City Council - workshop

As a result of those discussions, we have developed the requirements that have been submitted in your packet. We feel these requirements are fair and reasonable and should alleviate some of the concerns that have come up regarding insurance coverage when renting a city facility, pavilion, or hosting a special event. Our goal is to provide appropriate, Protection for the city while keeping the process reasonable for rentals and special events John is here tonight with us this evening to go over the different risk categories and answer any questions you may have John Thank You Sherry Thank You counsel

So in working with Casey and Lori in the Parks Department over the last couple months, we've gone through several revisions of the documents in front of you tonight. I did bring another document I wanted to share that kind of explains how this conversation got started.

from the Missouri Department of Insurance website.

It's a sovereign immunity limit documentation to explain the difference between a claim per occurrence and out of all claims arising out of a single accident. In our world, we use, in the insurance world, we use the per occurrence in aggregate terminology Quite often but an aggregate or all claims are writing out of a single event The terminology got a little lost in translation. So our we've eliminated the the confusion around these sovereign immunity limits and the requirement that was previously 1 million per occurrence and I believe of three of or $4 million aggregate limit. And again, to make the same point we talked about last June, that's just not how insurance policies are structured. The Rotary Club, the Lions Club, it's very difficult for them to get a $1 million per occurrence and a $4 million aggregate policy. So on tier one insurance requirements in the document in front of you, minimal risk, no insurance required category. Those are rentals where it's one time citizens and group rentals for a barbecue get together where we feel there's no additional risk on the city or no additional care of duty in renting out that facility. The taxpayers pay for that facility. It's a private event, not open to the public. And in most cases, other municipalities do not require evidence of insurance for a simple pavilion rental in a park or similar. Tier two and higher categories kind of escalate based off of certain criteria that are less arbitrary than previously. They identify whether or not the event's open to the public, whether or not alcohol will be served, animals will be present, or hazardous events like fireworks and bounce houses will be on site. And if those more hazardous items are going to be included in that event, they go to the category four risk level where we're transferring the full 3.5 million in sovereign immunity For all claims arising out of a single event or occurrence. So you see the wording there highlighted in light gray. For all claims arising out of a single accident or occurrence. That means for if a bleachers were to fall down at the county fair or or some concert event were to have an equipment malfunction and say five or two 10 people were injured. They would be limited to $530,000 under the Missouri sovereign immunity caps. But all of the claims arising out of that incident could easily exceed the $1 million requirement that was previously the limit needed for the special events and facility rentals. So I don't believe there was any requirement above a million dollars per occurrence. I believe that kind of explains how we got over the last few months to this document. We gave guidelines and ran it through our risk management team at Daniel and Henry to make sure all the boxes were checked, that the whole harmless identification wordings, all those legal clauses and mechanisms in the application process were there to make sure that when we get that evidence of insurance that we know how claim should play out with the documentation we have on hand before the event and as always our goal as your insurance broker and risk management partner is to transfer or minimize and otherwise mitigate risk that the city faces on their facilities and in the day-to-day operations so I'll open it to questions

My first question was was back in January we changed it from one in three million to one in four.

I believe that's accurate. It was increasing it back in April to June.

It actually was last it was the latter part of last year when it was brought to our attention that our limits weren't high enough and so that's when we moved the one to three to one to four.

But what you're saying there, though, that the 1 to 4 was never necessary or was never the right way to go about it?

It was not the right structure. There was a disconnect in communication at some point in the chain about the higher sovereign immunity limit for all claims arising out of a single accident or occurrence. So we recommended, I believe, and again, I don't have any documentation of this going back in 2025 and before that. But the aggregate limit that's present on a general liability insurance policy is usually $2 million. And the wording for aggregate, the definition of an aggregate in that policy is all claims arising out of a single policy year. So you're right, there was a disconnect in what we were asking citizens and organizations and the appropriate structure we should have had in place. Look, I don't believe there were any claims that arose during that time.

No, there was no claims, but we, correct me if I'm wrong, Lori or Chad, but we required the one in four, and therefore the Lions Club, it was like... their premium went up exponentially. So therefore they came back and then we come up with this and the four was never really necessary is how I'm understanding it, right? But now we also have the umbrella on top of this moderate and high risk categories. So is that a different way of saying that we have more coverage? I'm not an insurance guy, so I'm just asking the bare-bottom questions here to know that. Yes, yes.

With this new policy, we will have up to $4 million, or the only limit in excess of the $3.5 million sovereign immunity cap. So all of the risk that would be faced by the city of Washington in an event like the Town and Country Fair or Oxfest or another large festival where we'd be on the hook for no more than $3.5 That full limit is now transferred to the event host in those cases where we have a higher care of duty to verify a liquor license and make sure security and parking are arranged and maybe there are vehicles on site like golf carts and UTVs, ATVs that are utilized for facility management. And those are the cases, the very, very few cases in which the full $3 million umbrella, $1 million general liability limit plus the $3 million umbrella would be required. And it's my professional understanding that special event policies for festivals like this are really available. There is a higher premium for a $4 million limit, of course. I believe that coverage is available in the market for events like this, like those hosted here in the city.

Do we know that were they able to get the insurance they needed? Because I know they were concerned that there wasn't going to be that company that was going to insure it for a one day event.

I'm waiting on Rick to get back to me. He's traveling back from being out of town and he was going to talk to me tomorrow.

Okay. I just, in the conversation I heard, my biggest fear is we get to, you know, the end of the line here and they're saying, uh-oh, we can't get insurance.

So, Councilman, it's my understanding in working with Sherry and Lori that we're working towards grandfathering or some otherwise exception for this event because it was already permitted and planned well before these changes came into place. So we're not trying to draw a hard and fast line, but again, to adopt the best practices for the city.

Correct. So we've asked for them to quote two policies, one with the one and three and then one with the two and four.

Two and four, yeah. So we were asking them to double the per claim or incident coverage limit from one million to two million this year. to more appropriately transfer the majority of the risk the city would face at that event. And if these recommendations are adopted by the city and the council, I believe they would start for any events permitted or planned after that date of approval.

And to Tim's point, we have in here that they need to have proof of insurance to the Parks Office three weeks before. It surely wouldn't be right for us tonight to implement this and in 10 days require Oxnest to have this. But we're talking about one of them.

We won't.

Right, so that's kind of where we're at there. This and all these, categories, I guess, in my opinion, kind of what Tim's saying, can we even get this coverage? We rely on Rick Hopp, who Rick does a lot of the policies for local, but I think we need to find a couple different companies and back into the fact that can they insure this for a one day and what that number is? If I want to rent the auditorium, what are my requirements? And then what's that insurance cost? If it's $1,000 or $2,000, then I know that. If it's $15,000 or $20,000, then we're never going to rent the pavilion.

We're never going to rent the auditorium. And that's that's a part of my concern is are you deterring people from wanting to take that nice stage that we just built and make it impossible for you to to be able to put on that because you know, obviously at those things where you can make your money, you can make your money on the concessions and alcohol sales and all the things besides the ticket. So yes, those are all things that are going to be used at most events that are used there, especially if, let's say, a production company comes to you and sees it. They're going to get excited about it, and then they're not going to be able to, it's going to be cost-prohibitive to be able to do it.

Sure. One thing that underwriters look for is some type of contractual requirement to carry that limit. So they're not going to offer, say, $4 million if the city of Washington doesn't contractually require you to have the $3.5 million. So it's a bit of a cart and horse situation. When our contracting clients, same thing. If they need a $10 million umbrella for one project, You know, their carrier usually, if they've been, had a long relationship, can make an exception or can offer that. Special event policies are different. They are one day events, you know, or schedule of events like perhaps in the Chamber of Commerce's situation. And, you know, those folks that do have more events do get, you know, economies of scale in a master policy program. I know that was brought up, you know, last year. You know, we could work on vetting a source, a special event policy to be a preferred stop for the city of Washington. It would not be an overnight thing. It would be probably a six-month or greater. But in this exercise, Lori and Casey and Sherry and I, we basically have all the information we need. We know how many people are gonna be at what event. We know what events have alcohol. We know all of that stuff. And so I can do a little more research now that I'm better educated. On that front, I think it's more realistic, the scale of events now that's in front of me. You're right, for a $5 million policy for an event like Oxfest where you might have 5,000 people attend, I'm not yet sure. But that's going to run about 5,000 for the first million and up to 2,500 per million thereafter. So again, if the event has bounce houses or the liquor sales from that event are traditionally maybe higher than the gate receipts or other revenues, that's kind of how it's all underwritten in the special events world. And so now that we have that information, if you'd like us to undergo that exercise, we'd be happy to do it as your partner in insurance and risk management.

I'd say we wait until we find out what Rick says. He's got a source for it.

So are you familiar with an insurance company that would write a policy with these numbers that could give us a couple of examples along with Rick? I guess that would be our, my opinion to back into, is this even feasible for us?

K&K is like the industry leader in special event policy. They insure race cars, they insure concerts, music venues. American Specialty is an underwriter for movie productions, concerts, music production artists. So, yeah, Daniel Henry certainly has a stable of special event underwriters that we would go to and could help on a complimentary basis, again, as the city's partner, to help any of these special event sponsors, those Chamber of Commerce, the gentleman who organizes OxFest, which I have not attended, but I hear great things.

I think it'd be great only simply because most of the people that are from these groups aren't insurance guys either, and they're not professionals at putting on concerts. They just want to make some money for a good cause.

Yeah, they're trying to have a fundraiser.

So having that in our back pocket, I think, would be nice to be able to have some ammunition to say, go here, here, and here.

And does it matter if it's a non-for-profit as opposed to profit in that world or is it insurance required no matter what?

We would put together basically an application on behalf of the city for a city sponsored event program where the city's not been named insured but offers it as a third party sponsored basis. And then we would look at these larger events with a five or six that are gonna be maybe in the level four category. And take that information and be able to offer some general pricing and bring that information back. And so compare it to what their current costs are.

And I think it also goes with, you know, the chamber takes care of their own with the fair and other events. They have a year long. Sure. In downtown Washington, three, four events that they have and spread that cost out over all three events, four events, whatever it may be. But maybe it's worth having. They might want that information also to know another option.

Well, and to know that these events are being vetted by the city and the Parks Department and permitted and going through a certain process every time, that that's a certain box check that underwriters like to see, a certain process followed every time and all possible risk management efforts in place.

Any other questions or comments?

I just think the other thing to think about, looking at what you handed us here since 22, we've been north of $3 million. Right. and it's going up about 3% every year. So to put something in black and white that says this is where we're gonna be, we might need to have something that's tied to a CPI or whatever this comes out at next year. At some point, it's gonna jump the $4 million mark and we'll be back and looking into what's our risk.

So, yeah.

So is this something that council would like to table and then bring back later?

I'd be in favor of tabling right now to understand it a little bit.

You added information, and then before we adopt this, it'd be worth more information.

I mean, we're really, you're looking at OxFest, which is already right on the horizon, and beyond that, what else would fall into this?

Sure, I would hate to give any.

Festival downtown. Yeah. We've got friends of Aaron. All of it's so close that I have a hard time saying, here it is, bring me your insurance certificate tomorrow, so.

And I believe a couple of the other larger organizations already met this requirement as well with a three-year, $4 million umbrella in place. So I think there were down to two or three organizations that were not already Compliance and so I I'd love to explore the master plan if the city would like us to do that I would hate to hold up the implementation of the Least part of this, you know the even the tier one eases the requirements for the vast majority of citizens and organizations, so approving it does provide a lot of immediate administrative clarity for the board, at least, again, on tier ones and two. And you could suggest a date to be implemented by the first of the year or any date in the future. Main focus was to your point a councilman Pat key Getting the aggregate terminology and the per occurrence sovereign immunity limits aligned. So I think we're all the line now So whatever decisions we make and and we're completely flexible again There's no insurance requirements from our carrier partners that we implement these. These are just best practices and and The work product of the parks department myself sitting down on at least a

two occasions a person and a couple uh conference calls so well i want to speak for the rest of the count just let me get this clear i think we're good with the category breakdown here Right. So as a document going forward, I think we're in favor of that. It's just a matter of tabling it until we get. I don't want to approve it tonight. Sure.

I'm just trying to meet meet the needs or goals of the folks I've worked with on the administrative side.

So I'd like to understand that an Oxfester Alliance club would be able to get what we're requiring.

I think we'll.

Is there someone out there that will insure it? Because right now what I'm hearing is they're not finding anybody yet. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, and I'm sure you can find it. But without knowing that, I have a hard time saying, yeah, let's put this in place just to come back and change it.

OK, so moving forward, we'll.

sure we'll meet again and then we'll table it and then come back and tabling it means that brew fest is required i mean uh oxfest required to one and three like they had before and the brew fest also that's what they were before was one and three we're just going to leave everything else that's going to stay the same as is and then when we implement then we have to look at what is pending i guess right casey as But so I guess I'm just and that's what I'm saying is is that when we know who's going to book it for next year already that are we going to tell Casey to hold off on insurance or on cost?

Could offer another suggestion that might you might approve the change in policy to adopt a 1 million per occurrence 2 million aggregate limit for for all private events immediately and For the private events, even requiring a $2 million, you don't have to. You can still just do the one, two, or one, three. There's not a lot of benefit to the three million aggregate because you'd have to have three claims or multiple claims in the single event for that aggregate to have an impact. Because it's a calendar year aggregate or policy year term aggregate. So, again, amending it to $1 million per occurrence, $2 million aggregate limit immediately eases the burden and puts the requirements in line with how policies are written on a daily basis. And then you could optionally also require an additional $1 million umbrella for these other limits. And it's kind of the Solomon's Baby solution. And you could do that on a calendar basis. date basis so that no new events with the higher hazard criteria kind of slip through. Even going from one million per occurrence to the one million occurrence And the $1 million umbrella would be a kind of step towards where we're heading. And again, to Casey's point, would address the calendar year application concern. So it's just an option. And we just, we would change this document to tier four, two through four, where it's, you know, the insurance requirements are higher. Or we could table it, maybe I'm complicating things.

I'll make a motion to table.

Second.

Motion by Behr, second by Briggs to table the category one through four table for future information, is that right? All those in favor. Any opposed. Thank you for being here. John for that. Thank you. Thank you.

We're in just to clarify. We're going to stay with one in 3 correct.

We're going to stay the way we are right. Council. That's what I was just going to want to but one in 3 we've been working with and we're there and we can do that.

what those folks can obtain and if it's obtainable so we can understand this a little better.

I would say it's already booked for this year. Don't book anything past that.

Not for this year. I'm saying next year.

That's what I mean. I'm just saying you already have it established for this year. Next year is going to be subject to the changes that we make after the information comes in. Sure, I'm with you.

I agree.

And I'm assuming they know that and they're already shopping to see what they can get and how it's going to affect. I think everybody knows that, but I just want to make sure everybody's clear what we... I'm thinking I would hope that we have talked with the organizations and they understand that, you know, we have risk here and we've got to look at what we can do to mitigate the risk. So if we haven't, we need to.

It has been relayed to some of the organizations, Casey. Correct me if I'm wrong. We would keep it this way this year, but then going forward, it's going to be the new limits.

So then I completely agree with that. Thank you. Thanks, Chair. Thanks, Chair.

Casey? Casey?

Casey and John again and Lori, thank you for all your hard work. Appreciate it.

Yeah. And thank you. Continuing it to you. Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you. Building Department drywall inspections, new residential construction and commercial projects.

Even. Oh. city administrator sorry. I just want to bring to your attention we're going to start doing drywall inspections. Something that we've done a few of in the past. Most larger commercial. 3, 4 story buildings. We've got rated corridors and stuff but the plan now is to move that to all the residential got pretty big townhome developments. Coming in where we've got fire separations between all the units We feel that that's important that we get in there and make sure those drywall inspections are done Those kind of compartmentalizes things Basically from the foundation all the way to the roof deck We get to see some of that But right now what we're doing is the rough-in framing electric and plumbing inspections, and then we don't see the buildings again until they're finaled out. So this gives us another chance to go in and make sure they're putting the right drywall in the right places in all the right manners to compartmentalize those firewalls. So really I'm just here to bring you up to speed to get questions from you. Any of the builders around town or anything? You know, we've got a bunch of big developments getting ready to get started So kind of felt like now is the time to do it we anticipate Maybe it's going to average about one inspection per day over the course of a year Something like that, you know, it's just kind of over anticipating so it's going to be a little bit of additional burden But it's not going to be terrible for us to to make that happen. So

But Blake, you already have the requirements already in place in the building code. This is just an opportunity to inspect for additional time. That's correct. That they're doing it right.

Yeah. And they're doing these drywall inspections in the county, in the city union. I believe in the city of Pacific, they're already doing these drywall inspections. So it's not going to be anything new for any of the builders that I know of. I've talked to a couple of them already. They anticipated that we were doing them and we're not. So it's not going to be a surprise. So it shouldn't be too big of a deal, I don't think.

You're going to communicate this to the contractors, I guess absolutely yeah, yeah.

We don't have a hard fast date on this we're going to just slowly slowly pushes out to all the new developments are going to be doing it the developments. We're going to talk to them say any new construction, you're required to do it. Anything that's under construction currently uh maybe they do and maybe they don't maybe it's kind of a warm-up they're going to try to remember to call them in but we're going to we're obviously going to miss them we're not going to see them all so the idea is to do the best job that we can do to try to help them and help the customer get a better product hopefully so

You do things you do it for the hang the drywall or after after the hang the dry.

We want to see that there's 5, 8, drywall where they're supposed to be 5, 8, half inch.

Green board in the wet rooms in the bathroom and stuff that's what we're looking for because you do the blocking inspection with the plumbing and look around.

Any other questions for Blake? Thank you. I will ask you one question. This is kind of to Kevin and you both, but I had a conversation with a couple of our city employees last week, and they were going to a particular business to clean out their grease trap in our sewer again. And I'm only going by employees' words. We've gone there. What do they get charged? Do we have something in place where if someone's not complying with our grease trap or sewer, is that something through building codes for Blake or does Kevin take care of that? I take care of out of my department.

And yes, we can charge them. It's just been because Washington's always been such a friendly community, we've avoided charging it. However, they will be receiving the bill for the two days of labor. the two trucks that were there, the back truck that was there, and anything else that happened to come up with it, yes.

Good. Like I said, I don't get told this all day.

And it's moving forward from here at this point on. Anybody that causes a problem like that will get charged labor charges from Washington.

Okay. Sorry, Blake. I thought maybe it went through building. Well, we do work together on that.

Okay. All right. Thank you. That's in process right now. Perfect. Thank you.

engineering department high street project supplemental agreement number two

Good evening, Council. This is just cleaning up our contract with HDR, who's doing our construction inspection for the High Street project. They just had a completion date of December 31st, 2025. Obviously, we're already past that date. So we're moving it out 60 days past the completion of the construction, which is February 13th, 2027. We just got to make sure it's in place so that it doesn't mess up our reimbursements since it's tied to the grant.

You said December 31st is contract end or supposed to be completed?

For this, for the construction inspection was December 31st of 25. They just had like the wrong date in there. We just had it from previous when we started all this grant back in 21, you know. But the actual completion of construction is December 15th of this year.

You think you're going to make that?

They're pretty confident, so we'll see how that goes. Thank you.

Yeah. We'll make a motion, send it on.

second motion by bear second by briggs to send uh item 3c on to council all those in favor aye any opposed by your vote we move to council thank you fire department fire station one mowing bid

Good evening, council and admin. Fire station one opened before the contract was, or after the contract was let, so the grass cutting bid for the new firehouse is not included in the contract. This is a request to extend that at $100 per cutting. Please.

You guys are tired of doing it in the heat.

I don't know what, yeah. We got the hoses picked up finally. We've got the lawn established as far as we're gonna be able to get it.

Right.

That's why we were holding off was because of all, we didn't wanna buy garden hoses.

Any questions for Chief or Mowing at the new fire station?

Make motion.

Second. Motion by Holtmeyer, second by Heydrich to send to council. All those in favor? Aye. The opposed? By your vote, we move to council, thank you.

Inflatable boat motor and trailer purchase?

Yes, during the flooding in Lesterville, we sent our inflatable boat down there, and it did very well, made a number of rescues while it was down there. Unfortunately, eight of eight boats that went down there were significantly damaged, including ours. In the meantime, I spoke with State Emergency Management, said, hey, we got a problem. We ate all these boats up. What are we doing when we have the next rain? And at that time, Missouri State Patrol had a boat that was preparing to go to surplus, and it was loaned to us. In further discussions, that boat was offered to us at $3,000. Started doing some research and found out that the motor alone is worth about $2,700. The trailer's about $1,500. Started doing the math. We're getting it for somewhere between 33% and 50% of cost. So I'd like to make the recommendation to purchase the boat. What we find in these water events, typically what we have is multiple events simultaneously. It's not just one creek flooding at one time. It's all the creeks flooding at once. And so having additional resource would be valuable. The one that was damaged is in North Carolina currently being repaired and hopefully sent home before too terribly long.

One of those will have both boats on one trailer.

Two separate trailers, two separate houses. Available. Tow vehicles for both. Make a motion.

Second. Motion by Pepsil, second by Hydrage to send the inflatable boat purchase on to council. Any other discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? By your vote, we move to council. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other department heads?

I just want to let you all know that the Titus Twister odor removal equipment that you all approved us to purchase came in early. It is installed. We got it installed on Friday. It has been running since Friday. Starting up, I went there on Saturday. You can still smell some odor. Sunday, a little bit. I did a little adjustments on the machine, and by Monday, I couldn't smell the odor. So, Mike, how's it doing for you? I have to ask you because you live down here.

I haven't been home much this weekend, but I'm assuming it's okay.

Okay, so it's okay. Today I was down and it smelled good so it is it is it is working doing what it had the demo had done so someone let you all know it's in and and working so we put it inside the building you can't even hear it hear it run so there'll be no noise down there and and it'll do its job so okay good fix thank you thank you kevin anyone else

I have a question, either Charles or Aaron, maybe Charles, since Blake left. This is a touchy subject here, but I'd just like, I've had a few people ask me about this. The alley is having some events that some people feel less appropriate than others. Do we have a system in place where they're not having so-called adult events where the kids are at in the arcade? Are you familiar with what I'm asking?

I just heard about some of this this morning, but didn't really.

Yeah, I mean, I can look into that. I don't have a good answer for you right now, but I'm more than happy to look into the specifics.

I mean, obviously some people feel at a different level of, you know, complaining, but I guess from a city standpoint, do we have something in place that would be good to know?

Sure. Yeah. I'm more than happy to provide you a report on breaking rules or adult entertainment rules.

The events are fine, but it's that the kids are there. Well,

I mean, personally, for me, yeah, I think the events are inappropriate. There's no doubt about that. But I guess my question to you is, is there anything in our city ordinance or anything like that that prohibits them from having that? And I guess my biggest fear goes back to the fact that we're promoting this business as an arcade, and then we're going to have certain adult events there. Seems completely inappropriate. So someone did tell me that they were downstairs. They renovated the basement for that. So is there something else? I don't know. It's just kind of eye-opening. It's something that we have on our main street, and I'd like to know what's allowed and what's in our city ordinance.

Sure. I'll get back to you with an email regarding our adult entertainment rules and how that applies there. Thank you.

Aaron, can you send everybody one on that? Include everybody on that? Absolutely. Yes. Thank you.

Any other questions for department heads? All right. Seeing none, Sherry will go to executive session.

Executive session public vote on whether or not to hold a closed meeting to discuss personnel legal or real estate matters Pursuant to section six one zero point zero two one RSMO 2000 Yes, yes Thank you folks, we'll see you back at 7 o'clock