It is 701 p.m.

on Thursday, March 19th.

And I'll call this session of budget hearings for the 26-27 budget season.

Open.

And present with us tonight, members of the fiscal committee.

Myself, co-chair Eric Morrison from District 13.

Co-Chair Andrew Zachary from District 14.

Representative Virgil Delacruz from District 2.

Representative Kira Dorsey from District 5.

And Representative Emil Goldberg from District 13.

Also with us is Representative Terry Adams from District 3.

Our first guest tonight is Craig Baker from Boys and Girls Club.

Take it away, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Does it make sense for me to present slides, or is it better just to uh give you some background on what we're doing and uh what are asked?

Whatever whatever you see fit.

If you have slides to share with us, please feel free.

Okay, I'll do that.

Hang tight for one second, okay.

Uh good evening, and thanks everybody for the opportunity to uh present.

I'm Craig Baker, the CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Stanford.

Uh before I begin, I do want to acknowledge uh that recently we had to make a facilities pivot uh at Yearwood and temporarily locate to Clunen Middle School due to some environmental issues in the building.

Uh want to let uh everybody know that we've had no lapse in programming.

Uh we continue to deliver fully on our mission, and uh we hope to be back in Yearwood as soon as possible.

Um prior to the facilities issue, uh, the core challenge we were uh trying to solve um was the increased demand for our services, uh specifically um trying to solve how we uh serve the hundred or so young people that were on our uh waiting list.

So I'll keep this real simple tonight.

Um just we'll remind people who we are, the challenge we're hoping to solve, uh, and the specific purpose of this year's uh request.

Uh as many of you know, the Boys and Girls Club of Stanford aims to provide safe structured and high impact after school and summer programming for young people across the city of Stanford.

Uh, we operate two main community center locations.

Uh we have our public school buses bringing youth directly to us each day.

So during the school year, um the demand for our services uh exceeds about 550 young people, youth uh uh 550 young people daily.

Um our role is pretty straightforward.

Uh, we hope to give young people a safe place to go, strong adult mentorship, and access to programming that will help them grow.

Uh, we serve young people and families with significant need.

Uh about 3,000 youth come through our door annually.

The vast majority of those we serve are for from lower income households.

Uh, for many families, uh, this is the difference between a child being a safe and productive environment or not.

The major issues driving our request uh tonight and uh annually uh is not uh a change in mission.

It's just in demand for our services.

Um before this uh yearwood's uh facilities pivot, as I mentioned, our main challenge was already clear.

How do we create more capacity and serve more kids uh in the most fiscally responsible way?

Uh so um, you know, I'm here because we have uh more demand than seats, and we need a practical way to serve young people who are already seeking us out.

We believe that we're well positioned to solve um you know a community need, a city of Stanford need because we have staff, uh the youth development uh model that's successful, the community trust and the daily operating experience to do what we do well.

Um just uh a reminder of what we offer, our programming spans academics, leadership, uh, athletics and well-being, uh, mental health and workforce development.

So the question we've been working on is simple is how do we create even more access for the young people who are on our waiting list?

And how do we do that in partnership with the city uh and providing um what we consider to be a uh a core community service?

Uh so in a nutshell, I think what you'll see is that I'll start here.

Uh, we have two partnerships with the city of Stanford.

Uh one is to provide a community night program for uh uh more disengaged and disconnected uh teenagers.

Uh so we open our uh our facilities uh in the evening, uh late into the night uh to up to 11 p.m.

Uh and then we also do a community swim program because as I'm sure you know, uh as far as I know, the two public uh pools, the two pools in the city of Stanford are uh Yearwood and then not uh all the way up until North Stanford and Hebrew Park.

Uh so the city has funded us to um uh do open swim and swimming lessons uh for people um, particularly in the West Side community, but but anyone in the city of Stanford.

Uh so our ask there is uh flat uh from previous years, just so that we can uh continue to provide both those services.

Uh we're we're where you will see an increase ask this year uh is um across our two uh main clubhouses, we'll call them.

Uh and the reason uh we're doing that is um we're requesting an additional hundred thousand dollars, uh which is fifty thousand dollars per line item here.

Um and it's really to solve that that hundred-plus uh young person waiting list.

Um we've looked uh and consulted with other partners in the city.

Um we have had conversations with um Stanford Police Department and Chief Shaw.

And uh given uh their operation of the PAL Center in Southwood Square, uh, we believe that uh a partnership would allow us to uh leverage an already existing building uh and in uh in a fiscally responsible way, partner with the uh PAL Center and the police uh to serve uh close to 100 young people uh from 230 to 6.30 Monday through Friday.

So although the uh the ask is uh $50,000 across both those line items, uh the desire is to uh uh do this this partnership at a third site uh with uh PAL.

Uh so that's that's our ask in a nutshell.

Uh we appreciate uh the mayor's office, uh Stanford Public Schools for uh being uh very uh helpful and responsive during this uh uh facilities issue uh and getting us in in uh Clunin, as I said, uh and appreciate the the support of those folks going forward.

Um so I think that's that's what our ask is in a nutshell and happy to uh answer more specific questions from anybody.

Anyone from the fiscal committee or the board have any questions?

And I'll note that we are joined by committee member representative Graham from District Three.

Yeah, the hand from Representative Delacruz.

You have the floor, sir.

Uh thank you, Chair Morrison.

Uh Craig, uh, how long do you expect to be uh the school?

Well, um, you know, in working closely with uh with Bridget and the mayor's office.

There's an abatement process that's gonna uh conclude uh, let's say early April.

Uh but the city has also um uh offered and and which we appreciate uh to do some other uh construction within the within the year Yearwood facility that's gonna just gonna provide a better experience for the kids and the young people we serve.

For example, um we have uh uh I always get the acronym wrong, but I'll give it a shot, the CDBG money to replace the gym floor.

Uh and uh we're gonna have an elevator uh put into the building to make sure that it's uh um you know uh ADA accessible.

Uh so um, you know, Virgil, I I've I've really stayed away from, or at least with the families we serve, a concrete timeline because I think we're working together with the city to make sure that it's the best experience when people come back.

Uh so right now, um I am planning um with with the mayor's office and the school district uh to potentially run summer camp uh off site uh so that we can do this right and get uh kids and families back at Yearwood when uh when everything's uh improved and ready to go.

All right, the right way to go.

Uh the status of the equipment that was being rented for the swimming.

Is that still in place or has that been dealt with?

It's been dealt with um due to the city's commitment to uh replacing uh a variety of uh HVAC uh apparatus.

Uh we no longer need the uh the external units uh that we've had for some years.

I see.

Oh okay.

So you're not paying rent for that anymore or somebody.

Correct.

Nobody.

Okay.

Thank you, Craig.

Uh thank you for that.

And I yield, Chair Morrison.

Thank you, Representative.

Any other questions or comments?

Virgil, your hand went up again.

Oh boy.

I got it.

units uh that we've had for some years i see oh okay so you're not paying rent for that anymore or somebody correct nobody okay thank you craig uh thank you for that uh i yield chair morph thank you representative any other questions or comments virgil your hand went up again oh boy i got it is it uh yes sir okay uh bridget uh if you want to do you want to weigh in on this at all from the administration side sure just that we are hugely supportive of this increase in the budget request from boys and girls club we believe strongly that the work that they plan to do at the PAL center will just greatly enhance the after school programming opportunities available to kids I will and families I'll also note um that with the closing of the why there has been a shift in after school programming and truly the boys and girls club has the lion share of kids in the afternoon so any support that the city can continue to provide um we are here to do it and we believe strongly that the programming that would take place at the PAL center which has been I know that Craig mentioned but the police chief is fully supportive of this will just greatly enhance opportunities for families on the West side so that's our our plea to the boards this year is to do whatever we can to expand programming thank you Bridget uh Craig would you mind just go over the the 5000 increase specifically again a little more detail what exactly you it's going to be used for and how sure uh um okay so um with this uh hundred person waiting list and by the way just to give people a little bit of context um every time we try to solve for the waiting list it continues to grow I mean as an organization you know we don't do like any advertising or any you know you won't drive by our building and say and see you know hey come join us so this is real uh community need um so uh the idea is this we think um based on uh some uh uh budgeting analysis that it's gonna cost us about 200 000 annually to run uh a program out of pal uh and that is specifically a program leader to make sure that I have a uh youth development trained uh staff leader uh on site um you know implementing our boys and girls club programming and then it's part-time staff um which is uh the ratio uh that we're required to operate under is uh one adult per 20 young people uh so uh we think it's about 200 000 a year uh we're committed to go out and raising half of that and uh we're hoping that the city will uh support the other half okay i like that additional detail okay any other questions from the committee co chair zakary uh yes uh thank you chair morrison so uh craig the one question was how successful have you been at raising funds or uh do you have a development officer do you have a development department a group how successfully raising funds from outside sources yes i appreciate the question yeah so we're um all in we're about a six million dollar budget um i uh have a director of development uh who runs a development staff of three uh other staff members uh it's our it's it's also um a high percentage of uh my role as CEO for the organization um but uh we believe uh deeply uh in the idea that as a nonprofit organization that uh we uh should be raising a significant amount of uh private dollars which we do um about uh almost two-thirds of our budget uh come from uh essentially uh family found foundations corporate support or private fundraising uh individuals uh so uh we're doing well in that regard uh we're confident that um if we can provide a solution for the young people on the waiting list uh that we have uh donors who uh have already uh signaled that they would be um very interested in in uh helping solve this problem for our organization and the community thank you very much appreciate it thank you and uh do you have your is your latest 990 somewhere online yeah it's online uh um at bgca stanford dot org also happy to send uh send along a file uh to this group if it's helpful yeah i would like to see that if you would thank you sure okay thank you coach zakrian thank you okay yeah seeing no other hands uh okay craig thank you very much for your presentation tonight thank you a copy of it is already uh with the board office uh it was sent along yes very good okay so it'll be posted in the linked uh representative adams you have your hand up yeah i guess my question to um is how much saving would would you be um looking at uh by not using the outdoor unit yeah to rent a unit that you had on outside what was that cost in your remote sure uh representative adams i'm doing this a bit from memory so i can certainly follow up with the exact uh with the exact uh numbers but i think we were renting uh for uh somewhere around excuse me was it 10,000 a month or something or no no it wasn't 10,000 a

Um the rental unit that you had on outside.

What was that cost in your promotion?

Sure, uh representative Adams.

I'm doing this a bit from memory, so I can certainly follow up with the exact uh with the exact uh numbers, but I think we were renting uh for uh somewhere around was it 10,000 a month or something?

No.

No, it wasn't 10,000 a month.

Um it may have been fifteen thousand dollars all in, but uh yeah, I'd probably be more comfortable.

I I can give you the exact amount and and send that along.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

I would like to see the savings because it it'd been it for a while.

Correct.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

And it's it's been a significant step forward, I think, for both us and the city to not have to to fund this this uh monthly rental, yes.

Okay, thank you.

Uh I look forward to the information.

Okay, got it.

Thank you, Terry.

Okay, Craig, thank you very much.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you all.

Appreciate it.

Sure.

And for everybody's reference, uh, this is page 350 in the operating budget book.

Uh, and our next two are also on page 350.

Uh so we have uh Monica Masera.

Did I pronounce it right?

Hi, Monica Machera.

But sorry about that.

Monica Bachera is here.

Childhood learning center.

Good evening, everyone.

Thank you for um having me today.

I will also share my screen if you don't mind.

Sure.

Give me one second.

Um everyone see that?

Yep.

Awesome.

Well, thank you, everyone.

Um, again, I'm Monica Machera.

I'm the CEO of Children's Learning Centers of Fairfield County, CLC.

And um we are here, I'm here today asking for support from the city of Stanford for um the amount of 206,000 for FY27.

And that's primarily to provide essential wraparound services for all of CLC's children.

Um, so CLC serves um more than 800 children each year, with 97% of those families living in Stanford.

Basically, one about one-third of every Stanford Public School's kindergarten class is a CLC graduate.

Um, and we have federal funding through Head Start for some of our children, and that provides um programming like the Head Start programming that includes nutrition, health families, family services, case um case management for families, and that is not um funding that's publicly available for all of our children in the state funded programs.

So we're really seeking to um ask for funding to support us providing that level of support to all children where it integrates um education with nutrition, health, and family support to just to fully meet the needs of children and families.

Just a little bit, just I know some of you are familiar, but a little just reminder of where we are.

So CLC is located in six locations across the city.

Um we have you know, accessible neighborhood-based programs, including at Palmer's Hill.

Our largest site is at Hillendale Avenue um next to Stanford High School, where we serve 323 children.

Um we also have our head start and early head start programs.

Um our children are prime 80% of our children come from low-income families with 50% uh or a little bit more than 50% of our families living at or below the federal poverty level.

So our families face food insecurity, housing instability, and limited health care access.

And that is certainly needs that have increased this year with some of the changes in our um federal funding landscape to support to support families.

And really our um support for families really means that our our families are entering Stanford Public Schools.

Really um, you know, we've provide early intervention services in partnership with the school district.

Our curriculum is aligned to the school district.

We partner very closely with Stanford Public Schools and um with other nonprofits, with our goal being that the children and their families are entering the Stanford Public School system, essentially ready and prepared both to learn, but also having been connected to community resources, having um identified or um special learning needs, having received intervention services early.

And we are able to do this because of the comprehensive supports.

It includes um, like I said, family service workers, case management, nursing support, nutrition support, and we are asking for the city's um the city funding to support to support those things.

I think so.

Basically, I guess the slide probably says it all, right?

Um our request for city funding would be ensure that we can sustain for all of CLC's kids nutrition.

So breakfast, lunch, and snack every day.

We are the largest provider of free meals to children under five in the state.

Um family support.

So we have case workers who connect families to housing support, food, mental health resources, um, and then health services.

We are we ensure that families have um, you know, they're connected to a primary care provider, that children are meeting vaccination requirements, that they are receiving screenings and early intervention for both health and academic services.

Um and these these services are not fully funded across all programs.

So then we need to, we it's about a $1 million gap between what we receive for our Head Start children and what we receive for our state-funded children annually.

And we are able to raise money through philanthropy for much of that, and we're asking the city to help us close this gap to ensure that all of um Stanford's kids are receiving this consistent and high-quality whole um, you know, whole family and whole child support.

So um I'm happy to answer any questions.

I'm also I'm gonna stop sharing so I can see you all.

That is the um crux of our our request this year.

Okay, any questions?

Any questions, Monica?

Can you uh I know it might be off for just a moment.

Would you would you mind telling us a little bit about what's coming up with the expansion on Palmer's Hill?

Sure, absolutely.

Um, and thank you for asking because the the you know the city actually played a pretty significant role in this.

So, as you know, the um building that we our head start facility currently occupies on Maple Avenue is a site of the lower school project.

It's part of the city's um school construction plan.

And we've been working with the city of Stanford for I think a long time before even I got there to try to ensure that we could relocate the Head Start program.

We purchased a property at 60 Palmer's Hill Road about a year ago and have been working to um secure zoning.

We recently had our zoning approved, and between funds that the city provided in this current fiscal year, as well as federal and state funds.

We've currently raised 17 and a half million dollars to be able to start construction on a brand new Head Start facility for Stanford.

So we're feeling really optimistic and really excited.

Um we know that that building will not be ready to occupy by the time we need to vacate Maple Avenue.

Um and we are working in partnership with again with the school district and with the mayor's office to ensure that we can have a temporary location um for our Head Start program for the next two years or so while we are building the new building.

But all is it's all looking up, it's all trending positive in that in that area.

Very good.

I'd like to have a conversation with you offline about that project, what we have at the moment.

Sure, absolutely.

Thank you.

Okay, any questions from the committee or from the board?

Uh Coach Zachary, you have the floor, sir.

Yes, thank you, uh, co-chair.

Um Monica, thank you for the great presentation.

Uh I I admire the work you're doing.

Um I did have a question about fundraising.

I feel like I'm on a same theme.

Uh which is uh the 17 and a half million dollars you raised for the facility now going up at Palmer Hill.

Uh, did you also raise money for your operating budget and uh how much is of that is donated?

What is your of the say 16 million dollars across Fairfield County?

What percentage of that actually is operating budget raised from uh private and foundations?

So of our operating of our operating budget, about um two million dollars a year is from fundraising.

The rest of it is for through a combination of federal and state grants.

Um we have actually um recently developed a new um development strategy and have a new chief development officer that we're you know hoping to increase and um you know sort of move past survival mode in our fundraising.

Um as you know, child care is historically underfunded in the in this in the country and the state.

So we are definitely looking for ways to be able to more sustainably in the long term raise raise money.

But it so at this point, it's about two million dollars.

It's about two represents two million dollars out of our 17 million dollar budget for the for the operating and the 17.5 million we've raised for capital is completely separate from our from our operating budget.

Understood.

Uh, thank you very much for the clarification.

Thank you.

Sure.

Okay, anyone else.

Okay, Monica, thank you very much for being here.

And uh, if we if any of us have any questions, we will reach out to you directly in the meantime.

Sure.

And representative Morrison, I'll reach out to you by email to connect if you'd like to discuss anything about the project.

That would be great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

My district is the other side of Palmer's Hill from where the facility is.

Uh, so I have some constituent questions I want to ask about.

Amelia uh Representative Goldberg and I.

Fair point.

Absolutely.

Happy to talk about it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Moving on.

Community grants program.

Also on page 350 in the operating budget book.

Chief of staff, Bridget Fox.

Yes.

Good evening, everyone.

So nice to be here.

Yes, this is the mayor's community microgrant program.

It's also listed as the neighborhood community grant line in the budget.

So this year's request is for $83,000, which is an increase of about $3,000 from last year.

This is a very popular program that is run through the mayor's office and is open to small small grants that are open to community-minded specific projects that are aimed at improving the quality of life across our neighborhoods.

Um last year we awarded $77,000 in microgrants across the city, and $35 agencies were funded with an average grant size of $1,500.

So just to give you an example of some of the projects that these fund helps to support.

Last year, funding was awarded to purchase sustainable garden beds and seating for Northeast Elementary School and their garden.

We supported the fifth annual Stanford Classic Car Show, which takes place in downtown.

And funding was awarded to the Stanford Senior Center for a smartphone training program that would improve seniors' ability to communicate with family members.

So this really is a program.

This funding program is designed to support hyper-local projects across Stanford that improve the beautification of the city and quality of life for residents.

So very happy to answer questions that any members may have.

Okay.

Any questions.

No, for sure.

And a lot of the community organizations in Stanford, a lot of the neighborhood organizations do take advantage of it, which is great.

Yep.

Okay.

Any questions?

Okay.

If any come up, we will direct them your way, Bridget.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the next, I know I was listed as uh to discuss the community night program.

And Craig is still on.

Um I'm not quite sure why that was listed separately, other than the fact that Boys and Girls Club has a number of line items in the budget.

But Craig and I uh are happy to answer any questions on that piece.

But he did mention it in his presentation.

Craig, you want to weigh in.

Yeah, this was uh born out of uh some years ago.

Um, some um community violence that was uh showing up uh in Stanford, um, oftentimes concentrated in and around the west side.

Uh and uh the city uh worked with the boys and girls club of Stanford uh to um uh program some pro-social activities during some of those uh high times uh where uh uh teenagers and even young adults were getting themselves into trouble.

Uh so uh this has been wildly successful.

Um we operate um from 9 p.m.

to 11 p.m.

Um we typically have um uh anywhere from 75 to 100 young people uh from 17 to 22 years old uh playing basketball, being uh surrounded by positive uh adult role models or staff members.

Uh we feed them.

uh this has been wildly successful um we operate um from 9 p.m to 11 p.m um we typically have um uh anywhere from 75 to 100 young people uh from 17 to 22 years old uh playing basketball being uh surrounded by positive uh adult role models our staff members uh we feed them um we uh we do sort of on the hoof um uh caseload management uh help them navigate the variety of challenges in their lives uh so this is uh something that we hope to continue to do and we think we provide real uh uh value to the community okay floor is open any questions from the board okay and uh we can find this on page uh 349 of the operating budget book okay we have do we have a hand from no it went up it went down okay all right moving on to the next item uh david vallalva from risk management page 456 in the operating budget book hi good evening everyone let me see if i could uh quickly share my screen okay so this is uh budget request for the risk management fund and uh i'll just go over uh a general overview for any new members in terms of what the fund uh basically is so it's a separate fund outside of the general fund and basically uh this fund is bears and is responsible for all insurance costs so that means all insurance premiums uh any safety uh and risk mitigation programs that we do primarily through our through our two safety officers and then um the the payment of claims whether it be workers comp claims which is uh a quite a majority of of this entire uh fund and also liability claims that are brought against by by third parties uh you know think about like auto accidents trips and falls or you know uh damaged mailboxes or or or or fences during snow removal leaf pickup things like that it really it really does run the gambit um so all of those costs are are are budgeted within the risk fund and then the risk fund tries to take an approach that an insurance company would take and sort of spread that cost around to all of the other operating funds within the city uh primarily based on the exposure of laws so that you know as an example like uh for for auto liability um you know we have a large uh fleet of of police vehicles and that would be in the in in the city general fund as opposed to the board of ed piece of the general fund so all of those costs are then allocated across all funds um not just general fund not just city not just board of ed but but everything else think of you know all the enterprise funds WPCA uh EG Brennan etc etc um and for point of reference in in in the mayor's proposed budget book the uh the allocation to the general fund on the city side is on page 14 and it's uh labeled uh payments to insurance fund so there's uh uh a nine percent increase uh versus the the the adopted budget and that's what i'll i'll be explaining uh shortly uh again on the general fund that that amount totals 14.6 million approximately uh this is the makeup of the department it's myself as the risk manager with uh with an OSS and two safety training officers uh they deal a lot obviously with with OSHA compliance but also just constant training of our employees to try to help to reduce injuries as much as possible uh the in the budget book itself the the risk management fund is on page 455 and it runs through uh page 475 but I'll but I'll just summarize for you uh the the key points of of this budget um the first thing to note is that this current fiscal year 2526 that 20.3 million uh it's basically flat from the prior year uh when you look at 2425 that number 19.7 million it's uh uh it's not complete yet because we're still under audit for that for that year and there might be some accruals for some legal claims that aren't in there uh but the uh the point is like the current year budget is basically zero from the last year so when you're looking at the percentage increase it's really from almost a two years ago and the total increase for the for the um risk management fund uh based on the mayor's request is 7.7 uh the breakup here I try to do this by uh different categories um self-insurance uh a lot of this is workers comp of that total 12.5 approximately 10 million of that is workers comp and it should be noted that those amounts are actually determined uh that's something that over the years we we sort of been able to to better triangulate by by using actuarial data as opposed to just sort of edu taking an educated guess at at the number um and there are several things driving that like obviously like general wage increases with all these uh recent settlement of of union contracts are driving up uh cost uh but primarily we're having a lot of pressures on with with with uh with the cost of medical claims um and it's not just the work it's not just because of the work

Uh that's something that over the years we sort of been able to better triangulate by by using actuarial data as opposed to just sort of edu taking an educated guess at the number.

Um and there are several things driving that.

Like obviously, like general wage increases with all these uh recent settlement of union contracts are driving up uh cost.

Uh but primarily we're having a lot of pressures on with with with uh with the cost of medical claims.

Um and it's not just the work, it's not just because of the workers' comp itself, it's just you know, medical medical insurance, it's it's it's through the roof.

Um I think the latest data as an example for just the the employees' uh regular medical plan on the state partnership plan.

I heard our premiums are going up around 12 and a half percent or something in that range.

So we sort of see parallels to that, unfortunately, on the workers' comp side of it, which has a separate medical plan that's approved by the state.

Uh, but we are still put there are obviously just a lot of cost pressures on there as well.

So, you know, the actuaries factor all that into account to come up with that increase.

So uh again, of that self-insurance loss, um, most of it is workers' comp, 791k of it is.

Uh the remainder is what we pay for uh any claim that's below our self-insurance or deductible.

So you know, this past year, as an example, uh you know, we had a water damage at Lathan Wider.

Uh obviously that was mostly covered by by property insurance, but we did have a a deductible that had to come out of our come out of our pocket.

So that's where that's where those numbers um uh may make up that number on self-insurance.

Um in terms of premiums, it's it's an increase of 126,000.

It looks like it's uh I mean 1.6 is still in an increase, but uh the point here is we've had we've had successes and some losses in certain cases.

Um even despite that claims that we had on the property side of it, uh the the property insurance marketplace, uh our our brokers believe are going to be somewhat attractive for the city.

So there is so we don't expect to we don't we don't we're not seeing an increase in in our property premiums, but we are getting hit on our liability premiums.

Um and I would have to say that that's obviously uh due to recent claim settlements that we had.

Um I'm sure everyone read in the newspaper, you know, last week that you know the city settled on the on the Tommy Jackson claim.

And while I obviously can't reveal what that what that settlement amount was due to confidentiality, uh there the there was a lot of insurance involved there, and obviously uh that that's factored into the rates that that that that we're looking at for for the following year.

So although it's relatively flat, there is just like a uh an increase on the liability side offset by by some savings that we see on the property insurance side of it.

Um the next piece on here is third party administrative costs.

So this is what this is the firms that we use for for the administration of our workers' comp claims.

Um we have about 500 of those a year, uh, and also liability claims.

And this this came about from a recent switch uh and an RFP that was awarded to a new vendor.

And um that represents the amount you see there for 492 represents just the fixed costs uh that we're going to incur, but we do believe that we'll be some seeing some savings, especially on the workers' comp side later down the road, and I'll explain that a little bit later.

Uh the remaining increase there on the risk management department itself, um, aside for just general wage increases per per our union contracts.

We also get hit with a central cost service allocation from the general fund, and that's up about 50,000 compared to uh uh to this current year's adopted.

Uh again, this is just to point out that uh, you know, we we have a new third-party administrator, and uh significantly uh a lot of their work is on the workers' comp side of it.

Um where we expect some cost savings, hopefully as soon as next year is just a decrease in in the per claim cost uh of each claim.

Uh this the this new administrator just has better better technology tools, I would say.

So we have a lot more uh dashboard tools and whatnot so that we can better see trends of accidents, and I could deploy our our our safety officers to try to you know nip those in the butt as much as possible.

So hopefully by next year or what we'll start seeing some some some cost reductions there, and we'll get the benefit of that when the actuaries take a look at where where our claims are.

Uh and and here basically the the key risks here.

Uh, you know, insurance premiums again, and any significant or high daughter value claims that we end up settling could could impact uh what we're able to renew our uh our insurance policies for any subsequent year.

Um on the workers' comp side of it, like again, uh even though the amounts in the budget are actually determined, it it only takes a few claims to throw those numbers out of whack.

Uh so that's obviously a risk in in the department.

Um and also with respect to our our our claims overall, whether it be for property or liability, uh our deductibles have started to go up.

Uh again, so we do that sort of to help mitigate the cost of the premiums.

Um, because those are the best rates we can get in the marketplace.

But as you can imagine, the higher our deductible is, though the more chances are that we're that we're bearing a higher piece of the cost on a claim, uh, as opposed to with the insurance with what with Carrie.

And uh that's basically it.

I'll I'll stop sharing my screen to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you, David.

See a hand from Representative Goldberg.

Uh thank you.

Um hey David.

Uh good evening.

Hey, I was curious.

The Jackson settlement, has it already been factored into the the change in premiums related to the Jackson settlement?

Is that in this year's budget or will that be in next year's budget?

This is in this year's budget.

It's in this year's budget.

Yeah.

Uh, as you can imagine, uh, again, that um uh uh that that date of loss was back in July 2023.

So obviously, like you know, and I guess I didn't it involves several layers of our of our access insurance.

So uh they were all hands on deck in terms of quantifying uh the impact of of a potential settlement on that.

Uh and and those rates are factored into uh what's presented here in this budget book.

Okay, and this is the first year our rates will have gone up because of that loss, correct?

Uh yes, yes.

Um correct.

Yep.

And I don't know if you can share this publicly or not, but maybe you can share this with the committee privately.

Have you done an analysis that shows the attribution of how much our rates were impacted by that loan settlement?

That hasn't been done yet, but that's something that our that our brokers do for us as part of the renewal.

So we're in the process of doing that.

All right.

Um it would be it would be it would mostly impact uh one of the access layers that that hasn't paid out on a clean yet.

So it's it's it's somewhat easy to triangulate.

So that's something that our that our brokers are working on.

Okay.

I I think it would help us understand the impact of normal cost increases versus a particular loss event.

And I think I think that would help us get comfortable with the the change in the number period over period.

You know, some of it's can I don't want to say controllable, but some of it's controllable, some of it's non-controllable.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah.

No, no, it definitely does.

Um, one thing that we're trying to do is we're trying to keep our self-assurance retention where it is right now and not increase it any further.

Uh, but but as the brokers go out uh you know to try to get us the most economically viable uh rates, uh, I think what we're going to see is a lot of the underwriters are going to come back and say, like, hey, we won't do we won't do too much of a rate increase, but your self-insured is going to go up.

That's so yeah.

So that that that would be the challenge in terms of triangulating uh uh the the dollar increase of of our premiums related to just one particular claim.

But we'll we'll do our best to get a number uh for you.

And yeah, I think it would be good.

Either if they're either way, what I'm trying to get my mind around is how much extra financial risk the city is being asked to bear because of this incident versus just the overall cost of insurance, you know, going up in general because of the impact inflation and tariffs are having on you know as they ripple through the economy.

So I do think that's an important piece of data for the physical committee to have.

Uh David, thanks so much for answering my questions.

Have a great evening.

I'm gonna yield.

Thank you, Representative Goldberg.

You're welcome.

Sure.

Any other thank you.

Any other questions from committee members or board members?

Okay, seeing none.

David, thank you very much for your time and your effort this evening.

Uh sure, thank you.

All right.

And uh, if we have any questions, we'll send them directly to you.

Great.

Okay.

All right.

That brings us to the end of our list of uh presentations this evening.

The time is 7.46, and I'll call us adjourned for the evening.

Thank you very much, everyone.

And Representative Morrison, our next meeting is one moment, one moment.

One second, please.

I'll remind everybody when our next one is.

Exactly.

Okay.

Our next is a hybrid meeting in person in the Democratic Caucus room and online Monday, March 23rd.

Uh at 6 30, the fiscal committee will have its regular monthly meeting.

And presentations for the budget will begin at 7 30 with Health and Human Services.

So that's Monday, March 23rd, 6 30 for the committee meeting and 7 30 for budget presentations.

So quick question on that agenda.

So the first 30 minutes is going to be our regular monthly process.

We anticipate being done with the fiscal committee meeting in under an hour.

So we'll start that at 6 30 and then notice the beginning of the hearings at 7 30.

Got it.

Okay, great.

I appreciate that clarification.

Sure.

Okay.

Everybody send your questions in if you have any.

And other than that, have a great weekend.

Thank you for coming in tonight, everyone.

Hi, Eric.

Good morning.

Good night, everyone.