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Sink wants to unload home protection program

The My Safe Florida Home effort should be another department's responsibility, she says.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER AND IVAN PENN
Published February 16, 2007

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink wants to hand off the troubled My Safe Florida Home program to another state department.

In a letter Thursday to Senate President Ken Pruitt and House Speaker Marco Rubio, Sink said that while the Department of Financial Services has been an "excellent place" to handle the pilot phase of the program, the department does not have the expertise to administer an expanded program.

"Thousands of Florida homeowners have signed up for help in hardening their homes against hurricanes," Sink wrote. "Floridians would be best served by a department with the core function of running and managing these programs."

The Department of Financial Services, which Sink oversees, has been administering My Safe Florida Home, a $250-million effort to fortify homes against hurricanes, since it began last summer. Sink inherited the program from former CFO Tom Gallagher in January.

The program offers free home inspections and matching grants of up to $5,000 for qualified homeowners.

But with more than 50,000 homeowners on a waiting list for the free home inspections and with criticism over the program's effectiveness mounting, a committee is evaluating the program and is expected to recommend that legislators expand the effort.

"A grant administration program, which is what this is, needs to be administered by a grant administration agency," said Tara Klimek, a spokeswoman for Sink. "We don't have the institutional knowledge another agency might have."

A committee of House representatives Thursday asked Sink's chief of staff, Jim Cassadym, which other departments might be candidates to take over.

"We don't believe it's our responsibility to make that call about where it should go," he replied. "But I know DCA (the Department of Community Affairs) has been mentioned."

Klimek stressed that for now, the Department of Financial Services is moving forward with My Safe Florida Home.

Last month, Sink terminated the state's contract with FLASH, a nonprofit hired to help launch My Safe Florida Home, because the state improperly escalated the no-bid contract sixfold, to almost $3-million. The state reached a settlement agreement to allow FLASH to finish the work outlined in the contract.

No new home inspections are expected to begin until mid April, after the state hires a new firm to oversee the process.

[Last modified February 16, 2007, 01:47:39]