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CTSI tells San Juan County commissioners pools remain solvent; drone coverage, training added for 2026
Summary
Meredith Burcham of CTSI briefed the San Juan County Board on 2026 renewals for the counties' insurance pools, reporting modest contribution increases, a sizable pool equity cushion and new drone coverage. She urged continued loss‑control training and explored reinsurance options for law‑enforcement risk.
Meredith Burcham, executive director of the Colorado Counties Casualty and Workers' Compensation Trusts (CTSI), told the San Juan County Board of Commissioners that both county insurance pools are financially sound and that members should expect modest contribution increases for 2026. “The pool‑wide contribution for CWCP was 7.1%,” Burcham said, adding that CAP (property and liability) saw contributions rise as well, driven by law‑enforcement claim frequency.
Burcham described the composition of claims for the workers'‑compensation pool as largely slips, trips and falls, with severe claims concentrated in law‑enforcement and road‑and‑bridge work. She said the workers'‑compensation pool currently holds about $25,000,000 in equity and that CTSI recently used roughly $4.25 million of that equity to ease 2026 contributions for members.
The presentation included new coverages and loss‑control steps for 2026. Burcham said CTSI added drone coverage with $500,000 in liability and $100,000 in actual‑cash‑value property coverage and confirmed the policy extends to affiliated search‑and‑rescue operations when the sheriff directs them. “There's 500,000 liability coverage, and then there's a 100,000 actual cash value for property,” she said. She also described planned loss‑control offerings: ergonomics, return‑to‑work assistance, site evaluations and a law‑enforcement roundtable to give departments practical risk‑management case studies.
On law‑enforcement excess coverage, Burcham said carriers have hardened their capacity in recent years and CTSI is looking at reinsurance or other funding approaches to blunt continuing premium increases. “We're starting to see some normalization in 2025,” she said, though she warned the market remains strained. She urged counties to continue investments in training and policies to minimize settlement exposure.
CTSI also confirmed the pool's cyber limit moved back up to $1,000,000 after members increased multifactor authentication and other protections. “This last year, we were able to increase that to 1,000,000 again,” Burcham said.
The commissioners thanked Burcham for the briefing and asked staff to circulate the new certificate language and drone rider details to member counties. The presentation ran from SEG 138 through SEG 736.
