Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the County Insurance Claims topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Ogemaw County commissioners press sheriff's office over delayed claims, seek tighter insurance reporting
Summary
County administration told commissioners three sheriff's-office vehicle claims lacked invoices and incident reports, including a totaled patrol vehicle; commissioners directed administration to gather UD-10s and establish a single county contact for insurance and to present any necessary budget amendments before paying claims.
Ogemaw County commissioners pressed county administration and the sheriff's office on delays and documentation problems for multiple insurance claims, including a totaled 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe, during their June 8 meeting.
County administrator Francine told the board that three claims had been submitted as estimates rather than invoices and could not be matched to incident reports or claim numbers. She said the insurance adjuster had declared one vehicle a total loss and that the county had received an insurance refund check of about $17,284. "The total vehicle accident date was November 17th and that was reported March 18th," Francine said, noting the timing raised questions about why claims were filed months after incidents.
Francine told commissioners she had contacted the vendor West Branch Collision and obtained invoices from the vendor directly, but the county still lacked clear incident documentation linking invoices to specific claim numbers. She said the county's insurance adjuster is limited to short summaries of incidents once a claim is filed, which makes internal matching and oversight difficult.
Several commissioners said the pattern pointed to a communications and transparency problem inside the sheriff's office. Commissioner Craig Scott said the board needed earlier notice because incidents could carry financial or litigation risk and affect insurance procurement. "If it could involve future liability, then we need to know that, not after the fact," Scott said.
The board discussed requiring UD-10 uniform traffic accident reports or equivalent incident reports and asked administration to make the county administrator the single point of contact for the insurer to reduce confusion. Commissioners also asked for a clear accounting of the three claims, a reconciliation of invoices and estimates, and any needed budget amendment for the $5,000 transfer that had been discussed.
Sheriff's Office leadership was represented at the law-enforcement meeting earlier in the day, and the board said sheriff's staff would work with administration and county counsel to assemble the documentation. The board did not vote on paying the disputed claims at the June 8 meeting; members said payment should await complete incident reports and matching invoices and that a formal budget amendment should be presented when needed.
The board said it would pursue a resolution or personnel directive to ensure all future claims routing and incident-reporting follow the county's adopted incident-report policy and pass through administration for transparency.
