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Mike Causey Announces Candidacy for Commissioner of Insurance Position in North Carolina Mike Causey, a sometime Autobody News columnist, announced his candidacy for North Carolina’s Commissioner of Insurance position in Greensboro in early January. Causey chose Dare County to launch his campaign he said, “…to bring focus on the problem of Mike Causey insurance in the coastal counties. Premiums for household insurance, especially windstorm insurance, have skyrocketed in recent
years in eastern North Carolina, worse yet in the coastal counties.” Causey said he was urged by North Carolina Republican leaders to seek the office this year because of widespread and bipartisan criticism of how the State Office of Insurance has been administered. Causey is also known as a consumer advocate and lobbyist for the Independent Auto Body Association (IABA) as well as healthcare groups and Organic farming and Healthy Eating advocacy. This will be Causey’s fourth atSee Causey, Page 36
Texas Independent Automotive Association (TIAA) Holds January Meeting
VOL. 30 ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2012
‘Standards’ Replace Non-OEM Parts as Focus of Debate at Latest CIC by John Yoswick
A report at the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) on the findings of a study into what consensus exists within the industry about the development and implementation of formalized repair standards led to as much discussion about the value and validity of the study as it did to discussion of standards themselves. “I do believe this has set us backward instead of forward,” Dusty Womble of Roger Beasley Collision Center in Austin, Texas, said of the study. “I’m sorry, but honestly, I don’t see any value in the research that has been done.” But Massachusetts shop owner Chuck Sulkala—who has not participated on the committee that organized the study but was one of those interviewed by the consultant conducting the research—said some at
CIC were incorrectly presuming that the committee was trying to make more of the report than it was. “Some of the conversations here are getting us down into the weeds right now when I don’t think we’ve even gotten in the boat yet,” Sulkala said. “We’re still looking to see where the boat and lake is, to see what’s going on rather than trying to catch fish. I think we’re still in the very beginning stages.” The Study and Findings Russ Thrall of the Repair Standards Advisory Committee (an off-shoot of CIC) was clear in presenting a portion of the study’s findings that it was never intended to be a statistically valid survey of the industry. “You can’t project the findings to the industry as a whole,” he said. Rather, he said, the committee hired See CIC Palm Springs, Page 32
UPDATE: Houston City Council Delays Vote on Auto Repair Ordinance, Draft Not Favorable to Shops Speaker Tom Hansis talks to the 50 or so attendees at the Texas Independent Automotive Association (TIAA) January meeting
19 at the Barn Door, 8400 N. New Braunfels Ave. in San Antonio, TX. See TIAA, Page 16
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The Texas Independent Automotive Association (TIAA) held their monthly members meeting on January
The city of Houston delayed voting on an ordinance to regulate the automotive repair and service industry affecting every type of business that touches a car, whether it’s a body shop, an independent auto repair shop, a dealership or a big store like Wal-Mart. The council rescheduled the vote for February 15, 2012, after more issues were raised at a hearing held on December 20, 2011, when the council was originally supposed to vote on this ordinance. This delay presents some new problems to both sides lobbying over the bill—they now have an entirely new council, sworn in January 3, 2012, to update on the issues and convince to vote one way or another. A new list of council members by district can be seen at www.au-
tobodynews.com, find out which district you reside in by visiting http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/2011/index.html. The Houston Auto Body Association (HABA) would like its members to reach out to the new council and make sure their opinions on this matter are heard. Kathryn van der Pol, Past President of ASA, Houston Chapter, and co-owner of Adolf Hoepfl & Son Garage, is working with the HABA on writing their own version of the ordinance, incorporating what’s good about the City’s version to present to the new council since Houston Mayor Mayor Annise Parker, wants to pass an ordinance on this issue. Mayor Parker also made some changes to the See Houston Ordinance, Page 15
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