Bogotá and Paris? CA insurance boss takes series of taxpayer-funded trips, raising concerns
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- After missing the first key state insurance briefing of the year while traveling in Bermuda, questions have been raised about the attendance record of California's Insurance Commissioner since Ricardo Lara assumed office in 2019.
7 On Your Side obtained and analyzed hundreds of public records that detail at least 46 cross-country and international trips all over the world -- including at least 11 taxpayer-funded excursions to places like Bogota, Paris, and Toronto. But after more than a month of questioning his office, Lara's staff has been unable to identify the business purpose for nearly all of them.
Insurance hearing attendance
California's insurance commissioner is an elected position -- with the main objective to ensure a healthy competitive insurance market.
Yet in the midst of the state's worsening insurance crisis, Ricardo Lara was not present during the state's first insurance briefing of the year: a Senate committee hearing in the wake of the Los Angeles fires, which took place on March 12, 2025. Instead, Chief Deputy Commissioner Michael Martinez stood in on behalf of Commissioner Lara.
To put this in perspective, the Senate Insurance Committee only has two to three key informational hearings a year. They are held to provide important updates on California's evolving insurance market.
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It's raising questions -- has this happened before? And where was the Commissioner?
Turns out, Commissioner Lara was at a conference in Bermuda with insurance executives in mid-March to give a 15-minute speech. Records show Lara did the same thing in March of last year, missing another key Assembly insurance hearing -- also while on the islands of Bermuda.
However, two months after missing the March 2024 hearing, the Commissioner was able to make a "Legislative Study Tour" in the United Kingdom for eight days. And he wasn't late for a "Climate Presentation" to the Central Bank of Uruguay later that month. And he didn't miss his flight to Honolulu the following week for a "policy training." Public records show taxpayers picked up his four-star hotel bill.
What public records show
And this didn't just happen once or twice.
7 On Your Side's Stephanie Sierra investigated hundreds of public records dating back to 2019 that detail a pattern of international trips at various luxury hotels. Our team found Lara's been absent for at least seven other state insurance hearings since assuming office because he was either traveling abroad, cross-country, or chose not to attend.
For example, expense reports show during his first year in office in 2019, Commissioner Lara missed two insurance hearings while he was traveling to Washington, D.C. and Florida for conferences. In between those trips, he took a $6,000 trip to Paris for an "Economic Development Conference." Taxpayers picked up that bill.
And as we found out, this trend continued.
From 2021 to 2022, records show Commissioner Lara was absent for the only two Senate insurance hearings during that time. According to his schedule, he had prior engagements.
It's the same story the year after that -- in March of 2023 -- the commissioner was absent for the state's first Senate insurance hearing of the year.
Records show he was on a taxpayer-funded trip to Toronto for a United Nations conference on "Sustainable Finance." It's unclear if there was any relevance to California's insurance market, but taxpayers paid for his three-night stay.
Then on May 10 of that year, he missed the next Senate insurance hearing. It's unclear why, his schedule shows he was working that day.
The Commissioner was unavailable to discuss his travel schedule in an interview, and the state was unable to answer our direct questions on the matter. But in an earlier email his team told us, "Commissioner Lara's rigorous meeting schedule is a key part of his commitment to protecting consumers and safeguarding the integrity of the insurance market."
We asked State Sen. Susan Rubio about it. Rubio is Chair of the Senate Insurance Committee.
Stephanie Sierra: "Were you surprised by that? What's your response to his repeated absences?"
Sen. Susan Rubio: "Well, I have to say that I've had many hearing where he is present."
Sierra: "When you say many... I just looked at all the meetings that took place since he was elected in 2019 and he had only appeared for the informational hearings to two of them. And one of those two times was via Zoom."
Sen. Rubio: "Well, I've been chair of the insurance committee for six years and unfortunately we had two years where we were not allowing people to come in person. So there's many times where he did present via Zoom."
Video recordings from the Senate website show Lara joined those informational hearings via Zoom once since he assumed office. It was in January 2024.
That hearing was the first one hosted after the Governor signed an executive order calling on Lara to do more to address the insurance crisis. Records show after that Lara attended most of the remaining assembly insurance hearings last year.
Sierra: "Do you think he should have been there last week (for the first hearing since the LA fires)?"
Sen. Rubio: "Well, that's not for me to say."
What is 'mission critical' travel?
"How do you represent the state if you're not even there at these meetings? Sure, you can send your staff, but I think it sends a message of what he views as important," said Ray Asbell, long-time California Department of Insurance (CDI) and California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) employee.
"He travels a lot... he's everywhere but his chair!" said Asbell.
Asbell worked under the California Dept. of Insurance (CDI) and CalHR for more than a decade where he specialized in travel policy. He explains that each state department requires there must be an "established need" to travel.
"What is your department's core mission and how will this travel benefit that mission and benefit the ratepayers of California?" Asbell said.
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The Commissioner was again unavailable for an interview to discuss his travel schedule, but his staff provided this comment regarding the Bermuda trip: "Commissioner Lara's job is to ensure that California consumers have real choices -- not just last resorts... This involves going over the heads of insurance companies and engaging directly with the global reinsurance groups that support them. Nearly 40% of the world's reinsurance companies are based in Bermuda, paying out trillions of dollars in claims - including those for wildfires."
His staff added: "He is working to retain insurance companies in the market and attract those that have left."
We asked how many insurance companies have been retained to support California's insurance market -- but have yet to hear back.
"Frankly, people should be outraged!" Asbell said.
The California Dept. of Insurance also said, "At the Bermuda Risk Summit, Commissioner Lara delivered a keynote address on the response to the Los Angeles wildfires and his Sustainable Insurance Strategy, aimed at guaranteeing insurance companies continue to write policies in California." But as 7 On Your Side reported last year, his own regulation only requires companies to write at least 5% more policies in fire-prone areas, if they chose to at all.
Putting 'work-related' travel in context
To put the Bermuda trip in perspective, 7 On Your Side obtained and analyzed hundreds of public records detailing the Commissioner's expenses since assuming office in 2019. Lara made at least 46 trips across the country and all over the world.
But as we found out, a significant chunk of the records are missing and the state has been unable to provide them. Including "work-related" trips where he is pictured or listed as a speaker in Singapore, Cape Town, Dublin, Costa Rica, Chile, Egypt, Tokyo, Glasgow, and Dubai. Plus a handful of trips to Arizona, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, Washington DC, and Connecticut.
With that said, the trip receipts we do have aren't cheap.
For context, records show Illinois's former Insurance Commissioner who just stepped down last year spent $680.64 for the entire year of 2022.
Meanwhile, during the first six months of Commissioner Lara's term, his cross country and international trips cost taxpayers $33,336.
This includes an all-expenses-paid week-long trip to Bogota, Columbia for an "LGBTQ Political Leaders Conference." Plus, a flight and five-star hotel stay in New York City for Pride Fest, where his schedule listed a VIP rooftop event with DJ Kitty Glitter. We should note the four-day trip did not list any insurance-related meetings on his schedule.
"That's a real head scratcher," said Asbell when asked about the charges.
Questions unanswered from the state
For more than a month, 7 On Your Side repeatedly asked the Department of Insurance what the business purpose was for those trips, and we never got a direct answer. Instead, Lara's staff appeared to have restated parts of his bio in an email that started with "Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is recognized as a global leader in addressing the impact of climate change on insurance markets... Our goal is transparency."
None of that answered our questions.
So we followed up again... and again... and again. His staff eventually told us, "We have conducted an exhaustive search and found no records of attendance at these events."
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Yet, the Commissioner is pictured at many of these events and conferences. Not to mention, 7 On Your Side obtained receipts from his flights and hotel stays.
When we followed up again asking about the list of trips and the subsequent business propose for them, his staff only wrote back: "I'm glad we were able to help you. We have responded to your requests and will continue to be responsive."
According to 7 On Your Side's analysis of the public records provided (which are missing a significant amount of trips), Lara took 11 fully taxpayer-funded trips and 7 other partially taxpayer-funded trips (including things like flights, Ubers, hotel stays, etc.) and 32 other trips with unknown sources of funding.
Receipts show at least 21 trips with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), at least 11 of which were fully or mostly funded by NAIC.
Editor's Note: 7 On Your Side also requested travel and expense data from Insurance Commissioners in New York and Florida - states facing similar climate and severe weather threats. We are still waiting to hear back.
Take a look at more stories and videos by 7 On Your Side.
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