All right, good morning, everyone.

Uh, thank you for coming out.

It's a little after 10, it's 10 05.

We're gonna go ahead and call the public safety committee meeting for Tuesday, April 7th to order.

The first item of business's approval of the March 3rd, 2026 uh minutes.

Move to approve.

All right, all in favor is aye.

Any nays?

No, okay.

That one passes.

All right.

Um this next presentation is um actually quite an important one.

Um I never like to rush meetings for the sake of rushing meetings, so I do want to make sure we give this one the time it deserves.

Um, and so with that being said, we're gonna go over workers' compensation overview.

Uh, director Kristen Smith from Human Resources is here to give that.

Or she's not.

Kristen will provide the overview, but I want to do a quick introduction.

And I want to do an introduction to the workers' comp program overview that you're about to receive for two reasons.

One is the former HR director, and second, as the assistant city manager responsible for the oversight of the human resources department that administers the workers' compensation program.

I want to share that the city is part of the state's workers' compensation program that basically regulates the framework around medical care and wage replacement for employees that are injured on the job.

That open that program that we participate in has been around since 1913, and the city has been a participant in that program for decades.

Beyond compliance with state requirements, what you're going to hear in today's presentation are things that we do above and beyond what the law requires.

You're also going to hear that our goal is even just more fundamental, that employees go home safely at the end of a shift.

And so there's lots of efforts that go into that on related to on the job training that our first responders receive.

In addition to that, they also receive PPE and protection equipment.

And then, of course, the safety net of the state state regulated insurance in the event that they sustain a job-related injury or an occupational illness.

The duties of our first responders carry an inherent risk, and we recognize that.

They are the first to go into situations that would prevent that would uh expose them to injuries and illnesses that occur on the job.

And so again, beyond the state regulatory requirements, the city provides support for injury prevention.

We provide early detection, so there's screenings that are provided to our first responders, and then recovery.

Some of the examples that you're going to hear more about are the athletic trainers that are provided to first responders at no cost to those individuals.

You're also going to hear about our nurse case managers that help with complex workers' compensation claims, and then annual health screenings that we provide to our firefighters for early detection of occupational illnesses.

On average, the city receives over a thousand claims every year.

Vast majority of those claims are from our first responders.

And while I say those numbers, I want to say that behind each of those claims and each of those numbers, there's an employee, there's a worker, there's a work group, and there's a family that's impacted, and that perspective matters.

What you're gonna focus, what we're gonna focus on in today's presentation is really about the overall program in the administration.

The individual cases, while those situations matter to the individuals, to the employees, to the city, we are legally prohibited from talking about medical situations of our employees.

So today's presentation is really gonna look at the overall program administration and ways that we can strengthen this program in a consistent and fiscally sustainable manner for the benefit of our employees and the trust of our taxpayers.

So before I allow Kristen to come up, I do want to share that Kristen has been with us for all of six months in one day, and we're gonna lean into her newness to the organization and her public and private experience to really look at how we administer the program and opportunities for change.

So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Kristen to provide the overview.

Thank you.

Again, I'm Kristen Smith.

I am the HR director here at the city.

I'm here to provide a very high-level overview of workers' compensation, both as a framework outlined by the state as well as provisions that are in place for the city's specific program.

All right.

Alright, so the state actually sets the framework and outlines guidelines for workers' compensation for all employers across the state.

At very fundamental levels, workers' compensation is in place to ensure employees who are injured or become ill as a result of their work that they receive treatment, timely care, and in some situations, compensation for their situations.

The regulatory body for workers' compensation in the state is the Texas Department of Insurance.

They provide both the framework that we are required to follow.

They ensure compliance and they can also take enforcement action.

As a public entity, the city is required to participate in the state's workers' compensation program, like many other employers, again across the state.

I always like to use for reference because everybody typically understands how employer-provided health insurance works.

So, you know, you have an employer, employees pay premiums to that employer to participate in their benefit programs, the employer provides funding, and so it really is the shared pool of resources that helps to cover the cost of employee benefits.

Workers' compensation is not set up with that model.

Employees do not contribute to workers' compensation, it's fully funded, all of the mandates by the state are funded by the employer, which means that taxpayers pay for the cost of workers' compensation.

And again, the city is self-insured, and so all of the state mandates, anything that you know is added in addition to that, other aspects of our programs, they are all funded 100% by the employer.

And then just for reference, and I'll talk more about this, on average, the city has on an annual basis anywhere from roughly 1500 to 1700 claims, and these numbers represent the last year, but they're pretty representative of what our annual participation or claims activity looks like.

And our largest category is strains, followed by miscellaneous and falls and slips.

We obviously have police and fire who have you know very hazardous positions.

So it is not uncommon to see that fire and police and some of our other target departments are some of the highest utilizers of workers' compensation.