HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Min 2000-12-20
12-20-00
Seal Beach, California
December 20, 2000
The City Council of the City of Seal Beach and the Seal Beach
Redevelopment Agency met in regular adjourned sessions at
12:01 p.m. with Mayor ProTem Boyd calling the meetings to
order.
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ROLL CALL
Present:
Mayor ProTem Boyd
Council/Agency Members Doane, Larson, Yost
Absent:
Mayor Campbell
Mayor Campbell arrived at the meeting at 12:23 p.m.
Also present: Mr. McIntyre, Interim City Manager
Mr. Barrow, City Attorney
Ms. Yeo, City Clerk
CLOSED SESSION
Mayor ProTem Boyd announced that the Council would meet in
Closed Session to discuss the items identified on the agenda,
Public Employee Employment pursuant to Government Code
Section 54957, City Manager. The Council adjourned to Closed
Session at 12:03 p.m. and reconvened at 2:35 p.m. with Mayor
Campbell calling the meeting to order. It was reported that
the Council discussed the items identified on the agenda, no
reportable action was taken.
AGENDA AMENDED
Councilman Boyd moved to amend the agenda to consider an item
that came to attention this date, subsequent to the posting
of the agenda, relating to the Orange County Fire Authority.
Councilman Doane seconded the motion.
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AYES:
NOES:
Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost
None Motion carried
All members of the City Council and Redevelopment Agency were
present for the continuation of the meeting.
Also present: Mr. McIntyre, Interim City Manager
Mr. Barrow, City Attorney
Mr. Dorsey, Assistant to the City Manager
Ms. Arends-King, Director of Administrative
Services
Ms. Yeo, City Clerk
PRESENTATION - ORANGE COUNTY CITIES RISK MANAGEMENT
ASSOCIATION
The Interim City Manager noted the presence of Ms. Janet
Kiser, General Manager of OCCRMA, and others affiliated with
the OCCRMA operation, also present was Mr. Ivan Stevenson,
liability legal counsel, announced that the risk management
function for Seal Beach has been reorganized with Mr. Dorsey
in charge as it is thought changes in that area need to be
made, it is also felt that the Council knows very little
about this process. He mentioned that with the changes that
OCCRMA has made in their procedures they likely provide a
good service, at this point the City does not seem to take
advantage of their services as it should, and from that
standpoint felt that the Council should be familiarized with
what they do and how they do it.
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*
Ms. Kiser stated that OCCRMA has a number of people who
support the organization, as 'General Manager she
provides the day to day suppo~t for OCCRMA risk
management needs of the individual cities. She
introduced Mr. Ed Garbo of Carl Warren & Company who
handles claims administration, Ms. Christine Whelen of
Irvine and cited Irvine as a model risk management
program with good control over claims and litigation
costs, Ms. Karen Gordon and Ms. Sharon Nash of Robert F.
Driver, the insurance broker.
* Ms. Kiser said she wished to provide an overview of
OCCRMA so that it is understood what it is, stated a
number of changes have been made to OCCRMA procedures,
those effective after July 1st in particular impact the
City, also to discuss reporting requirements,
historically what has transpired relating to the
reporting requirements on the part of the City;
* Ms. Kiser stated that OCCRMA is a general liability
pool, there are twelve cities within OCCRMA who have
pooled together since 1978, OCCRMA was in response to an
insurance crisis where at that time you could not buy
insurance and if one could it is likely it could not
have been afforded, the cities came together with the
goal to produce stability and reduce costs, that has
pretty much been accomplished through OCCRMA, there is a
dependence on the cities for support on their claims,
underwriting, investment and executive committees to
support OCCRMA, it is an organization run by the cities;
*
The minimum self-insured retention, SIR, is $100,000,
the SIR for Seal Beach is $300,000, in the past Seal
Beach has requested a lower SIR however because of
reporting, not receiving all of the claims, OCCRMA has
declined to lower the SIR;
*
The City pays the first $300,000 of a claim, OCCRMA then
pays up to $2 million, above that there is an excess
policy in the amount of $40 million, therefore the limit
to the City is $42 million;
*
The participating cities are Brea, Cypress, Irvine,
Laguna Beach, Los Alamitos, Orange, San Clemente, Seal
Beach, Tustin, Westminster, and Yorba Linda, all within
the general geographical area and of similar size, there
are cities from other counties who are now interested,
they will be looked at;
*
When OCCRMA began it was very conservative, wanting to
make certain there was adequate funding, the assets of
OCCRMA are now $25 million;
*
In 1996 Seal Beach paid a premium of $148,800, for the
next three years the premium was reduced by about fifty
percent, last year it was determined to implement an
actuarial based plan to return dividends to the cities,
therefore while this City paid $128,800 in premiums
there was $305,030 returned in dividends, it is expected
that the dividends will be calculated each year and
there will be a dividend return as long as assets are
maintained at the level established;
*
Premiums are actuaria11y based, it depends on what the
self-insured retention is for each city, if the SIR is
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$100,000 a larger premium would be paid OCCRMA than if
the SIR was $300,000, exposure is a consideration,
cities with police and fire will pay more than a city
that does not have those services, the actuary also
looks at losses both paid and outstanding which
definitely impacts the premium however there are
attempts to smooth that out;
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*
When she started with OCCRMA about two years ago the
Board at that time wanted to make significant changes,
subsequently a planning retreat was held where certain
visions were identified. The vision established by
OCCRMA was to have a quality joint powers association.
* Services are provided to OCCRMA in total as well as to
the individual cities, about a year and a half ago
OCCRMA paid for the services of safety inspections,
which Seal Beach had, last year OCCRMA paid for
actuarial reports for the $300,000 deductible, training
is offered to not only those who sit on the Board but
safety training to anyone within a city that is felt
would benefit, trending reports have been developed and
graphical reports are being worked on which should be
helpful to Seal Beach;
* When a city indicates other coverages they want or need
they are looked at, there is currently an RFP out for
employee benefits as some cities want to group purchase
or pool and possibly derive some benefits;
*
OCCRMA began in 1978, many changes have occurred, there
has been time to evaluate the documents, review court
rulings, evaluate what is happening in the industry; all
of the OCCRMA documents have been rewritten, significant
changes include the occurrence form rather than the
claims made form, an example would be if there was a
claim made in 1999 but not reported until five years
later and the policy has been canceled there would be no
coverage for 1999, now if a claim occurs, is reported
later, even if an agency had left OCCRMA there would
still be coverage, further example is a claim in one
city that occurred twenty years ago but has just been
reported, that is called a long tail for liability
claims, this has been made available free by OCCRMA;
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*
Defense costs are included within the SIR, which is the
deductible, also, litigation management guidelines
became effective July 1st, they were developed in order
to include the defense costs within the SIR, before they
were on a pro-rata basis, it is a significant advantage
to have the defense costs included within the
deductible, there were a number of cities that did not
want to do that, that because they controlled their
litigation costs and some cities did not, they said
without some kind of guidelines or controls they did not
want to pay defense costs for cities where there is no
control whatsoever, the goal was to have it be
reasonable, other JPA's, insurance companies, self-
insureds, there were probably fifteen other litigation
management guidelines used to come up with these, yet
the desire was that they be reasonable and workable, in
developing the guidelines OCCRMA worked with the City
Manager's from almost all of the cities, they had
considerable input, they also supported the guidelines
otherwise did not want to include the defense costs
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within the SIR;
*
written acceptance of the guidelines is required, on
each case Carl Warren sends tne guidelines to whichever
defense attorney is handling the claim and they
individually sign the guidelines for that particular
claim, that is overseen by Carl warren;
*
When one talks about defense costs within the SIR, what
does that mean to the City, under the old system the
City has a $300,000 SIR, an example would be if there
were an indemnity claim for $600,000 and expenses of
$400,000, under the old system the SIR is applied to the
indemnity so $300,000 would be paid, however on a pro-
rata basis only $200,000 or fifty percent of the
expenses would have been reimbursed, OCCRMA would have
reimbursed the City $500,000, under the new system,
because the defense costs are included within the SIR
the City would realize $700,000, there is no pro-ration
of those expense costs;
* In order to have the defense costs included within the
SIR, the contract says that defense costs that are
incurred before giving notice will not count within the
satisfaction of the self-insured retention, therefore
claims need to be reported to OCCRMA in order to have
the defense costs count against the SIR, that is a
benefit;
*
Also, reporting all claims and expenses determines the
premium that is charged the City, from an equity
standpoint OCCRMA wants to make sure that all cities are
fairly charged for their premium, and in the litigation
management guidelines it says there is no obligation to
reimburse any member for any work performed or costs
incurred by any law firm or in-house counsel that has
not acknowledged and accepted the guidelines, therefore
while OCCRMA has given a significant advantage by
including the defense costs in the SIR there are
requirements on the part of the City;
* Other requirements on the part of the City are to
maintain funding for their SIR, Seal Beach the only City
that has not met this requirement until about a month or
so ago;
* There is also a requirement to submit monthly litigation
expenses, about a month ago a bill was received showing
close to $200,000 in billings and some of those bills
went back to 1996;
*
With regard to the City itself reporting claims and what
has transpired, again reinforced that in order for the
City to derive full benefits from OCCRMA full reporting
of expenses and claims will be required;
*
Again, when she started with OCCRMA she noticed that the
Seal Beach loss run was very small, not a lot of claims
have been reported, that means sent to Carl Warren, the
loss run determines the premium;
* Correspondence was found in the files with the prior
general manager, the City, the executive committee, and
the board with regard to reporting on behalf of Seal
Beach, correspondence for 1992, 1993, and 1994 there was
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a request for the number of claims reported to Carl
Warren and those were compared with those filed with the
City, of those filed with the City only thirty-five
percent had been reported to Carl Warren, a similar
request in 1998 but no response was found, it seemed
reporting was low but there was information from the
past, and if one looked at what truly was happening,
what would be expected in the number of claims, to that
OCCRMA cities of similar size were looked at, $1,000 was
used as a base for operating revenue, Seal Beach has
about a third the average of the other cities, that
follows somewhat with the 1992 through 1994 time period;
I
* There have been several meetings with OCCRMA at the
City, all dealing with the number of claims reported, a
request was made also to see attorney fees paid over the
last three years for the claims identified for the three
years, what was shown as the total paid on each claim,
those were compared to Carl Warren to see what they
showed as being paid, only a small percentage of what
the City showed as being paid as expenses is reflected
on the Carl Warren loss run, therefore not only is the
recording of the number of claims being looked at but
also reporting all expenses;
*
Looked at too was expenses as a percentage of the total
paid, closed litigated claims, not open, no outstanding
amounts, Seal Beach was eighty-eight and the other
cities were fifty-nine percent, about thirty percent
more in expenses which includes attorney fees, court
fees, and related defense costs;
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*
Is the City getting more for those expenses, a lower
indemnity, which is the amount of settlement, what is
paid for the claim itself, this shows that even though
the expenses are higher it does not relate to the
indemnity payment for the settlement;
*
A request was made of the City to supply information on
all claims going back ten years, it is needed for
actuarial purposes, they want to make sure that the
premium is fairly determined, information on expenses
and the number of claims, also, it becomes important to
the City if it is not reporting claims then the defense
costs are not going to be reimbursed, which could be
hundreds of thousands of dollars, therefore it is
important to get all claims and expenses reported, it is
important to report all litigated claims to Carl Warren,
and with their expertise they can handle the small
claims very cost effectively too, the City is encouraged
to use their services.
*
Mr. Ed Garbo, claims adjuster for Carl Warren,
introduced himself, six year employee involved with the
OCCRMA program since then, experience of about fifteen
years;
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*
There is belief in the product their company provides,
when a claim is received they believe in prompt
investigation to evaluate liability, that is preserving
evidence at the scene of an accident, preserve the scene
of a trip and fall, determine if that is a dangerous
condition of public property, in the event of a sewer
backup they want to look and assess the damages as soon
as possible to minimize the City's risk, they believe
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that prompt investigation can be critical in most cases
especially if there is a liability situation present,
when a claim is received it is reviewed to determine
that it is something that the City may owe, they advise
the City to defer action on the claim until their
investigation is completed, if it is obvious that it is
something that the City does not owe, which many times
is the case as it may not, involve the City rather a
contractor, may have occurred outside the City limits;
*
The City is then told to deny the claim as soon as
possible to get the statute of limitations running, that
because the statute of limitations on a rejection begins
at six months therefore the desire is to get the statute
running as soon as possible, if a claim needs to be
resolved then the damages are evaluated, for an injury
claim the medicals are evaluated, look to see if the
medical treatment was proper, if auto damage an
appraiser is sent to look at the car to make sure the
damages being paid for are justified, for a sewer
backup, which is a common claim in many parts of Orange
County, a contractor is brought in to get a competitive
bid, all of that reviewed by their office before any
recommendation is made to the City on how to proceed;
*
Once that is done, settlement authority is requested
from the City prior to commencing settlement
negotiations, or alternatively, present the case to the
City, ask for settlement authority and negotiate with
the claimant or their representative, that is generally
tailored to the City's needs, some cities like to know
what it would take to settle the case and authorize
settlement negotiations or some want to hear about the
case before anything is done, the city is accommodated
in that regard;
* When a case is not settled and proceeds to litigation,
Carl Warren monitors the litigation to make sure things
are going smoothly, assist defense counsel in any
additional work that is required, they input all
payments so that the loss run generated is accurate and
can be relied on by the actuary;
* It is believed that the more that can be done the more
beneficial to the City.
* Ms. Sharon Nash, Robert Driver & Company, introduced
herself, said she wished to discuss the insured program
that is provided to OCCRMA as opposed to liability which
is a pool;
*
The excess liability program provides the liability
excess of the pooled program, the various coverages
follow very closely with the coverages included in the
pooled contract, there is a separate employment
practices policy because OCCRMA was not comfortable in
pooling the employment related claims, that is
commercially insured no~, this coverage applies to
wrongful termination, discrimination, sexual harassment
type of losses, this became effective in November a year
ago, the limits are $1 million per claim, each city is
entitled to $1 million per year, the whole policy will
payout up to $5 million a year, excess is provided
through the excess program therefore there are higher
limits up to $40 million, the SIR for Seal Beach is
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*
$150,000, it was possible to negotiate a smaller
deductible for WestComm which is $50,000;
Excess Workers Comp is a coverage that protects
employees for injury or illness on the job, a Jones Act
coverage is included which would be important to Seal
Beach because the City does own one vessel, however the
majority of employees do not file for Jones Act coverage
because they would have to bring a lawsuit so they would
rather collect California benefits, the major component
of this policy is the cash flow endorsement, example is
that if the City were to have a large loss the City will
want to talk to their company who will help work through
the cash flow endorsement, this allows the insurance
company to help the City pay the $275,000 SIR, they
assume the responsibility for part of the SIR;
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* The property program protects the property of the City
of Seal Beach, real and personal property, at present
the City is purchasing earthquake coverage at about
fifty percent of the buildings and some personal
property, the program also covers trained dogs with the
police Department if there are dogs, that is additional
coverage;
*
The shared limits are $500 million with $105 million in
earthquake coverage to be shared between all members,
$5,000 deductible on most of the losses seen, there have
been several pier fires in Seal Beach so the deductible
for the pier is $100,000, there is a five percent
deductible on earthquake damage, that is five percent of
the value of the property at the time of loss, somewhat
different from the standard deductibles, there are
numerous sub-limits;
I
*
The boiler and machinery policy is a supplement to the
property program, if the property policy will not
respond to certain damages like compressors or air
conditioning units this policy would step in and take
care of losses of that type, they recommend that the
corporate yard be involved in knowing about this
coverage because all kinds of compressors, pumps, etc.
are covered by this program with a small deductible, an
example, every deep well pump has been replaced in the
City of Orange in the last eight years because they
filed a claim on every pump, the policy has a $50
million limit, one of the benefits of this program is
that it has $2 million of earthquake coverage if
earthquake coverage is included in the property program,
all earthquake coverage was lost on the boiler and
maChinery program after the Northridge earthquake, it is
just now coming back, it has a small deductible, a
presentation could be made to the corporate yard or the
maintenance personnel if desired so that they understand
what they need to report;
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*
The faithful performance bond covers employee dishonesty
as well as failure to perform duties as prescribed by
law, it covers all employees of the City, there is a
limit of $3 million with a $5,000 deductible;
*
Seal Beach does buy one separate policy on an individual
basis which covers the vessels and the wave runners, it
picks up the liability if the vessels damage other
parties through the pool program but this policy will
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cover damage to City vessels and wave runners and a
vessel that might be pulled in the water;
*
With the exception of workers comp, which is reported to
the third party administrator, losses on any other
programs would be reported to the Driver Company, merely
call and they will expedite the process of taking care
of paying the claims;
*
Other programs are available to help reduce the City's
exposure, there are small policies available for related
non-profit organizations that perhaps need insurance,
they can cover aviation, a program that will extend
liability to users of city facilities, an example would
be use of a community center where the desire is to rent
its rooms yet transfer the liability exposure to the
tenant, a program for local vendors too who may not be
able to meet the insurance requirements, there is the
ability to cover a specific contract with the City so
that they could do the work and the City would be
comfortable with them meeting the insurance needs;
*
A new program through Liberty Mutual allows their
company to provide personal insurance to the employees
at group discounts, that would be homeowners and auto
policies, this is being marketed successfully around the
State.
*
Mention made by Councilman Boyd that the City has done
its claims administration somewhat differently, the City
is now looking at how it can integrate all of its claims
management and risk management into one profile to
reduce exposure, and question posed as the cost of the
current premium;
* Response of Ms. Kiser was belief that it was $128,000,
last year a dividend return of $305,000;
* Question, is there a comprehensive risk management
analysis where someone could come to the City, look at
the entire process, determine where there is exposure
other than the areas that are currently covered and
where exposure can be limited in the future;
* Response of Ms. Kiser was that there is an RFP going out
in January for safety services, and on an on-going basis
OCCRMA wants a person to come to the City and identify
its risks, she or Carl Warren could help with the
process of reporting claims, she has been to the City on
a number of occasions and met with various departments,
OCCRMA is there to provide a service, will come to the
City whenever needed;
*
Question raised by Councilman Boyd as to how does the
City improve and integrate OCCRMA, since they are being
paid a premium, into the current risk management system
and claims administration, it is not certain if an
effective job is currently being done, possibly improve
the process and reduce exposure;
* Ms. Kiser said on exposure there is the safety side, as
to the process, again, she or Carl Warren could help,
the City of Irvine present to respond to questions and
would possibly be willing to assist with setting up the
process, of all of the cities within OCCRMA they are
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*
effective in what they do, OCCRMA also has training
sessions;
Question posed to the representative from Irvine as to
their process for claims administration, to that Ms.
Christine Layman, Manager of Human Resources and Risk
Management, responded that claims administration is an
integrated approach with a number of different areas in
the organization working together, that starts with the
Council identifying its philosophy, how they want claims
settled and managed and communicating that direction to
staff;
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* In terms of claims and litigation management from the
staff level the communication is on-going in terms of
working with the claims adjuster with regard to what
types of claims will be settled or fought, working with
the defense attorneys, there are attorneys with specific
expertise, she has a strong belief in utilizing their
specific skills, personalities, and expertise for a
particular case, as staff there needs to be familiarity
with the types of cases, with plaintiff attorneys as
well, particularly those who are suing a second or third
time, an effective claims administration program also
includes reporting back to the departments, making
certain that changes within the community are
documented, there needs to be training within the
organization, stay abreast of what the current liability
topics are, then be proactive to limit liability;
*
Question raised if there is a study available of current
costs as compared to projected costs in the future with
this system;
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*
One response was that the City currently pays a premium,
the idea for this discussion is whether the City
continues to pay the premium and remain with OCCRMA yet
not use some of their services, continue to administer
claims as they are currently, or explore how claims can
be administered, paid or denied and protect the City
from liability;
*
Statement made that it seems clear that by spreading the
risk between twelve different agencies is advantageous,
there is recollection of the time when it was nearly
impossible to obtain insurance, it is felt that a small
city such as Seal Beach can not afford to not be in some
type of pooled system, OCCRMA is one of several in the
marketplace, also, with the new rules, regulations, and
litigation procedures put in place this last year this
may likely be an improved system over what it might have
been a few years ago;
*
Comment was made that it would not be desirable to
change something that is presently successful, or,
continue to pay into a system and not utilize the full
benefit of it, especially when there may come a point in
time when they are needed when the City is exposed to
liability yet they will not cover because the City has
not followed their procedures;
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*
Mention was made that the recommendation early in this
meeting was that the City remain with OCCRMA however
that some internal adjustments be made, one being to
request Mr. Dorsey to undertake claims administration,
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someone who can communicate well within the organization
and make certain that there is compliance with the
OCCRMA procedural requirements;
*
Comment of Councilman Yost, the procedure is not
dissimilar to the procedures in his profession, a claims
review analysis with the subsequent data made available
so that practices can be changed to avoid future
incidents, the application of sharing information across
several cities is valuable, inquired as to what type of
data is available from the other cities as causes of
claims, what types have been successfully litigated
against to avoid future liability, etc;
*
The response of Ms. Kiser was that they have looked at
how claims should be coded so that trending can be done,
prior to December there was a written description yet no
way to actually trend the claims, now that can be done,
programs are being looked into that will allow the
provision of management reports to clearly present data,
possibly an opportunity as well to compare with other
cities without identifying them, it is important for the
City to know how it is doing and comparatively;
*
The comment to that was that it is a proactive means of
preventing liability;
*
Ms. Kiser offered that the first step was coding, that
required some mapping from prior years, they have now
gotten to that point, option programs are now being
looked at, she would like to see graphical reports,
mentioned that Carl Warren is used by every city in
Orange County, other JPA's, but they have not had access
to the type of program that is envisioned;
* Comment that a number of medical malpractice companies
are doing a capitation for attorney services at a set
fee for certain types of incidents, inquiry if OCCRMA
has the economy of scale to contract for certain legal
services;
* Ms. Kaiser stated again that the deductible for Seal
Beach is $300,000, the minimum deductible is $100,000,
there are some pools that have a $10,000 deductible yet
they give no control or input to the cities, some OCCRMA
cities have a higher deductible but they can choose
their own attorney, they could go to an attorney firm
that has capitated rates, yet a number of cities,
including Irvine, work within the OCCRMA guidelines but
put controls on the expenses, a city could contract with
a law firm, OCCRMA could help with choosing an attorney;
*
The representative from Irvine said their city has not
dealt with capitated legal fees, that is driven by their
claims philosophy, a civil rights claim where officers
are named as an example will be fought to the end in
honor of their employees and the City, not just a
settlement, in Irvine there is a great amount of hands-
on control of claims in terms of how they are run, when
there is a motion for summary judgment, the tone of the
litigation, Irvine is not willing to give anything up;
* Comment in response was that there is no need to give up
of the control however attorney firms could be asked
what they would be willing to offer in terms of payment
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for services;
* The representative indicated that such an arrangement
would be nice, yet spoke in support of having a panel of
attorneys with specific expertise, that has been
successful for Irvine;
*
If Irvine is considered to be the model for risk
management in orange County, there was question as to
how internal quality control is handled, the money paid,
money received, claims data, how is that collected, how
is the city proactive in decreasing the number of claims
and liability;
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* The response was that the claims filed can not be
decreased, in terms of settlement approval the
representative said she has authority to settle for up
to $20,000 based on the philosophy of the Council,
anything over $20,000 goes to Council for approval, in
terms of management of the money that goes out, paid for
appraisals, attorney services, expert witness fees,
etc., Carl Warren is relied on, they have been clearly
advised as to the expectations of them, that is part of
the contract with them, they are expected to follow the
City's standards, the attorney bills go through them,
some things are required to be pre-authorized, the bills
are required to be approved before she pays them.
Of the Mayor and Councilmembers, Councilman Doane requested
to be excused from this meeting in order to attend another.
Councilman Doane excused himself from the meeting at 3:30
p.m.
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*
Question was asked as to how Irvine keeps track of data
with regard to claims made in terms of decreasing
liability and for comparison with other cities, payments
made, payments per capita, attorney fees;
*
Response was that is done by means of two different
mechanisms, first there are claims reports and "loss runs
from Carl Warren which contain a lot of data in terms of
expenses and what types of claims are filed, that can be
compared with anyone within the JPA, there are also
statewide indices that a city can compare itself to,
Irvine also has an internal data base for additional
information, it is desirable to know who the plaintiff
attorneys are as an example, it is a risk management
database where a number of different factors are
compiled;
*
As to the number of people in Irvine that administer
claims and the risk management process, the response was
there is one person who spends about one-third of her
time on those tasks, that involves coordinating
discovery, issues between attorneys, the claims
adjuster, and the department, the representative stated
she also spends about five percent of her time on the
lawsuit issues, Irvine usually gets over one hundred
lawsuits a year, but if there are good controls and
standards it is easier to monitor and measure activity;
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*
It was suggested that staff take the information from
this meeting and make recommendations.
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12-20-00
*
The City Attorney said he had a number of questions,
some had been answered, possibly some could the answered
at this meeting, others may require a separate meeting
at staff level with some of the representatives present;
*
To the representative of Robert Driver, question was, in
connection with the other coverages that the City has,
the employment practices liability, requested
clarification if any such claim would be sent directly
to Robert Driver as to procedure;
*
The response was that the employment practice claims are
being administered through Carl Warren as well as the
other liability claims, that was to keep the flow of all
liability going in the same direction, those are the two
that would go directly to Carl warren, the workers comp
claims go to the third party administrator, any other
types of claims would go to Robert Driver;
*
To the Carl Warren representative, it was noted that
someone had mentioned that the policy became effective
November of 1999, would that then cover occurrences from
November, 1999;
*
The response of the Robert Driver representative was
that it is a claims made, it will cover any losses that
a city did not have knowledge of at the time of binding,
it is known that there were several claims of this City
that were going on at the time that coverage was bound,
therefore they would not be covered;
*
The Attorney said he would have additional questions as
there are some on-going claims;
* Response was to contact Carl Warren first, if questions
remain then Robert Driver would be the contact;
* The Attorney noted the mention of Irvine having a
contract with Carl Warren, the question is whether that
is a separate contract for the City of Irvine as OCCRMA
also has a contract;
* The Irvine representative responded that it is through
OCCRMA, however OCCRMA is set up so that the city is the
client of Carl Warren;
* It was necessary for the City Attorney to leave the
meeting for a brief time, however noted that he had a
number of questions with regard to the Irvine process,
the relationship of Carl Warren with OCCRMA and the
City, etc.
*
In jest, in response to a previous comment with regard
to capitating attorney fees, it was pointed out that all
caps on expenses are worth naught when a suit is brought
against an elected official.
Appreciation was extended to the representatives from OCCRMA,
Robert Driver, Carl Warren, and ,the City of Irvine for their
attendance. This portion of the,meeting concluded at 3:40
p.m.
TREES FOR SEAL BEACH
The Interim Manager noted there was no further report in
addition to the discussion from last meeting, the request was
12-20-00
for funding of $5,000 to support the Trees for Seal Beach
group in their grant effort, there are funds available should
the Council choose to support this effort, and staff would be
supportive of facilitating the effort. Mr. Rallie Rallis
addressed the Council as President of the Trees for Seal
Beach group, mentioned that at the last discussion the group
was asked that this request for Ocean Avenue be delayed until
the Ad Hoc Water Quality Committee had an opportunity to meet
however there is no City Council meeting until January 8th
therefore no additional information to pass along. Mr.
Rallis noted that the group would like to proceed with the
grant application for their project, they are also attempting
to raise additional funds for the grant writing as there is
not a full monetary commitment as yet, it would be helpful to
have some assistance from the City because it will be
difficult to raise the full $16,000, there is a commitment
for $3,000 at this point, felt that another $5,000 can be
raised, they need to move quickly on the application. He
said in talking to the Director of Public Works regarding the
project his feeling was that given the amount of money that
will be spent for the grant there may be other projects
within the City that are a greater priority, however his
feeling is that there are grant monies being made available,
it is not felt any projects are tied together, they can go on
individually to accomplish the overall goal. Councilman Boyd
stated he has been fairly supportive of the effort of this
group as it is consistent with the Capital Improvement Plan
and efforts to improve water quality, his feeling is that
speculation with $5,000 to attempt to secure grant funds is a
risk that the City should take. Mr. Rallis confirmed that
the application would be for $1 million, explained that the
coastal portion of the guidelines allows only projects of $1
million or less, the non-point water project goes to $5
million, theoretically application could be made under both
categories however it is questionable if they would qualify
until $8,500 is spent to do the necessary research and work
with the Santa Ana Regional Water Board to advise under which
there would be the more likely chance of success. He stated
whatever process they go through for the Ocean Avenue
drainage project will be helpful to the City with regard to
other runoff projects, the pump station, etc. Councilman
Boyd requested a brief description of the intended project.
Mr. Rallis responded that in order to do improvements to
water runoff they also have to make improvements to storm
water collection, on Ocean Avenue half of the water goes down
the alleyways to the beach, the other half goes to the pump
station and into the River, the project of the Trees group
would be to correct the Ocean Avenue grade, curbs and
gutters, do a collection of the water from the alleys so that
it is not flowing to the beach, redirect that water, and then
work with the City to get a larger pumping station to treat
the water, that would likely be a $5 million project. He
noted too that the application time frame is February 1st.
Councilman Boyd mentioned that the curb and gutter project
for Ocean is an identified capital project to be done
sometime in the future, if the $5,000 can help to advance
that his feeling is that it should be done, it also sets
precedence for the rest of the City. Mr. Rallis added that
the group would like to not lose the momentum that Trees for
Seal Beach has accomplished thus far, the twenty percent
match of the $1 million, $200,000, will be provided by the
Trees group.
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Councilman Boyd moved to authorize the expenditure of $5,000
from budgeted funds in support of the Trees group grant
12-20-00
application effort. Councilman , Larson seconded the motion.
I
Councilman Yost expressed his preference that the pump
station to the San Gabriel River be part of this request, it
is fine to do the curbs and gutters on Ocean Avenue, yet in
terms of what affects the City as a whole and the water
quality of the River and off the coast that is where the
pollution and problems lie, so if there is authorization to
write the grant application he would like the pump station
included. Councilman Boyd said what will likely happen is
that the budgeted monies will be authorized, the Trees group
will have the grant application written, if successful the
City will design a project consistent with the goals of the
grant, inclusive of redirecting the runoff to the pump
station then hopefully additional funds can be obtained
through the grant process to enhance that station. Although
appreciative of the Trees group, Councilman Yost again stated
his intent is to improve the runoff situation and water
quality rather than improvements to Ocean Avenue that will
enhance property values. In response, Mr. Rallis
acknowledged that that may be the appearance, but even if
nothing were done on Ocean property values will continue to
go up due to the limited beach frontage property, and because
the residents of the area appreciate the City ,it is their
desire to do something in return, however correctly stated,
whatever the Trees group tries to do it should be tied into
the pump station if possible. The extent of their project
will not be known until the research is done, if the pump
station is included it must have a filtration system, not
just for solid debris but a means to destroy the bacteria as
well, that would mean that the grant application would likely
need to be for $5 million, part of their Ocean Avenue plan is
to remove the concrete in the parkways to allow water
absorption into the soil, this would be a starting point, the
San Gabriel River cleanup will require more than just this
City to do, it can be a leader but monies need to be obtained
from the other agencies, grants as well.
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Motion to approve the $5,000 expenditure with an amendment
that the pump station be included as part of the application
process:
AYES:
NOES:
ABSENT:
Boyd, Campbell, Larson, Yost
None
Doane
Motion carried
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ORANGE COUNTY FIRE AUTHORITY
Councilman Boyd made reference to the Orange County Fire
Authority quarterly report, noted meeting this morning with
the senior management staff to discuss some operational
issues, there will be a recommendation coming forth to the
Board to increase staffing on some of the units throughout
the County, it will come to the contract cities as they have
an impact if staffing is increased. He reported that a
recommendation coming to the City the first part of the year
will be increased staffing for one of the engine companies,
Engine 44 at 8th/Central, this is called a paramedic
assessment unit which includes a paramedic firefighter, a
fire apparatus engineer, and a captain that can perform
advanced life services but does not do hospital follow up,
they turn that over to an advanced life support unit that
comes from the Leisure World station. Councilman Boyd noted
that the recommendation to Seal Beach will be to increase and
authorize additional funds in the amount necessary to make
Engine 44 a paramedic engine company, the addition of one
12-20-00
person per shift, three people total. He noted that the
intent is to increase the depth of the emergency medical
services due to an increase of calls for service, the
increase during the quarter of July through September was
cumulatively about twenty-three percent, fourteen percent for
emergency medical services calls, forty-one percent for other
calls which are basic life support or rescue type calls,
however each time an engine company is dispatched a paramedic
unit is also dispatched so services are being drawn down from
Westminster, the Leisure World station averages about eight
to nine calls per day, over half of those calls are being
served by a paramedic/engine company from Springdale and
westminster, when the Leisure World company is tied up on a
call the next two respondents are Station 44 and the
Westminster company, this will need to be a budget item, the
guesstimated amount may be around $200,000 to $300,000, that
burden will be to the individual cash contract cities, there
are seven such cities, five will be impacted by increased
service increases because of the demand on the system, at
present there are simultaneous calls in Leisure World
throughout each day. The Manager asked if that would be an
issue to speak to Leisure World about. Councilman Yost noted
that Leisure World may be the greatest user of the service
but they pay far more in taxes than they take out.
Councilman Boyd said it is an issue that the City is going to
need to find some way to absorb given continual draw of the
amount of service, some cities are looking at trying to staff
truck companies to ease the burden as much as possible, one
of the things looked at for Seal Beach is splitting the
difference to make the engine at Station 48 a paramedic
engine, remove the paramedic van from service, but each time
that unit responds to Rossmoor that would be taking another
engine company out of service for Seal Beach, this is the
flaw in not having every engine company a paramedic engine,
on the other hand there may be some cost recovery to cover
some of the cost. To the question of outlay to the Orange
County Fire Authority annually, Councilman Boyd stated it is
about $2.6 million, another issue is that the Authority is
trying to decrease response times, there have been some
issues with the reserve and volunteer firefighters, in 1999
the average response time to an emergency response call was
7.28 minutes, today it is 4.38 minutes, when the downtown
unit has to respond to Leisure World it does not meet the
target goal of 5 minutes, the conversion to a paramedic
engine does quite a bit to reduce the response time.
Councilman Larson noted that when a call is made the response
units are similar to a caravan, an engine, medic unit,
security, and ambulance, to that Councilman Boyd mentioned
that he has run five consecutive calls while in Leisure
World. Councilman Boyd mentioned that the Fire Chief will be
having their staff prepare a summary of the options, this
will be an option with a strong recommendation from the Fire
Chief and the emergency medical services manager, one of the
options would be to split the two units, make both paramedic
engines, and if the volunteer firefighter program is
restructured the volunteers from Station 42 will likely be
gone, a consideration is to staff that at Station 48 which
would also be a cost share because Los Alamitos would draw
down from that and pay a pro-rata share, the cost might be
the same or a little more but the staffing would be
significantly increased. Councilman Larson mentioned that
there is a nurse at the Medical Center twenty-four hours a
day that is tied into the hospital, but it would be
questionable if that could be substituted for the fire and
paramedic services. Councilman Boyd de~cribed the situation
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12-20-00
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of a hospital follow up with the transport of a patient by
one fire person, the ambulance service does not transport
that fire person back as it is not covered in their contract,
therefore the engine has to make the trip to pick up the fire
person, if the City could transport its own calls it could
send its ambulance with one paramedic firefighter to the
hospital then keep the engine in service in the City, one
reason Medix ambulance does not transport back is because
they have a vast area of service, to transport back would tie
up their service vehicles, Medix has met their contract
obligations about ninety-nine percent of the time.
Councilman Boyd noted that before Westminster was brought in
for service Station 42 was making about six calls per day to
Leisure World, that is considerable distance. Two of the
options would be to staff a full time truck company and have
two paramedic engines or have two paramedic engines and staff
a City ambulance, which could be a consideration, there are a
couple of cities that have done that and it has been found to
cut their costs for fire protection.
JOINT MEETING - CITY COUNCIL/REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
SEAL BEACH TRAILER PARK REAL ESTATE CLOSING
The City Attorney stated there was nothing new to report, the
closing is scheduled for Thursday, a complicated process,
however there are no new problems.
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ADJOURNMENT
The Council unanimously determined to cancel the regular
meeting of December 25th. By unanimous consent, the meeting
was adjourned at 4:08 p.m.
clerk
Approved: VJ~J,f~
Atte" , 9~~(;i
Seal Beach, California
December 25, 2000
I
The regular meeting of the City Council and Redevelopment
Agency scheduled for this date was canceled in recognition of
the Holiday Season.
Beach
C't Clerk and
o the City of