FYI

- Michael Hammond

Risk Management of Young Volunteers

Today, local government is expected to do more with fewer financial resources. Cities are continuously challenged to balance their budgets and adjust their spending priorities due to cutbacks in funding at every level. Many municipalities now rely more on volunteers to assist and supplement those efforts. Utilizing volunteers is often a good way to involve your residents in their community. By volunteering, those individuals often acquire a vested interest in promoting the community.

Volunteer opportunities can be numerous and involve people at many different levels. Young people are often the most eager to volunteer and get involved in their community. But, when using young people as volunteers, you must exercise a "reasonable degree of care" to protect them from "foreseeable harm." Although providing a safe environment should be your goal for all volunteers, you have a greater duty to protect young participants. For example, you may be required to:

l Exercise greater supervision

l Conduct more intensive screening of their supervisors

The extent of your duty of care may depend on the age of the young people involved, the nature of your city's relationship with the young participants and additional factors such as previous court decisions. As a general rule, the greater degree of control you maintain over the activities of the young volunteer, the greater your duty to protect them from harm.

Obtaining a release and waiver of liability is generally a good idea for protecting the city from claims by volunteers. In most states, however, individuals under the age of 18 are believed to lack the capacity to enter into a binding contract. In most courts, agreements entered into by minors are "voidable." Therefore, it is recommended the parents or legal guardians of the minor volunteer always sign the release and waiver of liability. Staff encourages you to consult your legal counsel when obtaining releases on behalf of minors.

When care is exercised, using volunteers at your city can be a great way to enhance community involvement and accomplish more tasks with limited resources. However, you need to be aware of the restrictions and limitations when using young volunteers.

back to top

Counselors' Comments

 - Surdyk, Dowd & Turner

Ohio Revised Code Section 149.43 requires that, with certain exceptions, public records kept by any public office must be prepared, maintained and available for review by the public upon request. As such, it is the duty of each MVRMA member to respond to such a request from any person or organization. The Ohio Supreme Court is taking a tough stance on providing citizens full access to government through public records and thereby, increasing the burdens placed upon public offices.

In a case decided on February 24, 2005, the Ohio Supreme Court found the manner in which a public office releases its public record does matter. In this case, a newspaper reporter requested the 911 audiotape relating to a double homicide in Morrow County. The Court has previously determined that a 911 tape is a public record that must be immediately released upon request. Here, the prosecuting attorney only permitted the newspaper journalist to listen to the tape and offered to transcribe the tape, but refused to provide the newspaper with a copy of the tape or allow the newspaper to record it. The Court held the county had a duty to provide the newspaper with a copy of the 911 tape in the same format at cost.

A public office, under R.C. § 149.43, shall allow the person requesting the public record to choose either to have the record duplicated upon paper or upon the same medium in which the record is kept. As such, the requestor may choose to have the 911 tape transcribed onto paper or may request a duplicate copy in audio format.

When a person requests an audiotape, videotape or other such medium, MVRMA members must allow the person to choose either a duplicate copy in the same format or a transcript on paper.

In December 2004, the Ohio Supreme Court reiterated that a person may inspect and copy a public record "irrespective of his or her purpose for doing so." In this case, the Court had to determine whether a plaintiff suing a governmental agency may use the Public Records Act to request public records from that agency which are related to the pending civil case once the discovery deadline has expired. The Court held he may.

Here, a civil litigant suing a county Department of Job and Family Services regarding his termination filed a public records request for certain documents held by the agency. These documents were necessary to his case; however, the agency refused to release the documents because the request "was an attempt to circumvent civil discovery rules" by using a public records request. Specifically, the agency argued the release of the documents would violate state and/or federal law. However, the Court found such a civil litigant, or his attorney, may make a public records request under these circumstances and the public office must comply.

Simply put, no matter the reason why the person requesting the public records seeks those records, it is the obligation of every public office to immediately respond to all public records requests. However, care must be exercised to ensure the records do not contain information which is prohibited from disclosure. R.C. § 149.43 identifies a variety of records which are not considered to be "public records" even though maintained by a public agency. The disclosure of these types of records as well as certain information in records which are considered to be "public records" can result in potential liability to the disclosing agency. Recently, one jurisdiction was sued for releasing a premium statement from its health insurance carrier which detailed the premiums to be paid on behalf of each employee. The document contained a 12 digit identification number for each specific employee which was based upon each employee’s social security number. It was alleged the disclosure of that information was in violation of federal and state law and the information should have been redacted before the premium statement was produced. Fortunately, the plaintiffs could not prove the disclosure of that information resulted in any harm. To avoid potential problems, review records carefully before they are produced to ensure they do not contain information which is not subject to disclosure. When in doubt, consult your law director.

back to top

The Claims File

- Craig Blair

The winter of 2005 is finally over! Most members are busy putting away snow blades, getting their mowing equipment ready and filling potholes. Now that spring is here, can summer be far behind?

And summer, for most of our members, means hiring seasonal employees. These individuals are usually high school or college students who can fill a range of positions, from lifeguard to landscaper. Some of them will return summer after summer if their work experience is a positive one.

To promote a positive experience, certain precautions must be taken. As with any new employee, safety training is a must before seasonal employees begin their duties. The seasonal employee knows he has been hired for a 2-3 month period and may not recognize or appreciate the importance of safety in his day to day activities. It is important to have an experienced employee work with each seasonal employee until he fully understands what is expected of him.

A seasonal employee who will operate city vehicles requires further scrutiny. He should be at least 18 years of age, have a valid drivers license, a clean driving record and be required to attend a training session with one of MVRMA's defensive driving tapes.

A concern of a more sensitive nature is the pairing of a more experienced employee with any new employee of the opposite gender. Crews of three or more are recommended to reduce the potential for claims of impropriety. All new employees should be provided copies of the city's policy for reporting discrimination or harassment.

There are inherent risks when hiring any new employee. Minimize those risks by establishing sound hiring practices within your city.

back to top

Loss Control Lowdown

-Starr Markworth

I have read and heard many times that "backing accidents just happen and are inherent to the job in cities due to the amount of time some departments spend in their vehicles." According to the National Safety Council’s Guide for Determining Preventability of Motor Vehicle Accidents, backing accidents are preventable. A "Preventable Accident" is defined as one in which the driver failed to exercise every reasonable precaution to prevent the accident.

Over the last five years, MVRMA has not been immune to losses involving vehicle backing. MVRMA members have suffered 144 claims caused by backing accidents, resulting in $115,643 worth of losses to member cities. Of those 144 claims, 105 were Auto Liability claims and 39 were Auto Physical Damage claims. The MVRMA member city police departments made up the highest percentage of these claims at 31%.

Several MVRMA trustees have approached me concerning backing accidents which continue to plague their cities. They ask what can be implemented to reduce these seemingly avoidable claims. I have not been able to come up with some "no fail" policy, procedure or training program to make these claims go away. What I can give you are some tips, which can be implemented in your city’s standard operating procedures, that will statistically reduce the likelihood of backing accidents.

The key to prevention of backing accidents is reducing the exposure. The City must adopt the concept that "all backing accidents are preventable" and make sure employees understand these accidents may be grounds for discipline.

To reduce the number of backing accidents, it is necessary to know and observe several preventative measures:

1. Make every effort to avoid backing. Park so that you can move forward when starting. Avoid making "Y" turns in driveways or roads.

2. Park in a location away from traveling or parked vehicles, thus avoiding setting yourself up for a collision.

3. If parked in one spot for any period of time, walk around your vehicle and check for children, other vehicles and obstacles.

4. Whenever you can’t see through a rear window, a signal person should be stationed where he can view the rear of the vehicle and be seen by the operator.

5. Before backing, sound your horn with two quick beeps, check rear and side view mirrors, watch side clearances and then back slowly.

The effectiveness of any backing accident prevention program depends primarily on the driver's ability to maintain a professional attitude toward parking and backing habits.

MVRMA has several driver training videos in the video library. Please contact me at 937-438-8878 or by email at smarkworth@mvrma.com if you would like to borrow a video for an upcoming training session. The MVRMA video library listing is available at www.mvrma.com under Training and Loss Control.

back to top

Brokers Beat

Safety in Supervisors' Salary Review - A Formal & Practical Approach (Part 1)

Most cities do not have a formal system for measuring and rating first-line supervisors for safety performance; it is not uncommon, however, for some cities to utilize at least a basic system of safety in salary review. A basic system usually focuses on or targets the number of accidents in a department. This is a noteworthy cause, but it falls short of the mark. Too often, a target is established for accident reduction that, if met, leads to some incentive in the annual salary review. Should the department experience zero injuries, the supervisor becomes a real hero. The question remains: was the injury reduction due to the supervisor’s diligence in safety compliance and enforcement, or was it just luck?

Supervisors should be held accountable for preventing and reducing injuries in their departments. They should also be held accountable for compliance with prescribed city safety programs. By requiring the supervisor to achieve specific projects or tasks that improve departmental safety, injury reduction should logically follow. Those specific safety items assigned as objectives should be in line with what the city is trying to achieve in safety performance.

As in all objectives, setting/planning targets should be attainable and realistic, but not so easily attained that they carry no meaning or significance. In addition, specific objectives should be adjusted to the supervisor’s ability; it would be of no value to assign tasks or projects to supervisors who lack training and knowledge needed to achieve those tasks. Objectives may have to be tailored to a department as well as to department supervisors.

The supervisor’s annual salary review is a perfect time to measure the past year's accomplishments. The review also serves as a golden opportunity to draft next year's objectives. All objectives, including safety, should be measurable; every attempt should be made to use quantitative measurements and minimize qualitative measurements and judgments. Specific safety program targets must be established by city management, and each item should carry an assigned value or weighting for the purpose of salary review. With specifically assigned annual objectives that carry numerical weightings, the supervisor will always have a clear understanding of responsibilities. Supervisors can be assured of achieving safety objectives (with the possible exception of accident totals) because safety program items are within their control.

City management must determine what is essential and necessary to the safety program, and what is assigned to each supervisor. For the sake of example, I have listed five specific safety program objectives for a typical supervisor’s salary review. A city can determine any specific objective for salary review. I recommend the following objectives be used for rating each supervisor:

1) Safety meetings and training

2) Department safety and health inspections

3) Accident investigations

4) Investigation and correction of incidents

5)Overall safety attitude of the supervisor

A city can require items other than those listed. The total number of program objectives can be increased or decreased depending on what is considered to be important. Now, let’s look at these safety objectives individually.

Education and communication are essential components of any safety program. Supervisors should be held accountable for conducting safety meetings in their departments. Some cities require monthly department meetings for all employees; other cities require weekly 10 to 15 minute tool box talks. Safety meetings, however, should be a required element in any safety program, and each supervisor should be held accountable for the completion of meetings and personal attendance at safety training.

Management must determine the desired frequency and duration of safety meetings between the supervisor and employees. The supervisor should know this in advance and plan the safety meeting schedule around it. Some form of documentation should follow each meeting. It is also important that a supervisor attends safety committee meetings concerning total city safety.

In addition to management determining meeting frequency and duration, the quality of safety meetings must also be part of the overall evaluation. It is essential that a supervisor attends scheduled safety training to improve or update personal safety skills. Recommendations for salary review considerations in this category are:

l Safety training for new employees assigned to the department

back to top

Coming Events

Confined Space Entry

MVCC

Confined Space Entry

Premier Safety

Hand Tool Safety

Disaster Planning and Recovery

Strategic Planning Retreat

8:30 am - 4:00 pm

Beavercreek Golf Club

Fall Protection

Vacant Buildings- Proper Care and Maintenance

PRIMA Annual Conference

Milwaukee, WI

MVRMA Quarterly Board Meeting

9:00 am

MVRMA Offices

back to top

OCMA Awards

From the Board Room...

At the March 21, 2005 Quarterly Board Meeting, the following actions were taken:

back to top