California Insurance Commissioner Spent Lavishly on Global Travel; Missed Key Meetings

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara spent lavishly on travel across the country and around the world, billing taxpayers for California Highway Patrol protection, while missing key meetings in the state.

The news is adding fuel to the fire of residents’ anger after thousands of customers were dropped by their insurance companies in fire zones right before the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year. Many who had insurance at the time of the fires are struggling to obtain the benefits for which they paid. And many have come to see Lara as an obstacle, rather than an ally, of distressed insurance customers in the Golden State.

In March, as Breitbart News noted, San Francisco ABC affiliate KGO-7 reported that Lara had taken several overseas trips at taxpayer expense. Now, KGO has published the results of further investigative reporting:

For more than nine months, we’ve requested information about 48 of Commissioner Lara’s trips. However, the department has only identified a direct business purpose for seven of those trips, three of which included vague descriptions. Due to incomplete records, it’s unclear how many of these trips were taxpayer funded. Receipts show expenses for at least 13 pricey trips were on taxpayers’ dime.

…

Newly obtained records now reveal the cost of his security detail for several of his controversial trips. State expenses show trips that listed no insurance-related meetings were five times more expensive than previously reported. Receipts show tens of thousands of department funds were spent on five-star resorts that turned into extended trips — including an African safari and an extended stay at a five-star resort in Dubai.

…

After nine months of questioning, however, the California Department of Insurance (CDI) was unable to specify those reasons for a series of trips — including a five-star hotel stay in New York City for PrideFest that cost taxpayers more than $11,600. The four-day trip listed no insurance-related meetings on his calendar, but a VIP rooftop event with “DJ Kitty Glitter” made the cut.

KGO added that the state had had yet to respond to request for information about a dozen trips.
In addition, other reports, cited in March by Breitbart News, showed that Lara had attended lavish meetings with insurance executives in Bermuda rather than attend a key hearing in the weeks after the wildfires.

Lara, who boasts that he is the state’s “first openly gay” elected official, is in his second term and cannot run for re-election. He is rumored to be running for lieutenant governor, or for Los Angeles County supervisor.

Update: The Westside Current reports that Lara is officially under a state investigation by the Fair Political Practices Commission.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.