verdict for our clients over here um in Lee County as a result of that. But that's a little bit of the gamesmanship they play. And and you just want your house fixed. You know, none of my clients want the money to go to Jamaica on a vacation. They really just want their house back, they want to move back in. Many of them don't get to live there during this time and they just want their life back. And it ends up being a nightmare.
SPEAKER_00And I will say that in uh in a lot of cases, especially here in Lee County during Hurricane Ian, is a lot of the contractors ran off with that money anyway. You know, and I I see a lot of lawsuits happening now. I see a lot of defunct contractors, construction companies, people who were borrowing license numbers from this guy, and then you know, they wash him through different companies. You know, there were so many people that came from out of state during that time. Like uh it was one of the things that I had because I rented, and when, you know, when we got flooded, that was one of the things I talked to O'Larry about. I was like, look, I need somebody that's gonna be from here. I don't want anybody from Michigan, I don't want anybody from here, I don't want to see license plates from different states that are coming because it's like this is my home, and I don't trust anybody. Yeah, unfortunately. You know, it's just the way it goes. And that was one of the things I learned a long, long, long time ago is make sure that license number matches to the company because they'll run off on your money.
SPEAKER_03That's one of the hardest parts after a storm, is the reality is there's so much money that floods in, whether it be federal assistants, state assistants, city assistants, you know, local municipality assistants. Like there's so much money in the state that we do actually we do very much get taken advantage of. Um, and it's very difficult to prosecute somebody. I'm a I'm a former assistant state attorney. I started my legal career as a prosecutor. Um, so it's very difficult to one, they they run, they leave the state. You it's difficult to get them back. And a lot of these cases end up being civil. And then you, as the homeowner, have to hire somebody. And again, you know, to hire somebody on a construct, you know, on a construction claim, you know, where the per, you know, they're out of state. It's it's sad. I wish there was a lot more that we could do in that fraud space. Um, and same in the insurance space. There's a lot of fraud. There was a lot of fraud on the consumer side. I actually represented the insurance companies after during the uh financial foreclosure, like the financial crisis, the foreclosure crisis that we had. And because I had a prosecutor background, a criminal background, I um not because I was a criminal, but because I prosecuted, you know, I did that. Um, but I was involved in a lot of what we call special investigation unit investigations because people were setting their kitchens on fire. Your house is getting ready to go into foreclosure. You don't have any money. What was the easiest way to get funds? It was set my kitchen on fire and set and submit an insurance claim and get $25,000 for it. So I wish we did a lot more on the fraud front on both sides because there's a lot of fraud in the insurance company world, construction world, policy holder world to combat the fraud because that raises prices for everybody. And it's done all across the board on all sides of the aisle. You can't just point it at one side.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's uh I actually find it uh kind of alleviating. Like I think uh Carmine Marcino has been putting up these different uh little billboards. They normally put them up for like lock your cars and stuff like that. But like if you're driving to buy gift cards or Bitcoin, it's a scam. You know, and it's like I I I seen a video not too long ago of a lady who was dumping about $40,000 in one of those bit Bitcoin ATMs. And you know, thankfully they get they did, you know, get her money back in time because they basically just ripped a machine up and took her money out. And uh it's it seems to be something that's more persistent, and uh, but yeah, the the the the fraud in in uh the state of Florida, I would say Lee County, but the state of Florida is it's definitely one of the biggest states for fraud. And as soon as some of these older people realize that if it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true. It's too good to be true in most cases, yeah. Um, we're coming up to the end here. Adam is gone. I don't know where he is. He's out getting his AC fixed.
SPEAKER_03So we handled it.
SPEAKER_00We handled it, we stepped up. I'm going to end the podcast here. It's brought to you by Baywater Boat Club, the only family owner-operated boat club in Southwest Florida. You can see Sherry behind me. She is not gonna like the fact that she has been on camera this whole time, but it is perfectly fine. Uh, so give Adam a call. 239 495 0455. Tell him Jake sent you. Or don't. It's fine. Carnival Congress podcast brought to you by Baywater Boat Club, the exclusive club of Southwest Florida.