Jim C. Tudor has been appointed president of SCIF. State Fund's board of directors selected Tudor from what they termed a "highly qualified" pool of candidates after an apparently lengthy search. Tudor, a 34-year SCIF veteran, has been acting president since the untimely and unexpected departure of Dianne C. Oki in February 2005.

State Fund never has had a leader from outside the civil service system except one who left as a vice president and returned a short while later to assume control. State Fund also never has had and currently does not have any board members with any experience whatsoever in running an insurance operation. Board members are appointed by the governor and serve layered terms.

So that highly qualified pool may not have really materialized. Rumors of candidates with no experience running an insurance company certainly exist. And this position, which has become politicized, was quite visible. Better the devil you know than the one you don't.

State Fund is a $5 billion entity whose president gets paid $275,000 per year and does not have the ability to fire and hire staff and must contend with not only a large bureaucracy but also with the hassles of state employees and their unions. No single insurer president the Executive spoke to—and we spoke to several—said they would be interested in, let alone accept, a position with those kinds of challenges.

Despite Tudor's experience, some industry experts say appointing him is contrary to the goal of bringing in a fresh perspective and a change of mind-set at State Fund.

It's unknown how many candidates made the final cut and who those candidates were. Reached at his Sacramento office, headhunter Richard Shoemaker, whose firm, IR Group, conducted the search, refused to comment on the candidates.

"I was a bit surprised. I had thought the new president would be from the outside," says Ken Gibson, vice president of the western region for the American Insurance Association.

Originally, SCIF's board announced it was going to search for a replacement for Oki outside the organization and said it had hired Neal Conolly and his firm CP Associates to conduct a search. That search never materialized, and IR Group won the contract in 2006.

Some industry experts are concerned about Tudor's appointment and what it means to the overall accountability and transparency of the organization. And they fear more of the same.

Prior to the end of the legislative session, State Fund used its outside lobbyist to nearly kill legislation that would permit the state auditor to audit SCIF the same way it does any other public entity. SB 1452, authored by Sen. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo),  awaits the governor's signature.

"It does appear that he's the ringleader of the tight-lipped. It seems to violate the spirit of a public entity that's supposed to help the neediest in workers' comp," says one broker. "The problem is when you get a guy with a lot of experience, he brings with him 30 years of cultural baggage. The attitude is 'This is the way we've always done it, and we're not going to change.' "

Other experts say that, Tudor's baggage aside, his permanent appointment brings some stability to the market. According to Mark Webb, vice president of governmental affairs for Employers Direct Insurance Company, Tudor is a known commodity at SCIF. Over the past few months, he's been made acutely aware of the concerns the legislature and the California Department of Insurance have about transparency.

And still it is likely to be more of the same.