Who are We?

We are a grass roots organization dedicated to inform the public at large of how their elected officials are voting for, or against their interest.  Our issues are the most urgent needs of the community, such as:  

1.  Insurance rates and regulation issues.  (We had a significant impact in the rate freezes in effect until this year).

2. Issues related to constituents reasonable access to insurance representation.

3. Property Tax Issues.

4.  Transparency in Tallahassee and Sunshine Laws.

5. Sales Tax Issues.

6. Other local issues such as the building of the Marlin Stadium and the underwater channel in Miami.

Brief History

We called our first campaign "Insured Floridians In Action", which dealt with property insurance issues and the lowering of these rates.

We put together a petition drive addressed to the Florida Legislature as well as the governor requesting an immediate revision of property insurance and property tax issues and rates at the next legislative session (of 2007).

Originally, we printed 10,000 petition cards to be filled out and returned to us by the public, we ran out of cards within the first two or three weeks, there were local pharmacies and grocery stores calling us and picking up cards, since their clients were asking if they were helping with the campaign.   We then put the petition form in the web, printed and distributed an additional 100,000 petition cards, the public’s response was inspiring to say the least.  We received petitions in paper form and from the website, from persons in every walk of life, teachers, engineers, students, realtors, retired doctors, divorced Moms, retired persons who walked their neighborhoods delivering petitions to their neighbors and picking up petitions to bring back to us.  The media took an interest and several TV channels and radio stations talked about our petition and during those few days our servers handled up to 7,000 petitions/emails a day.  It became a frenzy, we received petitions from every corner of the state and got news attention even from national publications, such as Newsweek magazine.   The website received over 30,000 hits, although we calculate (by the trend line indicators), we lost an additional 30% of petitions due to our limitations); and we received tens of thousands petition cards.  Our work  was significantly influential in favor of Floridians.

Campaign Accomplishments

Such campaign was a determining factor in the following:

1-                  Lower insurance rates-freezing them until 2009.

2-                  Eliminated the creation of “pups” (Florida subsidiaries used as a way to show losses in this state, while being able to protect their national profits) for the transaction of residential property insurance.

3-                  The 90-day rule that requires insurers to resolve claims in 90 days, etc.

5-                  Make South Florida building code the statewide code thereby assuring more hurricane proof homes are built and thereby reducing the exposure of the insurance companies.

6-                  The state reinsurance pool that would reduce the costs of insurance companies to reinsure, passing these savings on to property owners.

Photos

Waldo Faura Jr.

Tomas Garcia Fusté

Waldo Faura (Sr.)

With Univisión TV Channel in Orlando

                                  At TV show “Buenos Dias Miami” with Tomas Garcia Fusté in Miami.

Waldo Faura Jr.
Maria Montoya, Belen Valladares, Waldo Faura Sr. and Orlando Pascual
Ch. 51 in Miami

With Homeowners for Affordable Coverage,

New Port Richey, FL Victor Deneuve, Belen Valladares, Mr. Christopher Kowalczyk, Debby Zolobkowski and  Waldo Faura.

With Univisión
TV channel in Tampa

Alliance with Other Associations

Waldo and I met with other groups throughout Florida, such as Homeowners for Affordable Coverage, who were pushing for legislation that had to do with sinkholes in Florida we met FIRM’s (Fair Insurance Rates for Monroe County) President at the Speaker’s office in Tallahassee, joined forces with the Insurance Consumer Coalition and CyberCitizens for Justice, giving us a very very strong voice.   We were also interviewed by (mostly Hispanic) TV and radio stations in Orlando and Tampa.   The African American radio in South Florida took our issue to heart and flew with it, offering their time to run community service ads, other minority group’s radio stations, like the Puerto Ricans, Nicaraguan, Haitian, etc.   We also had good participation from the Jewish community in the Palmetto Bay area in Miami and from diverse groups in the Palm Beach area.  We can truly say our petition was ad diverse as Floridians are.

We delivered our petitions in Tallahassee during Session and met with then Speaker of the House Marco Rubio and Senate President Ken Pruitt as well as other Senators and State Representatives.

On 6/26/07 Governor Crist honored us by holding a Bill Signing Ceremony   (SB 2498 – Hurricane Preparedness & Insurance) at our petitioner’s house.  

Our Members

Founders

• M. Belen Valladares
  • Exec. Secretary to State Representative David Rivera
    District 112 Miami Office, 2 years
  • Background in Information Technology.
  • Inactive - Miami-Dade County Public Schools Certified Teacher with extensive experience and several certifications in software.
  • Catapult Software (an IBM co.) Certified Software Instructor/Consultant for 6 years.
  • Windstorm Insurance Network Umpire Certification, 2008
  • Currently Public Adjuster
• Waldo Faura III
  • Legislative Aide to Senator Alex Diaz De La Portilla for 5 years when Sen. De La Portilla was Pro Tempore.
  • Currently a Public Adjuster
• Waldo Faura II
  • Elected Miami-Dade County Empowerment Zone Board Member for 2 years.
  • Executive Committeeman for the Republican Party
  • Community Activist for 20+ years
  • Currently a Public Adjuster
• Waldo Faura (Sr.)  
  • Miami-Dade County Relations Board Member, 6 years
  • Executive Committeeman for the Republican Party
  • Community Activist for 20+ years
  • Currently a Public Adjuster

 Board Members

• JC Alvarez
  • Former State Committeeman for the Democratic Party

Newspaper Articles

The Miami Herald
Sunshine Business Briefs
HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE
More Than 40,000 Sign Petition Protesting Rates
Monday, January 8, 2007
Dynamic Public Adjusters Group, a Miami-Dade company that helps homeowners try to get higher returns on insurance claims, started a citizen petition three months ago to protest soaring insurance rates. The petition now has more than 40,000  names  and  is  still  growing, said  Dynamic's owner, Belen  Valladares…...

The Miami Herald

Homeowners Demand Action On Soaring Insurance Rates
Monday, December 11, 2006
By Beatrice E. Garcia and Yudy Pineiro / bgarcia@MiamiHerald.com
Florida homeowners are no longer silent victims of the state's insurance crisis. From the Keys to the Panhandle, they've mobilized. In Miami-Dade County, they have started ...