Gale Warning

On the Road Again

by Daryl Gale

When our elected officials screw up, which is often, we newspaper columnists will invariably seize the opportunity to write about it with great gusto and unbridled glee. City Council members especially, are easy targets, for two reasons: one, as a group, theyíre not the most efficient body of legislators in the free world; and two, theyíre just so damn funny. But when one of those folks we laughingly deride actually does something worthwhile, weíre a little less apt to praise them.

So, in the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, let us pause for a moment this week to thank Philadelphia's unlikely knight in shining armor: City Councilman Darrell Clarke.

Last month I sat in Clarke's office grilling him about the progress, or lack of same, of the Mayor's Task Force on Automobile Insurance, which Clarke co-chairs with fellow Councilman Rick Mariano. After nearly two years of existence, the task force had little to show for it, or so it appeared. Already-obscene insurance rates for Philly drivers were still climbing and no amount of effort on the part of city officials seemed to make even a dent in the heart-attack-inducing insurance premiums we're asked to pay. To my surprise, Clarke was bursting with good news.

The battle is won, Clarke told me and we'll soon see drastic reductions in the auto insurance rates. He wouldn't give me details, promising a big announcement that would soon allay the fears of even the most hardened cynics. So I wrote the story and waited patiently for the other shoe to drop, which happened last Thursday.

At a press conference in the ornately decorated Mayor's Reception Room, Mayor Street, flanked by Clarke, Mariano, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner M. Diane Koken and City Solicitor Nelson Diaz, announced rate cuts of 20 percent for those Philadelphia drivers who choose the limited tort option. That means that if you're paying for the minimum coverage, which doesn't allow you to sue the pants off everyone in the vicinity in the event of a fender bender, you can expect a nice drop in your premium within a few months.

"In order to become a world-class city," the mayor crowed, "we must improve the quality of life. People pay a penalty to live in Philadelphia. One of those penalties is the auto insurance rate, which has been a killer. These reductions are necessary to keep people in the city and to attract new residents."

After thanking Koken and heaping effusive praise on Clarke and Mariano, Street promised that people would see the change in their premiums before the end of the year. And those insurance companies who object to the reductions, he said, can take their business elsewhere. Koken, Mariano, Diaz and Clarke then took turns at the microphone, each crediting Street with having the savvy and political will to get the deal done. When I caught up with Clarke again on Tuesday, he was still crediting the mayor and still basking in the glory of his victory.

"People are already asking me for rate quotes," Clarke joked, "I'm the city's auto insurance guy now. I did a radio show yesterday on this and one guy called in to say that his rate had just gone up. I told him to bring his insurance paperwork by my office and I'd try to help him. When I showed up for work this morning, he was here waiting. Some companies might try to get around the rate reduction by jacking up their rates quickly, before the reduction has a chance to take effect. It's not going to happen. The rates are coming down and that's that."

Clarke, ever the mayor's faithful knight, says Street appointed him to the task force in the first place to shut him up.

"The mayor put me on the task force because I was whining about the adverse effects of Live Stop," he said. "I'm glad he did. Do you know how big a savings this is? If your auto insurance is $2,000 this year, next year it will be $1,600. That's huge."

In addition to the rate reduction, which will save Philadelphia drivers some $20 million annually, the mayor is seeking another $35 million in further reductions, partially through a data call, where insurance companies have to justify, in writing and in laborious detail, why they charge what they do. It all adds up to at least a slowdown in the mass exodus of taxpayers to the suburbs, according to Clarke.

"When people make decisions on whether to go or to stay, auto insurance is always in the top five deal-killers," he says. "This rate reduction could mean that several thousand Philadelphians will decide to stay who would otherwise have left town."

OK, Darrell, we're convinced. We'll stay a while longer. Now how much to insure a 1979 Datsun 280ZX with 150,000 miles on it? Limited tort, of course.

Daryl Galeís weekly radio show, Dialogues, with co-hosts Rotan Lee and Bill Miller, is burning up the airwaves Fridays 7-10 a.m. on WURD (900 AM) in Philadelphia.