Shelley Pierce, Cowlitz County risk-management lead, told the board the county received its 2026 risk-pool invoices on Nov. 25 and said liability costs for the county rose sharply — a 45% rate increase for Cowlitz County — compared with earlier conference estimates of about 38%.

Pierce said the county logged 73 incidents year-to-date, 31 of which resulted in workers’ compensation claims. As of November, 10 workers’ compensation claims were open, three claims were opened during November and one closed; year-to-date claim payments totaled about $48,689 and the average claim amount was roughly $1,571. She said average days open were in the range of several dozen days depending on the metric presented.

Kathy Funk Baxter, finance director, reviewed the risk-management fund’s ordinary activity: internal billing covers department goods and services (budgeted roughly $3.0 million and actuals about $3.37 million), and miscellaneous investment income exceeded budget by about $10,000. Baxter said personnel and services expenditures for the fund are slightly below budget and noted one open position the county is not currently filling.

Pierce and Baxter said transfers include $300,000 to cover liability-claims-related legal and tort costs and $550,000 that repays the general fund for cash used in October 2024. Pierce said the county will not pay the risk-pool assessments until January 2026 and therefore does not expect major additional risk-fund spending before year end.

Pierce also reviewed litigation and claim trends: 14 liability claims are in litigation (each involving attorneys), year-to-date liability-claim costs were reported as about $71,221, and the county is managing special projects such as training rollouts. Pierce announced an in-person CPR class in February 2026 (limited to 10 staff) and said the county expects to launch a new learning management system (Vector Solutions) in January.

The transcripted total for the 2026 risk-pool invoices read as $33,916,345,000; staff materials and typical scale of the pool suggest this figure was transcribed in error. This article flags that number for county follow-up—Pierce described the invoices as large and a meaningful year-over-year increase, but the exact total requires confirmation with county documents.

The board did not take formal action on the risk-management presentation during the meeting; staff said the county will monitor assessments in January and report further.