A consumer group said it had e-mail evidence that a lawyer inthe California State Insurance Department worked secretly to helpthe insurance industry with a legal action against his ownagency.

As a result, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rightssaid they have written Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner askinghim to fire attorney William Gausewitz, whose background they saidincluded 10 years working as an insurance industry lobbyist.

The FTCR said e-mails showed Mr. Gausewitz, who holds the postof senior counsel, had "covertly assisted insurance companies" inlegal action related to a lawsuit the industry brought against thecommissioner seeking to block regulations limiting the use of ZIPcodes to rate customers.

FTCR founder Harvey Rosenfield and FTCR Executive Director DougHeller, in a letter sent today to Mr. Poizner, said his staff'saction questioned his commitment to be an independentregulator.

They said e-mails obtained through an open records requestshowed Mr. Gausewitz "attempted to assist the industry in asurreptitious manner."

Mr. Heller in an interview said that after insurance interestslost their case and the regulations had been upheld in court, theFTCR asked the court to have the insurers pay more than $200,000 inlegal bills FTCR had piled up litigating in favor of theregulation. Mr. Gausewitz, he said, covertly aided insurers effortsto avoid paying.

He said Mr. Gausewitz after discussions with insurers had drawnup a "declaration" discussing the history of such payment issues,which was virtually a mirror of a similar document submitted to thecourt earlier by insurers.

According to Mr. Heller, Mr. Gausewitz sent a letter to all thelitigants in the case saying basically that "somebody asked me todraft this declaration and if anyone would like to do somethingwith it, please do so."

Mr. Heller said an attorney for insurance interests had takenthe declaration and submitted it and that Mr. Gausewitz hadimproperly used stationary with the State Attorney General's Officeon the letterhead.

Yesterday's letter to Mr. Poizner said Mr. Gausewitzmisrepresented "his actions not only to consumer organizations thatare parties to the case, but to the Superior Court of Sacramento,where a document apparently first drafted by the insurancecompanies was submitted to the court as if it came from theCalifornia Attorney General but in fact was filed by lawyers forthe insurance industry."

The letter noted that the regulation concerning auto ratingfactors promulgated by Mr. Poizner's predecessor John Garamendi,"as you pointed out in a news release...led to $700 million insavings for California motorists."

The letter noted that last February, consumer advocatescriticized Mr. Poizner for hiring Mr. Gausewitz, who had servedmore than a decade as an insurance industry lobbyist, which theysaid violated the Commissioner's inaugural pledge that "this officemust always be fiercely independent from those beingregulated."

Among Mr. Gausewitz e-mails that the FTCR obtained under theCalifornia Public Records Act was one written to insurance industrylobbyist Jeff Fuller telling him in part to "Send the draftdeclaration in Word format, to me alone. Please don't talk aboutthis to other folks until we have talked about it further."

The e-mails said the FTCR letter "make quite clear that Mr.Gausewitz attempted to hide his assistance to the insurancecompanies and fool the public."

Contacted yesterday Mr. Gausewitz said he could not answerquestions because of departmental rules that "press calls gothrough the communications office."

Jennifer Kerns, a spokesperson for the department, said bye-mail that Mr. Poizner would not fire Mr. Gausewitz.

Mr. Rosenfield, who was the architect of Proposition 103, thegroundbreaking ballot initiative that set stringent new rules forthe insurance department and rolled back insurance rates, doesadmirable work, Ms. Kerns wrote, but, "he's just plain wrong onthis. The fact is, it is not uncommon for the Department ofInsurance to submit statements of fact on particular issues, whichis what Bill Gausewitz did in this case."

"His call for Bill's resignation is personal, and it crosses theline. I don't believe Harvey's unfounded accusations merit muchmore comment than that."

She wrote also that, "It is not uncommon to gain input andfeedback from various groups prior to issuing a statement of fact.I'm sure we have gained similar input from the Foundation onprevious issues."

Ms. Kern said the department appreciates "Harvey's passion andthe work he does on behalf of consumers, but he's just plain wrongin this particular issue."

The FTCR letter and e-mails it obtained are online at

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/Ltr_Poizner_11-1-07.pdf