Published: May 12, 2008 03:00 pm            

Property damage collection on agenda

DUNCAN — The City of Duncan could get reimbursed for damages to city property.

During the next regular meeting of the Duncan City Council, members will discuss a proposal from CityWide Subrogation Inc. to collect on property damages on a contingency-fee basis on behalf of the City. The meeting will be at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday in the Duncan Council Chambers.

City Manager Clyde Shaw received a letter from the business, which had found 33 reports of possible damage to city property. The damages were reported on curbs, utility poles, stop signs, guard rails, fire hydrants, bridge posts, embankments, cable barriers, culverts, street lights and retaining walls.

Only one of the 33 damages reported has been paid for. The City received payment in October 2007. It was invoiced at $13,578.40.

If approved, the process will start after the City makes all daily accident reports prepared by the Duncan Police Department available to CityWide.

This step would be followed by having a licensed adjuster file a claim with the negligent parties’ insurance companies. The business will forward settlement checks to the City of Duncan and will bill the City for the 33 percent contingency fee.

In the letter to Shaw, four benefits of the proposal were outlined. Those include cost effectiveness, experience, taxpayer savings and implementation of the program is risk free.

This item was tabled during the April 8 meeting to allow CityWide Subrogation to review police reports for 2007. On a memo drawn up by Shaw, the recommendation was for approval by the City Council.

Other items:

n Main Street Duncan Project Manager Tammy Johnson will make a brief presentation to the council to discuss the budgetary needs and the financial situation of the organization.

This presentation will coincide with the preparation of the proposed budget for the City of Duncan.

n The current contract between the Duncan Public Utilities Authority and the Simmons Center Foundation expires Aug. 31, 2009. Authority members have been working for two years to develop a new agreement between the two entities.

In a memo by Shaw, several big changes in the agreement were mentioned.

One of the main changes will be the reduction in the amount of money the authority pays the foundation. This amount will be reduced to $75,000 to be effective Sept. 1, 2009, and reduced by $25,000 every five years.

Another change included was having the foundation pay a greater portion of the costs for its utilities. The foundation pays $10 per month for these services.

The agreement requires the foundation to increase its liability insurance to the statutory amount of $1,250,000 to meet any changes during the term of agreement. In a draft agreement, the authority was going to add the Simmons Center to its blanket insurance policy with foundation covering the costs to reduce costs to the foundation. But the foundation will be unable to obtain liability coverage unless the insurance carrier also has the building insurance. The Simmons Center’s current carrier agreed to reduce the premiums to reduce the operating costs.

The proposed agreement will also have an authority member serving on the board of directors for the foundation.

        

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