Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the County Governance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County attorney urges prompt board review of denied insurance claims, cautions on closed-session employee talk
Summary
The county attorney advised the board to place insurance-denied claims on the next board agenda for possible action and cautioned members to stop closed-session discussions about an employee who had not waived their right to open-session consideration.
The county attorney told the board that when the county receives a claim that the county's insurer has denied, the claim should be placed on the board agenda so the board can decide how to proceed.
"I would actually suggest the board take it up, especially if the board's going to consider denying that claim," the county attorney said, recommending the claim be put on the next meeting agenda. The attorney said the default practice should be that such claims come before the board, and if the insurance company has denied a claim the board can then affirm denial or take other action.
The county attorney also advised the board to discontinue closed-session discussions about a specific Hall County employee because that employee had not been given the opportunity to decide whether the discussion should be closed — a right the attorney said the employee must be afforded. "I advise the board to discontinue those conversations because that employee was not given the opportunity to make a decision as to whether they wanted that discussion to have in closed session or in open session," the county attorney said.
On disciplinary standards, the county attorney noted different cases may require different standards of proof and that elected prosecutors may take different approaches — some waiting for convictions, others acting on probable cause. The attorney said the office sometimes calls in a special prosecutor to avoid undue influence when handling cases involving county employees.
The attorney also said office policy is to control what is released to the news media and to authorize comments through the county attorney's office. In a separate public-information reminder, the attorney told citizens who receive jury notices to call the court or jury office directly rather than ignore the notice, warning that failing to respond to jury duty can carry contempt penalties.
The transcript shows these were advisory remarks and recommendations; the board's formal decisions on handling denied claims or any disciplinary steps were not recorded in the provided excerpts.
