Port Hueneme agrees to insurance co-op demands for changes
Council bows to CJPIA demands for training, hiring, monitoring; outstanding claims against city summarized
By George Miller
The City of Port Hueneme Council agreed to terms imposed by the CJPIA (California Joint Powers Insurance Agency) as a condition of the City continuing to be fully insured by that body. This was brought about via an upsurge in claims against the city, including complaints about conduct of Council members. Some say the latter was politically-motivated, some say justified, but here it is. A $279,000 settlement was given to former City Manager Cynthia Haas. Four of eight known outstanding claims against the city were lodged against Haas.
The agreement terms, which include a “Performance Improvement Plan,” are summarized in a letter from Interim City Manager John Baker and accompanied by the Council resolution accepting them, as follows:
Excerpts from the CC Meeting of 5-2-16
Without getting into a whole lot of detail, since one can download and read the above to do so, here are some key points:
The City of Port Hueneme belongs to a municipal self-insurance pool consisting of over 120 members. The self-insurance pool, managed by California Joint Powers Insurance Authority (CJPIA), provides workers’ compensation insurance, all-risk property insurance and general liability insurance protection for its members.
Due to an upsurge in claims against the City, CJP!A’s Executive Committee deemed it necessary for the City to adopt a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) to ensure the City’s governance is consistent with CJP!A’s mission and goals as it relates to risk management standards and best practices.
- Council members will complete various training- council relations, the City Council/City Manager form of government, appropriate interaction with city staff, the Brown Act, preventing discrimination and harassment and workplace violence prevention training, workers’ compensation claims ,gender sensitivity, leadership, and cooperation, Human Resources training addressing topics such as social media for public agencies, dealing successfully with employees, employee accountability, effective performance evaluations, disciplinary procedures, and creating effective documentation, as identified and provided by the Authority
- JPIA imposes some hiring criteria and City Manager and Finance Director positions.
- The City will notify the Authority immediately of any complaints that involve allegations of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation.
- Relevant plans, policies, procedures, or action(s) that are required to be developed and implemented by the Agreement must be approved and monitored by JPIA.
Summary of claims:
George Miller is Publisher of CitizensJournal.us and a “retired” operations management consultant residing in Oxnard.
Through a Public Records Request, I have been provided records pertaining to the City’s performance in their workers compensation insurance over the last 10 years. The City’s premiums have more than doubled over the last 6 years. In 2010, the City paid $337,878 and in 2017, it’s going to pay $736,770. The Performance Improvement Plan says nothing about workers compensation, yet, this is a significant problem of which the current management of the City has ignored. Do the Directors and Managers understand the significance of insurance cost doubling? What are they doing to reverse it? Do they have a plan? The answer is no. Moving on to Liability Insurance, it appears the Liability Claim of Ms Haas has been the impetus for the Performance Improvement Plan. However, to us skeptics, it appears to be a political settlement. Seeing the outstanding claims against Ms. Haas, you have to wonder, what is the JPIA thinking? Were they insuring a friendly witness/defendant by paying her off? Is she going to to say “I was the victim of harassment so I harassed? Regardless, Ms. Haas’s actions will be under intense scrutiny, perhaps, her receipt of$279,000 will relieve some of that self inflicted stress.