By OLIVIA BERGMEIER
Lead Reporter - Salina Post
The Saline County Commission met on Tuesday, June 25, where all five commissioners discussed a Pride Month proclamation, Right of Way Acquisition with Saline County Road and Bridge and its last action item — procuring insurance through a pool.
Board of County Commissioners:
District One — Monte Shadwick
District Two — Robert Vidricksen
District Three — Rodger Sparks
District Four — James Weese
District Five — Chairman Joe Hay Jr.
Raiden Gonzales, the Smoky Hills Equality Coalition secretary, presented the 2024 Pride Month Proclamation to commissioners and provided some details on the last few Pride events.
Once Gonzales finished his presentation, Chairman Hay excitedly stood up to hand him the proclamation, but Shadwick pushed the motion, which Weese seconded. The motion passed 5-0, and Saline County proclaimed June as Pride Month.
Justin Mader, the Saline County Engineer, then proposed a new Road and Bridge project that needed commissioner approval to claim the right of way to improve Simpson and Schippel roads.
The project totaled $12,000, and commissioners approved it unanimously.
A new way for Saline County insurance
As property, casualty, liability and cyber security insurance premiums continue to climb across the country, Saline County Commissioners searched for an alternative option since its regular Travelers Insurance jumped by almost $150,000.
During last week's commission meeting, Saline County Administrator Phil Smith-Hanes told commissioners that with the increasing premiums, he planned to bring possible insurance options to commissioners this week.
"They've gone up so significantly that I felt it would not be responsible not to look at other options," Smith-Hanes said during last week's meeting.
This week, Smith-Hanes presented that option to all five commissioners — the Kansas County Association Multiline Pool or KCAMP.
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KCAMP, established in 1991, now works with 79 Kansas counties, with Butler County accounting for the largest population in its membership.
Smith-Hanes described KCAMP as a "risk-management pool," which is how the county obtains workers' compensation insurance. Pool insurance is also popular among public entities, with 80% of school districts, counties and municipalities using this type of insurance for coverage.
"This is another one of those circumstances where Saline County is in a weird size position," Smith-Hanes said. "If we were three times smaller than we are, we would have done this 25 years ago. If we were three times larger than we are, then we would self-insure."
Saline County's limited size has allowed commissioners to continue procuring insurance through the commercial market, where most commercial insurance groups turn away from larger populations.
The new Travelers Insurance premium totaled $633,519, but switching to KCAMP would cost $597,715 for 2025, saving the county more than $40,000. Although it would save the county $40,000 next year, it is still more than $100,000 more than last year's insurance cost, which totaled $485,837.
"We depend on the staff, or at least I depend on the staff to bring us the best options that we can get," Hay said.
Smith-Hanes responded with, "And none of these options are good."
Once commissioners aired their concerns with the switch, Smith-Hanes requested that KCAMP Administrator and CEO David Luke present further information on the pool insurance model.
Vidricksen asked about the reliability of pool insurance and how Saline County's size would impact future membership prices.
Luke shared some advantages of switching to pool insurance membership, including increased rate stability and transparency, alongside an attractive $100,000 deductible per damaging event.
With traditional insurance, that deductible would be $250,000 per damaged structure with this year's rate increases.
"That's a hefty self-insurance program that you probably haven't intended yourself to get into," Luke said. "That's a significant change that's being thrust on you without being able to deliberate and decide if that's what you want to do."
Another aspect Luke touched on was that members of the insurance pool can deliberate and weigh in on rate and service changes regularly months before the renewal cycle. Luke said that when the organization had its largest rate increase, it had notified its members six months in advance.
Vidricksen shared additional concerns, prompting Smith-Hanes to ask Mark Skidmore, president of Iron Insurance Partners, to share his thoughts.
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"I think given everything we've seen here today, we should lean in," Skidmore said. "As a taxpayer, I really think you guys should go into KCAMP."
"We can stay with Travelers, but we don't know what that'll look like in a year."
Once Skidmore finished his thoughts and answered a few questions, Vidricksen said he changed his mind about the pool insurance idea.
"You're saying things that have calmed me somewhat," Vidricksen said. "Switched my mind 180 degrees all of a sudden — the fact that you're telling me what I need to hear and not what I want to hear."
Shadwick then moved for the commission to vote on the matter, which Weese seconded. Commissioners unanimously approved the new insurance model.
Informational Items
- Recommended Budget for 2025
- County Administrator Update
Commissioners also held two executive sessions where they took no action.
Tuesday, July 2 Agenda Items
- Road and Bridge Update
- Emergency Management Update
- ARPA - Ambulance RFA