New Laws Help State Fund Chart New Course

Two important governance laws for State Fund, AB 1874 (Coto) and SB 1145 (Machado), have been signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger. State Fund worked collaboratively with the Legislature to secure passage of these bills as part of our comprehensive plan to increase transparency and strengthen corporate governance.

Specifically, the new laws will:

• expand the State Fund Board of Directors from 5 to 11 voting members, which enables the creation of key subcommittees, mandates board training, and requires board members to sign financial conflict of interest agreements.
• provide compensation to board members to ensure the organization can attract and retain quality candidates.
• establish six exempt management positions to allow State Fund to recruit top executives to fill key management positions—such as Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel—to manage State Fund, the nation’s largest workers’ compensation carrier.
• subject State Fund to the Bagley-Keene Act, which will require board meetings be open to the public.
• give the public access to our business records pursuant to the California Public Records Act.

While the laws provide greater access to State Fund, they also provide important safeguards to protect State Fund’s competitive role in the marketplace. California depends on a financially sound State Fund with our open door policy of writing all business across all classifications and sizes.

State Fund must climb a steep learning curve to ensure it is prepared to readily respond to the public’s interest. The open environment created by these laws is very new for State Fund and, although we embrace these changes, we expect our processes will evolve and improve as the organization gains more experience working in it.

This legislation is one part of a comprehensive plan to transform State Fund. In 2007 State Fund’s board took unprecedented action that set the organization on a new course. Jan Frank joined the organization as its new president later that year and has enacted further changes to lay a solid foundation for State Fund’s future.

Since that time, State Fund has made tremendous progress in the areas of corporate governance, strengthening operational efficiency and enhancing customer service to ensure that State Fund is positioned to continue serving as California’s most stable workers’ compensation carrier.

For more information about State Fund’s board meetings, please visit statefundca.com. For information regarding public records call State Fund’s Public Records Office at (888) 724-3237. You can also email the Public Records Office at PublicRecords@scif.com