California’s insurance commissioner faces criticism over ties to industry

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

• Ricardo Lara’s controversial plan to reform the insurance market will be put to the test after the costliest wildfires in the state’s history.
• How a Pasadena gardener worked through the worst January of his life to help open schools.
• Here’s the Hollywood Bowl 2025 lineup, led by ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper.

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara faces questions after L.A. fires

California’s insurance market was already distressed as major firms pulled back from the state, ceasing to write new policies and declining to renew existing ones in communities deemed too at risk for fire and other climate-related hazards.

Some of those risks became reality in last month’s L.A. fires — likely to go down as the costliest disaster in the state’s history. More than 15,000 structures — many of them homes — were destroyed or damaged by the Palisades and Eaton fires.

With claims projected to hit $20 billion, experts warn insurance companies will move to raise rates even higher, which is already in motion. State Farm, California’s largest home insurer, requested an emergency 22% rate hike because of the fires.

But state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara rejected that request last week, though the matter is not closed entirely. Lara noted an in-person meeting is slated for Feb. 26 in Oakland, where State Farm is expected “to provide clarity on the company’s financial condition and rate requests.”

Lara has led the state’s insurance department since 2019. As the government’s multifaceted response to the disaster takes shape, The Times’ Laurence Darmiento unpacked some of the criticism he’s facing from consumer groups and one of his predecessors, who say he’s too cozy with the companies he’s tasked with regulating.

A firefighter battles a house fire off Bollinger Drive in Pacific Palisades.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

A ‘carrot-and-stick’ plan to entice insurers back

The anxieties in the insurance market have been building for years and enrollment in the FAIR plan, which covers properties other insurers refuse to, surged roughly 250% between 2018 and 2024.

After State Farm, Allstate and other insurers announced large-scale retreats and homeowners found themselves without insurance, Lara announced an effort “to create a sustainable and resilient insurance market to protect Californians, our communities and our environment.”

“[His] plan to make homeowners insurance more affordable and available, which was enacted last year, is largely based on a carrot-and-stick approach that gives insurers financial and policy concessions in exchange for a pledge to write more policies in risky neighborhoods,” Laurence wrote this week in his Times subscriber exclusive.

Lara championed new sweeping regulations that allow insurance companies to use so-called catastrophe modeling to determine how much risk a property faces from wildfires and other climate-related disasters.

The change was one of several incentives designed to get insurance companies to write more policies in the state by allowing them to charge higher rates than they could before.

Lara’s relationship with insurers is under scrutiny

Laurence noted that Lara had previously received at least $270,000 in campaign contributions from insurance firms and “held closed-door meetings with them as he hashed out his reforms.”

Criticism is coming from consumer groups, but also fellow Democrats. That includes Rep. John Garamendi (D-Fairfield), a former state insurance commissioner, who said Lara is not putting enough pressure on companies to cover California property owners.

“His regulations and his policies are clearly ones that the insurance industry wants,” he told Laurence. “Your job is to hold the companies accountable, and he seems to be doing the exact opposite, and that is giving the companies whatever they want.”

Lara pushed back, telling Laurence that would “exacerbate the problem at a time when insurance companies are pulling out of California.”

“And, quite honestly … this is not going to be the first or last time that I get white mansplained on how to do my job,” Lara added.

L.A.-based Consumer Watchdog has been a vocal critic of Lara’s performance, calling the regulatory deal reached with insurers last year “an outrageous fraud on the public that will make Californians pay vastly more for insurance but not get more people insured.”

Carmen Balber, Consumer Watchdog’s executive director, told me last month that her group had petitioned Lara to resume his predecessor Dave Jones’ initiative requiring insurance companies to report their fossil fuel investments and underwritings.

Balber said doing so would allow people to vote with their pocketbooks by opting to purchase insurance from firms that have committed to divest from fossil fuels — a key driver of climate change, which is making fires, floods and other disasters more severe.

Lara previously denied that request, with his department writing that he “is pursuing a much more comprehensive climate strategy, which will include incentivizing climate smart investments, and invites the petitioners, consumers, and the insurance industry to work with him.”

“[Lara] said he preferred to collaborate with the insurance industry to address climate change,” Balber said. “And since then, he has demonstrated that interest.”

Today’s top stories

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, shown in January with her chief recovery officer Steve Soboroff, touted the opening of four new worker resource centers on Tuesday morning.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

L.A. opens resource centers for people who lost work in the fires

• The devastating impacts of January’s firestorm have gone far beyond the Palisades and Altadena: Angelenos who live in far-flung corners of the city are struggling after losing jobs in both regions.
• These resource centers will be open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with locations in West L.A., Boyle Heights, South Los Angeles and Sylmar.
• Individuals will be able to access services regardless of their immigration status.

What else is going on

• FireAid distributes the first $50 million to L.A. wildfire relief groups.
• A cellphone ban has taken effect in the Los Angeles Unified School District, eliciting a mix of reactions but no reports of major problems.
• A consumer watchdog agency called ‘vicious’ by Trump is seen as a ‘hero’ to many it aided.
• People used to buy homes through catalogs. Could that idea help Altadena?
• Kobe Bryant greets Laker Luka Doncic in a new L.A. mural based on their 2019 meeting at a game.
• The Trump administration and Russia hold talks on ending the Ukraine war, reopening ties.
• Anaheim’s Big A study: Two years late at thrice the price. What happened?
• Meghan Markle rebrands her newest venture: So long, American Riviera Orchard. Hello, As Ever?
• The USAID shutdown is upending the livelihoods of nonprofit workers, farmers and other Americans.
• Barred from joining the Democrat-led Latino Caucus, California Republican lawmakers create their own.
• U.S. Postal Service head DeJoy to step down after five years marked by the pandemic, losses and cost cuts.
• Wisconsin Republicans propose $10,000 income tax break for California wildfire relocations.

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Commentary and opinions

• Is Trump’s Napoleon quote just idle trolling? This context suggests otherwise, writes columnist Jonah Goldberg.
• Columnist Gustavo Arellano writes about the real motive behind Trump renaming the Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America.’
• The reported costs of the Los Angeles fires are staggering. The hidden costs are worse, guest columnist Augusto Gonzalez-Bonorino writes.

This morning’s must reads

Juan Villegas fixes a chain saw during maintenance work at John Muir High School. He is the lead gardener for Pasadena Unified School District.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

How a Pasadena gardener worked through the worst January of his life to help open schools. For the last several weeks, Juan Villegas, like thousands of others in his community, found himself working through the shock of a horrible month: His father had just died, his in-laws’ house burned down, and school grounds were a shambles. Then he received the most important assignment of his decades-long career: supervise the grounds cleanup of campuses in the race to get some 14,000 children back to class.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].

For your downtime

Cynthia Erivo poses for a portrait in New York.

(Victoria Will / For The Times)

Going out

• 🎤Cynthia Erivo is Jesus: Here’s the Hollywood Bowl 2025 lineup, led by ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’
• 🏪The next must-see art exhibit? Look behind the fish counter at your neighborhood market in SoCal.
• 🖼️Art fair season has arrived in Los Angeles. Here’s a rundown of some of the week’s biggest events.

Staying in

• 📕The Bangles’ memoir retraces the band’s steps of walking like Egyptians, meeting Prince and making history.
• 👨‍🍳 Here’s a recipe for skillet chicken thighs with peas & pickled chiles.
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A question for you: What’s your comfort TV show?

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Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Defne Karabatur, fellow
Andrew Campa, Sunday reporter
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Hunter Clauss, multiplatform editor
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Stephanie Chavez, deputy metro editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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