Newsletter. Learn the Easy Way By: Jeff Arp JANUARY, 2019

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1 JANUARY, 2019 Newsletter Learn the Easy Way By: Jeff Arp LEARN THE EASY WAY... 1 LOSS CONTROL TIP OF THE MONTH... 2 RENEWAL TIP FOR PAYROLL... 2 MIRMA HEALTH PROGRAM UPDATE... 3 RENEWAL QUESTIONNAIRES SENT... 3 CALENDAR OF EVENTS... 3 CLAIMS CORNER... 4 STANDARD MILEAGE RATE FOR UPDATE YOUR SWIM LESSON PROGRAM... 6 During my loss control visits this fall, I have noticed an increase in member employees wearing their seat belts. Education regarding seat belt use has been provided at the MIRMA Annual Meeting, it is a recommended safety policy, has been a topic of previous Learn the Easy Way articles, and has been included in one-on-one discussions with department heads and employees. According to MIRMA s workers compensation adjuster, it has been some time since she has seen an employee involved in an accident that was not wearing their seat belt. So, congratulations are in order for the increase on seat belt use, however, we cannot be satisfied until everyone is on board. Seat belts have proven time and again that they can save lives and prevent serious injuries. The reasons seat belts can achieve this is because they are designed to keep the occupants inside the vehicle. When worn properly they will spread out the force from the collision, help the body to slow down when involved in an accident, and protect important organs. The seat belt in a vehicle or heavy equipment cannot do these things if it is not being worn. As we continue to improve in this area, I hope the following risk management techniques will improve employee awareness and safety, protect others, and continue to reduce the number of these claims and associated costs: Some vehicle accidents are caused by driver error or poor operating practices. Poor habits include lack of seat belts, distractions, fatigue, aggressive driving, and alcohol or drug use while driving. Safe driving habits need to be emphasized and current driver safety policies or other related policies enforced or implemented. Stay focused. Driving requires your full attention. Avoid distractions such as adjusting the radio or other controls, eating or drinking, talking, and cell phone use while the vehicle is in motion. Become familiar with the vehicle or equipment. MIRMA s loss control evaluation process requires members to conduct new driver orientation. This would be an excellent time to review the controls of all vehicles and other equipment with new employees. Avoid backing up. When possible, park so you can move forward when starting. This is especially important for emergency vehicles that are required to leave quickly from the fire or police stations. Before backing, walk around the vehicle to check for obstructions and park in a safe location that prevents someone from making a difficult maneuver. Check MVR s for new employees and annually for existing employees. Conduct check rides with employees to ensure they are wearing their seat belts and obeying state and local traffic laws. Conduct pre-use vehicle and equipment inspections. The inspection should be based on manufacturer s recommendations. It includes record keeping for all services and repairs performed. Finally, any driver who does not maintain an acceptable standard should be coached and corrective actions taken as outlined in any adopted loss control program and/or personnel policies. Adherence to these policies should be considered in performance reviews and other personnel decisions. 1

2 Loss Control Tip of the Month Repair or Replace Part II By: Patrick Bonnot In last month s article I mentioned that I would take a look at a specific project in which to analyze the potential costs of replacing something versus repairing it. I mentioned the fact that frequency breeds severity in this line of work. When I refer to that I m talking about the idea that many small injuries are indicative of a propensity for a bigger event to occur, even though the more catastrophic injury may be unrelated or independent of previous smaller injuries. So, let s take sewer lines for our example this month. What are the potential outcomes of not replacing a particularly problematic line? Certainly, maintenance is going to be key for a problematic line. Perseverance almost, right? Well, when we put forth so much effort at maintaining something, are we cognizant of including the cost of time spent keeping it in working order? In almost everything that garners our attention, and yes, this can be a slippery slope mind you, are we wired to do a cost-benefit analysis to figure out if what we re doing is what we need to be doing in the future? Wikipedia says Cost benefit analysis (CBA), sometimes called benefit costs analysis (BCA), is a systematic approach to estimating the strengths and weaknesses of alternatives (for example in transactions, activities, and functional business requirements). It is used to determine options that provide the best approach to achieve benefits while preserving savings. I was delighted to see the last sentence include the word savings, but I think I would be ecstatic to see the inclusion of prevention of injury also. So, what are some things we need to keep in mind with sewer pipe replacement? See below for a list of considerations. 1. Age of infrastructure - not only for its comparison to useful life analysis but also in relation to the rest of the system. 2. Cost of repairs (payroll, equipment, repair parts, opportunity cost, political capital lost because of delays in using roadways, opportunity of not having completed something else besides the repair project itself). 3. Condition of the line as is. 4. The general ability to predict future repairs not only from a frequency standpoint but also from a severity standpoint. Rodney Bourne with Rolla Municipal Utilities states a benefit for his City is that his replacement program prevents unnecessary road cuts after a street has been rehabbed because they have likely planned ahead of time to replace the water mains in that particular area. Rolla has already replaced approximately 70% of their water lines in the last 20 years. They see the program through proactive eyes as opposed to waiting for negative repair events. In addition, Rodney states there is a potential upside to the pre-planning of this work versus working on water repairs which are often done in the darkest of night or during extremely cold temperatures. The fact that crews can work on lines when the plan allows means they can work during the more appropriate time of year and daytime when conditions are better to prevent work injuries. Rolla has been able to use this mindset and reduce costs over the long haul. Rodney did reiterate the idea that it took a long time for these issues to arise and they can t be solved overnight. Renewal Tip for Payroll - MIRMA previously required that renumeration paid to your city attorney be included in the reported payroll. However, beginning July 1, 2017, MIRMA removed legal malpractice coverage along with the requirement to report any independent legal counsel for payroll. Therefore, members will only need to report city attorney and prosecuting attorney payroll if those individuals are an actual employee of the city, but they will still need to find their malpractice coverage elsewhere. If you haven t already done so, please pass that information on to your auditors so they can also exclude independently contracted city attorney and prosecuting attorney renumeration from the payroll verification! 2

3 By: Matthew Brodersen January 1 st kicked off the start of a major transition year for our health program. While this fall, we saw three cities leave the program, we also saw three cities join, which left our total number of participating cities static at 22, and saw the number of covered employees up approximately 140 employees from January 1, Since January 1, we have retained health legal counsel to help with transitioning from MIRMA s oversight of the program to MIRMA s actual participation in the program. We also have sent out an RFP for health actuarial services. Our goal in the summer of 2015 was starting the pool in three to five years, and now, early into our 4 th year, we plan to be fully operational by January 1, 2020 and ideally have rates available for our members who renew in October, November and December of Our members individual surpluses on January 10, 2019 had climbed to over $2.1 million. For all of the members that have been waiting for the official MIRMA health pool to begin, start looking forward to this fall. Renewal Questionnaires Sent Renewal Questionnaires have been sent via . These were ed to each member official representative during the period of December 10-12, This year the property and heavy equipment schedules were sent in Excel format and you should be able to make any necessary changes directly to the schedules. Please pay particular attention to the third paragraph of the for directions on updating in Excel. An inflation factor has already been applied to the building values this year, as well, in order to help with determining correct building values. Please remember the questionnaires and pertinent supplemental applications are due in the MIRMA office by January 30, Please be sure that the property and heavy equipment schedules indicating any changes and all pertinent information are attached. Please contact Terri Crane (tcrane@mirma.org) or Jenne Auck (jauck@mirma.org) with any questions. CALENDAR OF EVENTS February 1, 2019: May 10, 2019: July 24-26, 2019: MIRMA Board of Directors Meeting: Held at the Hilton Garden Inn, located by Bass Pro Shop, Columbia, 10:00 AM MIRMA Board of Directors Meeting: Held at the Hilton Garden Inn, located by Bass Pro Shop, Columbia, 10:00 AM MIRMA Annual Meeting: Held at The Lodge of Four Seasons, Lake Ozark 3

4 Claims Corner By: Glenn Price You violated my rights and I m going to make you pay! If you are a police officer or involved in the design or enforcement of ordinances or policies within the city, I am confident you have heard this phrase or something like it before. I am even more confident that if you haven t heard it within the past few years, you will hear it sometime in the future. Whether you ve heard it before or you re going to hear it in the future, you probably will ask yourself, I wonder if that s covered by MIRMA? As many of you know, MIRMA provides a full array of coverages for each city that is a member of MIRMA, not the least of which is the liability coverage. The Comprehensive Liability Coverage Part (PART III of the Coverage Packet) is a section of coverage provided to the member when a third-party (someone not associated with the city) is injured in some way, shape, or form. SECTION V PERSONAL AND ADVERTISING INJURY LIABILITY, is the section that provides the liability coverage for the defense and indemnity of a claim where an employee of the city or the city has violated someone s rights. So what kind of coverage is really provided here? To answer this question, we ll look to the coverage language itself: We will pay those sums that the Member and/or employee becomes legally obligated to pay as damages arising out of personal and advertising injury to which this coverage applies. We have the right and duty to defend the Member and/or employee against any lawsuit or other cause of action seeking those damages. We have the right, but no duty, to appeal any judgment. We have no duty to defend or indemnify the Member and/or employee against any claim, lawsuit or other cause of action seeking damages for personal and advertising injury, or for any other damages however named, to which this coverage does not apply. (emphasis added) So MIRMA will provide a defense and indemnity to the Member for those claims the Member or the employee become legally obligated to pay when those obligations stem from a personal and advertising injury. So however, the term personal and advertising injury is defined determines whether or not there is coverage for an event. The definition for personal and advertising injury is found in the PART I COMMON COVERAGE CONDITIONS: DD. "Personal and advertising injury" means injury, including consequential bodily injury arising out of one or more of the following offenses: 1. False arrest, detention or imprisonment, 2. Violation of civil rights, 3. Malicious prosecution, 4. Excessive force, 5. Wrongful eviction, 6. Discrimination, 7. Invasion of privacy, 8. Libel, slander and defamation. Any of the above offenses that are causally connected by any series of related similar actions, circumstances, or by a common fact, transaction, situation, advice or decision, shall be considered a single personal or advertising injury, that first took place when the earliest of such related offenses occurred, 4

5 Claims Corner Continued By: Glenn Price regardless of the number of offenses, Members, claims made or suits brought, the persons or organizations making claims or bringing suits, or the number of years in which offenses are alleged to have been sustained or to have continued. All resulting injury, loss or damage shall be deemed to have occurred at the time of the first offense alleged to have resulted in any such injury, loss or damage. The definition above covers most any action that could be considered under the phrase you violated my rights! If you re a licensed police officer working as a police officer for a Member, and you allegedly use excessive force on a suspect, there s coverage. If you re the same officer and allegedly violate a person s due process rights, there s coverage. If a citizen believes that the city has somehow discriminated him, there is coverage. Obviously, this is a different kind of coverage than what is provided for a fractured bone because someone fell. This coverage is designed to provide coverage for Members and employees who have the potential to negligently injure someone when that person s legal rights are involved. This includes the rights that are afforded by the Constitution, the state s constitution, or some other kind of federal or state law. This doesn t mean, however, that everything that could potentially fit within the above definition is covered. As always, there are terms, conditions, and exclusions that could alter the coverage for the Member or the employee. Next month, we will take a look at what some of those terms, conditions, and exclusions are. As always, if you have any questions about this article or any other claim matter, please call me at the office, or me at gprice@mirma.org. The IRS has announced the optional standard mileage rates to use for business, charitable, medical, or moving purposes. These new rates, effective January 1, 2019, are: 58 cents per mile for business miles driven 20 cents per mile for medical or moving purposes 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations By: Jenne Auck The rate for business miles increased 3.5 cents from 2018; the medical or moving rate increased 2 cents, while the rate for service in charitable organizations will remain unchanged. To find this information and other changes for 2019, visit the IRS website at 5

6 IS IT TIME TO UPDATE YOUR SWIM LESSON PROGRAM? Starfish can bring you into the 21 st century in an easy, affordable and effective manner! Starfish Swimming, long recognized as one of the easiest to teach and most successful swim lesson programs in the United States and overseas, has a new innovative format making it easy for Missouri municipalities to update their programs and improve the quality of their lesson programs. Now, it s easy to avoid high transition costs, expensive travel and hard-to-find courses. Access a top-quality program with all of the services and merchandise you want for your students. For a simple monthly membership fee, you have access to all of the Starfish Aquatics Institute swim lesson programs, including StarBabies/StarTots, Swim School, Stroke School and all of our specialty programs such as StarFun and Fitness. Your instructors can work toward their credentials in any or all of these programs with our interactive online courses, practicum plans, assessment options and continuing education. There is also a reciprocity transition plan for instructors and instructor-trainers currently certified through other agencies. With safety benchmarks built in along with skill achievements, you can teach your students to be great swimmers while also being safe around water. For more information, please complete this simple questionnaire and Starfish will send you the details: Send me information You will also find a flyer attached to this newsletter with pricing and program details. 6