City hears insurance renewal briefing; staff urged to route liability claims to ICAP

Midwest Insurance representative Melissa reviewed the city—s ICAP and IMWCA insurance renewals and said the overall package premium rose about 9.6% while property and workers— compensation line items moved in opposite directions.

The briefing matters because the city recently added a new wastewater treatment plant to its property schedule and that change, plus inflation, drove most of the property premium increase, Melissa told the Nevada City Council. “We did, net about 11,000,000 increase for that wastewater treatment plant by taking off the old 1 and adding the new 1 and then about 5,000,000 in inflation,” she said.

Melissa said the combined $16,000,000 increase in insured property produced roughly a 16.5% increase in the property premium. She also reported changes to the city—s auto and workers— compensation coverages: the city moved roughly 11 vehicles to liability‑only coverage, and the workers— compensation experience modifier rose from 0.62 to 0.69.

On the overall workers— compensation program Melissa said the underlying rates decreased about 21% and the city has one of the lowest mods seen in public entities. “I attribute that to your guys' safety within the city and the safety committees,” she said, adding the claims picture was light with “just 2 small work comp claims, just a police officer, minor injuries during training, and an employee falling on ice as he got out of his vehicle.”

Melissa also emphasized the council—s legal and fiscal exposure if it chooses to make discretionary payments on liability claims. She told the council that, where possible, claims should be turned over to ICAP for handling rather than the city unilaterally accepting moral‑obligation payments. “It—s really important when it comes to matters of liability that we just turn the claims into ICAP and let them decide when we—re negligent or not,” Melissa said, noting governmental immunity considerations.

The council received the briefing; no vote or policy change on ICAP handling or the renewals was recorded in the meeting minutes. Questions from councilors were brief and procedural; Melissa invited further questions and said she sees every liability claim that comes across her desk.

Background: ICAP (Iowa Communities Assurance Pool) and IMWCA (Iowa Municipalities Workers— Compensation Association) are risk‑sharing and insurance entities commonly used by Iowa cities. The city—s property schedule and the workers— compensation mod are primary drivers of premiums; adding the new wastewater treatment plant increased insured values substantially for this renewal.

For readers: Councilors and staff will continue to receive detailed premium and claims reports; Melissa noted that absent the new plant the city would likely have seen one of its smallest premium increases in several years.