Bowler had been expected to sign an agreement Oct. 6 that would have rewarded Lawrence drivers for the city's successful auto insurance fraud-fighting effort with a reduction in bodily injury coverage 20 percent lower than the average state rate reduction.
Other communities - including Boston, Brockton and Lynn - were also rewarded with lesser breaks for their efforts in cracking down on fraud.
But Bowler said she wouldn't make a decision until she received additional information supporting the rate reductions for those communities.
"It's still a work in progress - an open case that we can't comment on," Insurance Division spokeswoman Nicole St. Peter said.
"The commissioner is the one who signs off and approves it. She's expected to make a decision shortly. But she still has some questions," St. Peter said.
Those questions don't involve Lawrence, though the rate break that city drivers would receive during the period of April 2007 through April 2008 could be jeopardized or be postponed if the agreement falls apart.
Bowler's decision to postpone the agreement comes as a surprise and major disappointment to insurance industry leaders and others involved with the fraud-frighting efforts.
"You're kidding me?" police Chief John Romero said last night.
"Lawrence needs to see that reduction. All our efforts were geared toward reducing the exorbitant premiums that people have been paying," Romero said.
"To see it delayed for whatever reason is unacceptable. It shouldn't be happening. I'm very disappointed because people have been talking about finally seeing some relief," he said.
Bowler is expected to make a decision on the 2007 rates in December.
The settlement that was reached recently between the three entities involved in the state auto insurance rate-setting process - the state attorney general, the Automobile Insurers Bureau of Massachusetts and the State Rating Bureau - was related to the territorial component, which factors a driver's community into the cost of the insurance premium.
"I don't believe the Lawrence part is in jeopardy," state Sen. Susan Tucker, D-Andover, said.
"There's a broad consensus that Lawrence deserves a significant break. I have been fighting tooth and nail to make that happen for a long time. And it's my understanding that it will still happen."
Lawrence has been the leader in an unprecedented crackdown on auto insurance fraud, which began more than three years ago. The death of a 65-year-old great-grandmother who died in a car crash that police said she helped stage to scam an insurance company prompted Chief Romero to set up a special fraud task force with the insurance industry-funded Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts.
The district attorney's office and the state attorney also are partners along with insurance company investigators and recently Methuen police. To date, 194 individuals have been charged with auto fraud. Lawrence has been credited with saving $30 million, primarily because of reduced fraud claims. Two lawyers and one chiropractor among 16 indicted by a special grand jury investigating fraud have already gone to jail.
Attorney General Tom Reilly was so confident that Bowler would approve the deal, his office put out an Oct. 3 press release - three days before she was due to sign it - headlined "AG Reilly Gets Auto Insurance Rate Reduction For Towns Fighting Fraud."
The press release noted that Reilly is seeking an average 18.2 percent rollback of rates.
"The savings from today's settlement will be in addition to the average rate set by the commissioner," the press release noted.
Tucker called the attorney general's press release "a bit premature."
"That came out before all the i's were dotted and t's were crossed," said Tucker, who has been the author of several major fraud-fighting measures in recent years - including one that made auto insurance fraud a felony and another that made it a crime for lawyers and chiropractors to pay "runners" to recruit victims in automobile accidents.
"I still feel confident that this will happen," she said.
Daniel Johnston, who is executive director of the fraud bureau and president of the Automobile Insurers Bureau, didn't expect Bowler to have any problems in signing the agreement earlier this month.
"The commissioner is doing her due diligence," Johnston said yesterday, declining to comment on the delay.
"If she doesn't accept the stipulation, there are other ways to get a similar result," Johnston said.
Bowler has the prerogative to delay her decision until December and include it as part of her rate-setting decision, he said.
The attorney general's office won't comment on Bowler's decision.
