the state's insurance commissioner, ricardo lara, has the most authority to address this crisis.ut his latest plan came with criticism. it's filled with loopholes, alleged misrepresentations of his promises. so for months now, we've tried to talk with him, but his office has repeatedly ignored our requests, refusing to answer basic questions. now, tonight, that changed. >> i mean, the guy's got the title of insurance commissioner, you know, isn't he supposed to be doing something about insurance? >> meet valerie baldwin, like millions of californians, she was dropped by triple a, her insurer of 40 years, then forced to another provider that spiked her premiums 50% more. same story with her neighbor, bob. >> 60% higher. >> and her neighbor, janet. >> they canceled me. and meanwhile, the broker put me into the california fair plan. i'm wondering, do i have to come up with the money to pay off my mortgage? you know, what will i do? >> despite the fact her garden is well groomed and her portola valley property is directly adjacent to a fire station, the 86 year old's premiums still w

this week, commissioner ricardo lara unveiled the sustainable insurance strategy.t's a series of reforms designed to get insurers to continue writing new policies in the state. some major companies have stopped renewing policies because of the risk of devastating wildfires. among other things, this plan would allow insurance companies to use a forward looking catastrophe model to calculate rates. right now, rates are set by evaluating historical data. for more on what these proposed changes will look like, let's bring in insurance expert karl sussman from the sussman insurance agency. karl, it's good to have you on. we appreciate the time. we do know these reforms are expected to lead to rate increases across the board. first off, how much more do we think homeowners should expect to pay for coverage if this plan is implemented? >> well, thanks, alex for having me. i was watching the weather forecast thinking, well, rain is good right now, that maybe not this much, but it will certainly help with some of these fires that are still burning. we've had over a million

stephanie sierra tracked down commissioner ricardo lara, who responded to the criticism.oing to talk to stephanie at 530. join us for those stories and more on abc seven. bay area streaming tv, dan and ama. all right. >> thanks, karina. >> all right. you can download the abc seven app or head to abc7 news.com to join karina in just two minutes. >> if you are watching us on tv, world news tonight with david muir is next for sandhya patel. all of us here. thank you for joining us. >> i'm ama daetz and i'm dan ashley. we appreciate your time. we'll see you again at six. >>> tonight, breaking news. moments ago, president-elect trump with elon musk for the spacex launch. the starship taking off. what was scrapped in the air?

insurance commissioner john garamendi is accusing california's current insurance commissioner, ricardo, lara doing his job kron four's capitol correspondent eytan wallace reports. >> mr. commissioner, get with and if you don't want to do it. then move on. california's first ever elected insurance commissioner john garamendi with those harsh words for the state's current insurance commissioner, ricardo mr. chairman, a democrat currently representing parts of the bay area in northern california in the u.s. house garamendi serves as insurance commissioner for parts of the 1990's. and early 2, thousands. he says the state's homeowners insurance crisis has gotten out of control and needs urgent reform. the costs and the availability are. >> acceptable. in the last year and a half 7 of the 12 major home insurance companies in california, including allstate, state farm and farmers insurance have either limited their business within the state or in some cases stop selling new policies altogether for homeowners living in some of california's most fire prone areas. that resulted in some californians s

state's former insurance commissioner john garamendi now is accusing the current commissioner, ricardo, laraendi is calling laura to step down. if he doesn't take further action over the last year and a half 7 of the 12 major home insurance companies in california have either limited their business within the state or stop selling new policies altogether to some fire prone areas. this has resulted in many homeowners struggling to find any insurance coverage at all. a key requirement, by the way, to carry mortgage for home. so that insurance mortgages are approved. garamendi says the current commissioner can and should do more. >> unfortunately, now. the insurance commissioner, it's literally giving away his power. presumably in exchange for the insurance companies be nice. you nicely. it's not transparent. >> well, meanwhile, laura is responding in writing saying in part, quote, garamendi is grandstanding, gets us nowhere and does nothing to address our ongoing insurance crisis and quote, during an interview or spoke about his plans where he listed several reformation acts, which he believes

the state's former insurance commissioner john garamendi, is accusing the current commissioner, ricardo, lara not doing his job. so garamendi is calling out laura actually asking him to step down if he doesn't do something about this crisis over the last year and a half 7 of the 12 major home insurance companies here in the state have either limited their business or stop selling new policies altogether to folks in fire-prone areas which has resulted in a lot of homeowners, obviously struggling to find insurance coverage, which is a key requirement to getting a mortgage. you don't have insurance. you can't get the mortgage and a lot of people left in the lurch. garamendi says the current commissioner can do more and should. >> unfortunately, now. the insurance commissioner, it's literally giving away his power. presumably in exchange for the insurance companies be nice. you nicely is not transparent. >> well, meanwhile, laura is responding. he wrote in part, quote, garamendi, he's grandstanding, gets us nowhere does nothing to address our ongoing insurance crisis. and quote, now, laura says h

two terms over eight years, has called on a fellow democrat and current insurance commissioner, ricardo laran, saying laura is simply not doing his job. this is a highly respected, higher ranking democrat who essentially accuses lara of malfeasance and misfeasance and kowtowing to insurance companies. laura's statement in response garamendi's grandstanding gets us nowhere and does nothing to address our ongoing insurance crisis. laura says he supports a bipartisan bill in the legislature that would give homeowners a major tax benefit for hardening their homes against wildfires. laura has also submitted his own long awaited wildfire rate modeling system to the office of administrative law for approval to be effective by year's end. the author of prop 103, passed by the voters 36 years ago, though, says this. >> this proposal would allow them to use algorithms and software models that they control in secret to determine how much people pay for home and renters insurance. >> the plan calls for and establishes coverage commitments from insurance companies and accept the most wildfire prone areas

the state former insurance commissioner john garamendi, is accusing the current commissioner, ricardo, lara doing his job. so garamendi is calling on laura to step down. if he doesn't do something over the last year and a half 7 of the 12 major home insurance companies here in the state have either limited their business or stop selling new policies altogether to people who live in fire-prone areas. and that's resulted in many homeowners now struggling to find any insurance coverage at all, which as you may know, is a requirement. if you're going to get mortgage. garamendi says the current commissioner can and should do more. >> unfortunately, now. the insurance commissioner, it's literally giving away his power. presumably in exchange for the insurance companies. be nice. nice. is not transparent. >> well, meanwhile, laura is responding. he wrote in part, quote, garamendi is grandstanding, gets us nowhere and does nothing to address our ongoing insurance crisis. and quote, now, laura says that he does have a plan to fix the problem, which includes several reforms that he believes will keep

state's former insurance commiss-oner, john garamendi, is now accusing the currept commissioner, ricardo, lara not doing his job. so garamendi is calling on law, wrote his step down. if he doesn't take further action over the last year and a half 7 of the 12 major home insurance companies here in the state have either limited their business with in california or stop selling new policies altogether to those that live in fire-prone areas. and this has resulted in a number of homeowners struggling to find any insurance coverage at all, which, of course, is a key requirement. if you're going to get a mortgage approved. garamendi says the current commissioner can and should do more. >> the insurance commissioner, it's literally giving away his power. presumably in exchange for the insurance companies. be nice. nice. is not transparent. >> well, meanwhile, laura is responding in writing. you can see here in part, he said garamendi is grandstanding, gets us nowhere and does nothing to address our ongoing insurance crisis and quote, during an interview, laura did speak about his plans where he listed

. >> the state's former insurance commissioner john current commissioner, ricardo, lara, of not doing his job. garamendi is calling laura to step down. if he doesn't take further action over the last year and a half 7 of the 12 major home insurance companies in california have either limited their business with our state or stop selling new policies altogether to some fire prone areas. and this has resulted in a lot of people really struggling to find home insurance coverage, which is a key requirement to carry a mortgage. garamendi says the current commissioner can and should do more. >> unfortunately, now. the insurance commissioner, it's literally giving away his power. presumably in exchange for the insurance companies. be nice. nice. is not transparent. >> here's part of writing. the response from laura. he says that garamendi is grandstanding, gets us nowhere and does nothing to address ongoing insurance crisis, end quote. laura says that he has a plan to fix the problem. that includes several reforms that he believes will keep insurance companies in california and his plan is s

ricardo, lara garamendi is now congressman in vallejo and he is calling on laura to step down. capitol correspondent eytan wallace has the story. >> mr. commissioner, get with and if you don't want to do it. then move on. california's first ever elected insurance commissioner john garamendi with those harsh words for the state's current insurance commissioner, ricardo mr. government, a democrat currently representing parts of the bay area in northern california in the u.s. house garamendi serves as insurance commissioner for parts of the 1990's. and early 2, thousands. he says the state's homeowners insurance crisis has gotten out of control and needs urgent reform. the costs and the availability are. >> acceptable. in the last year and a half 7 of the 12 major home insurance companies in california, including allstate, state farm and farmers insurance have either limited their business within the state or in some cases stop selling new policies altogether for homeowners living in some of california's most fire prone areas. that resulted in some californians struggling to find

commissioner john garamendi with those harsh words for the state's current insurance commissioner, ricardo, laraairman, a democrat currently representing parts of the bay area in northern california in the u.s. house garamendi serves as insurance commissioner for parts of the 1990's. and early 2, thousands. he says the state's homeowners insurance crisis has gotten out of control and needs urgent reform. the costs and the availability are. >> acceptable. in the last year and a half 7 of the 12 major home insurance companies in california, including allstate, state farm and farmers insurance have either limited their business within the state or in some cases stop selling new policies altogether for homeowners living in some of california's most fire prone areas. that resulted in some californians struggling to find any insurance coverage and all a key requirement to carry a mortgage for a home. there are many says lot a fellow democrat can and should do more. unfortunately. now. the insurance commissioner, it's literally giving away his power. >> presumably in exchange for the insurance companie

insurance commissioner john garamendi is calling on current california insurance commissioner ricardo, lara, to resign capitol correspondent eytan wallace. i'll speak with wallace. i'll speak with germany about why that is and we are grocery outlet and we are your bargain bliss market what is bargain bliss? prices are too high, but grocery outlet has the name brands you love for way way less. that's bargain bliss. this thanksgiving budgets are stretched tight, so we are giving you a little extra help this season. $3.99 for a jennie-o 14 to 16 lb. turkey. when you spend $35. head to your neighborhood grocery outlet today because this offer is available only while supplies last. >>as california continues to tackle a homeowners insurance crisis. the state's former insurance commissioner john garamendi. it's accusing the current commissioner ricardo law, bra of not doing his job garamendi. now a congressman in valais is calling on to step down. our capitol correspondent on wallace has that story. >>mr. commissioner, get with and if you don't want to do it. then move on. california's first ever

insurance commissioner ricardo lara unveiled the sustainable insurance strategy. it's a series of reforms designed to get insurers to write new policies in the state. the plan would allow insurance companies to use a forward looking catastrophe model to calculate risks and rates. >> carriers that do follow the new rules, and they write more insurance. they write in more areas are going to be permitted to submit their own type of modeling. for that. the department still has to approve them. they still can say, no, we don't like that model. they're going to be able to see the intricacies of it. and hopefully, again, the idea is that by giving them the flexibility to write risks more accurately, that will enable more carriers to write and more competition to start writing in california. >> now, this won't necessarily bring home insurance prices down, but it will allow for a wide range of coverage options. implementation of the new reforms set to begin next year. i'm pam cook. that's a look at your dollars and cents. >> pam thank you. the oakland public library will r