TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The new president of the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. meets with the insurer's governing board for the first time looking for some consensus on finalizing the insurer's rate request for next year.
    
Citizens' governing board holds a rate workshop Monday in Miami just 11 day before voting on what rate increase it will request from the Office of Insurance Regulation. The board is moving toward shedding thousands of policies.
    
Citizens' president and  CEO Barry Gilway says he wants to give independent insurance agents a larger role in placing tens of thousands of Citizens' contracts in the hands of private commercial carriers.
    
Gilway also says he doesn't foresee boosting insurance rates by more than 10 percent without legislative change with the possible exception of sinkhole policies.

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