The National Conference of Insurance Legislators has taken insurance regulators to task for holding closed door meetings that they said violate legal restrictions on such sessions.

NCOIL Vice President Brian Kennedy said in a letter to Walter Bell, president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, that the NAIC is "abusing the use and purpose of executive sessions."

In addition, he said he believes the group's assertion that it has no regulatory authority, and is therefore exempt from sunshine laws, calls into question accreditation standards that have virtually become state law.

The Democratic state senator from Bristol, R.I., disputed Mr. Bell's contention that regulators, when meeting under the guise of the NAIC, are not required to follow their state's open meeting requirements. Mr. Bell made that assertion, according to Mr. Kennedy, in an April 9 letter to him responding to the NCOIL official's initial complaints.

"Your oath of office and rules of conduct do not cease when you cross state geographical boundaries into another jurisdiction," Mr. Kennedy wrote. "No commissioner or supervisor has the right to ignore the laws of their respective state and conduct such clandestine meetings."

In a statement issued today, Mr. Bell did not reassert that exemption but said the group has a "liberal open meetings policy" and stood behind the right to close sessions when required.

Mr. Kennedy did not refer to any specific instances in his letter but noted that on numerous occasions when he attended NAIC meetings representing NCOIL, the public was either not allowed in the session at all or ushered out in the middle of it.

"It is ironic that my letter to you sought a simple change to your meeting practices but you have provided new fodder that would indicate the conduct of an NAIC meeting is only the tip of the iceberg, and that the NAIC may be far exceeding their authority as an organization to collect fees or enforce regulations that they promulgate," he wrote.

This is not the first disagreement Mr. Kennedy has had with the NAIC.

At the spring meeting earlier this year, the lawmaker said the NAIC was using the accreditation process too liberally to force states to adopt measures that by all rights should be done by local legislators.

And with Mr. Bell's contention that the body has no regulatory authority, Mr. Kennedy asserts this jeopardizes the legitimacy of accreditations standards past and present that came from that body.

Special Reports /

NCOIL, NAIC Spar Over Sunshine Laws

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