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Times is right to cover alleged leak at Sheriff's Office

I have been following the reporting of the "leak" of a child abuse report in Pasco County, with the latest report by Phil Davis on Oct. 12, with great concern. From the article, I am not convinced the allegations were false, but I do know that the statement by the sheriff's spokesman, Doug Tobin, accusing the St. Petersburg Times of "sloppy journalism" is a bad call. This issue is very important to the safety of children in Pasco County.

Abusing children, often with violence and intimidation and shouting, seems to be the current sport of choice for parents and paramours in Pasco County, who may be angry for a variety of reasons but take their anger out on kids. Reporting apparent abuse is important in stopping greater harm to our children, and if those who observe abuse or apparent abuse are frightened of retribution, as happened in this case, serious injury or even death will become even more common. Retribution from some of the abusers I have observed can be more dangerous than a mere $3,700 in property damage.

Thank you, St. Petersburg Times, for bringing this incident of possible leaking to the attention of the public. Since Ms. Jurkop-Seaman claimed "but I already knew it from the Sheriff's Office," a leak seemed probable. Criticism of reporting this allegation is unwarranted, and Mr. Tobin should apologize.

Please continue to report incidents that can result in continued harm and abuse of our children. They are our future, and they deserve better than the abuse they get.

VA clinic made getting flu shots as painless as it possibly could

Congratulations to Dr. William S. Miller, chief medical officer at the Veterans Affairs Department Pasco Outpatient Clinic, and his staff of nurses, administrators and clerical personnel. Oct. 12 was the first day flu shots were given, and it seemed that most of the staff members were pressed into service and made obtaining a flu shot as painless as possible.

When I arrived at the clinic, I was directed to a handicap parking space, removed my wheelchair, proceeded to the front desk, showed my VA identification, signed a form and was given the number three. The clinic had processed 400 veterans before me. I waited for about 10 minutes and was directed to the next station where three nurses were administering the flu shots, and I was finished and on my way home. Total time: less than a half-hour.

If only other government agencies could work as efficiently as the Pasco clinic; then no one would be able to complain.

Again, kudos to the staffers who are most helpful and never seem to be without smiles on their faces.

Contrary to popular belief, Citizens is not profiting off policyholders

There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there about what Citizens Property Insurance Corp. actually is. Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is the market of last resort created by the state of Florida to insure homes that companies in the private market will not insure. By state statute, Citizens is supposed to have rates higher than those of the private market to encourage Citizens policyholders to shop around.

The goal of Citizens is not to profit but to depopulate. In short, Citizens' mission is to not write a single policy. This brings me to my second point. Citizens is not amassing huge profits; on the contrary, Citizens is losing money. Because Citizens is losing money, it is implementing an assessment on each policyholder (as allowed by statute) to cover the shortfall.

A lot of consumers, understandably so, complain that private insurance companies should not be allowed to write any policies if they do not write homeowner's insurance. While this is a lofty idea, it is simply untenable. If this requirement was forced upon private insurance carriers, most would elect not to write any insurance in this state and the consumer would be left with a far worse situation than is currently the case.

I readily admit that there are no easy answers to the major problem concerning property insurance in the state, but the typical knee-jerk reaction of all-companies-are-evil would serve only to destroy further our already distressed insurance marketplace.

[Last modified October 14, 2005, 01:40:20]