LAWTON – Comanche County officials are looking for a new insurance carrier after the current carrier decided to exclude coverages for all jails, including the Comanche County Detention Center.
The Comanche County Facilities Authority, which is made up of the three county commissioners, discussed on March 3 the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma Self Insured Group’s recent decision to impose a jail exclusion starting July 1. The authority did not act following the discussion.
The Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma, which was founded shortly after Oklahoma became a state, represents the interests and concerns of the state’s 77 counties, according to the organization’s website. Shortly after ACCO was formed, the organization launched the self-insured program ACCO-SIF (Self-Insured Fund), to provide workers’ compensation coverage to its members and political subdivisions.
ACCO-SIF’s success prompted the organization to form ACCO-SIG, which provides affordable liability, property and other types of insurance coverage tailored to meet counties’ needs, according to ACCO’s website.
ACCO-SIG’s board of directors decided to exclude the jail from coverage due to an excessive number of law enforcement liability claims and lawsuits over the years, according to the authority’s March 3 agenda. Insurance claims The ACCO-SIG board’s decision prompted the county commissioners to consider switching to a different insurance carrier.
Commission Chairman Josh Powers said he has contacted a different private insurance company for a quote on how much coverage from that company would cost. He said he has also consulted attorneys about whether the county should switch to a self-insurance program.
“We’re getting to the size where our cost of insurance is – honestly, right now, it’s more than what our coverage limit is,” Powers said. “So at a certain point, I think t’s definitely worth looking into where if we do insurance, it’s something that’s large enough to where if we need it, it’s there. But it’s not something for our day-to-day operations.”
He said ACCO-SIG works well for smaller counties, but he thought Comanche County had outgrown it.
County officials were already exploring other options for insurance coverage before ACCO-SIG notified the county of its decision, Powers said in a March 4 email to a Southwest Ledger reporter.
“We have been needing to update and look at what makes the most sense for our county for a long time, and this just reassures us those thoughts were exactly true,” he said.