Richard Moore said today that he has shut off a politically-connected insurance broker's access to the addresses of state and local government retirees after other companies and employee associations complained about their lack of access.
The state treasurer said in a statement that he suspended providing State Insurance Services of Raleigh with the lists on Friday, the same day that he wrote a letter to the attorney general asking for clarification on a recent change to the personnel law that affected the treasurer's ability to release pension information, Dan Kane reports.
An assistant attorney general had determined that the new law prevented the release of retirees' addresses unless it was to a vendor that does business with the Treasurer's Office.
State Insurance Services won the right to offer supplemental insurance products in 2001 after an internal committee evaluated several brokers, said Michael Dupree, a former Butner Public Safety director and state trooper who served on the committee. Dupree now works part time for the Treasurer's Office.
More after the jump.
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Since then, State Insurance Services has become the office's preferred provider of dental and vision insurance to retirees, and this year it began offering supplemental life insurance.
State law gives agencies the ability to set up internal committees to choose vendors for supplemental insurance products for their employees, but that right has not been extended to the Treasurer's Office for retirees. Moore has sought legislation to create a similar process.
"When the General Assembly comes back into session, we will again introduce our legislation to create an open and formal process to select supplemental insurance programs for our retirees," Moore said. "It is our hope that legislators will see the wisdom of passing this legislation quickly."
Moore is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor. The campaign of one of his opponents in the primary, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, has criticized the process by which Moore's office awarded the contract to State Insurance Services. Two of its principals have raised money for Moore in past campaigns, and a third is raising money in his bid for governor.
