If you are paying very close attention, you are aware that tomorrow night the City Council Finance and Budget committee will be meeting at City Hall at 7:00 PM.
On the committee's agenda is an interesting action item that caught the attention of the PRU Crew -- Approve Council Policy Statement No. 43 – Settlement Authority for Claims Made Against the City.
The background memo for the meeting includes --Staff feels strongly that settlement authority should be listed in a City Council Policy Statement. The day of this writing, I increased the
settlement offer for a general liability case. I increased the settlement based on the defense attorney’s recommendation. To limit staff’s authority to $20,000 by comparing it to the $20,000 purchasing limit is inappropriate because a settlement offer is not a purchase and the timing of a settlement conference does coincide with Committee/Council meetings. The factors that go into the offering of a settlement include the odds of prevailing should we go to trial and the cost of going to trial. These are both matters of judgment rather than absolute fact.
In other words, when it comes to making judgments about how much effort the City will undertake to fight any given claim, staff "feels strongly" that such judgment should not be left up to the elected officials.
But the City Council should take heart; they can review and comment on the Open Claims Report a whopping twice a year!
September 22, 2008
The Devil's in the Details!
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2 comments:
Of course the city staff doesn't want the elected officials checking out the settlements. It's how they cover up their incompetance! If you ask me, this entire town is run by cover up artists and incompetants! The politicians too!
agreed!
Time for a chgange.
Friel has a big enough mouth...
put him in there!
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