Its insurance provider said Canyon County had a high volume of claims. Then this happened
Personnel troubles in the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office contributed to the county insurer’s decision not renew the county’s insurance policy after this month.
That brought to an end a 33-year partnership between the county and the Idaho Counties Risk Management Program, a nonprofit founded in 1985 by local governments to provide liability and property insurance.
On Tuesday, Canyon County announced that it would seek insurance and risk management services in the private market. What it means to taxpayers is to be determined. It could mean more expensive insurance or more risk for the county, said Tim Osborn, executive director of the Idaho Counties Risk Management Program, or ICRMP, pronounced eye-crimp.
The breakup comes after at least two warnings from the company that Canyon County has a high loss ratio, which means the insurance company pays more in claims than it earns in premiums.
The top areas were employment liability and wrongful terminations, said Kelly Paananen, ICRMP risk manager for Canyon County, at a January meeting with county commissioners.
In one case that became public, Canyon County’s former human resources director, Sue Baumgart, sued the county last year after she was fired and said the commissioners said “denigrating things” about her. She is seeking $1 million.
But Paananen said in the January meeting that 56% of the employment claims came from the Sheriff’s Office.
“We do see some police liability issues,” Pannanen said.
In August, Canyon County settled a $600,000 lawsuit from two former deputies who said they were wrongfully fired by Sheriff Kieran Donahue after they opposed his candidacy in the May 2020 Republican primary election. Donahue denies firing them for that reason but has not offered an alternative explanation publicly.
Donahue also hadn’t cooperated with ICRMP’s request for his office’s written policies and procedures, ICRMP contends.
Chad Sarmento, law enforcement risk manager for ICRMP, said at the January meeting that the Sheriff’s Office had not given the insurance provider a copy of the office’s personnel and procedure manual. ICRMP said the Sheriff’s Office was the only entity it serves that had not provided ICRMP with a copy of the manual.
Sarmento told the commissioners that if Donahue complied, the county would be eligible for discounts on its insurance, and ICRMP could look at training records and perform an assessment for the office.
The commissioners seemed concerned with the number of claims against them and the lack of compliance from Donahue. But on Tuesday, at the latest meeting between ICRMP and county officials, Commissioner Leslie Van Beek told the ICRMP board that the county had agreed to part ways.
Van Beek, who was the only commissioner to attend, said she wanted to bring the separation news in person rather than in an email.
“I wanted to come and look all of you in the eyes and say 33 years is a long time to have a partnership,” Van Beek said.
In an interview with the Idaho Statesman after the meeting, Osborn said ICRMP did not decide to send its nonrenewal notice just because of the Sheriff’s Office or claims against it.
“If it was solely issues with the Sheriff’s Office, we could have cut out lines of coverage, just for law enforcement,” Osborn said.
Craig Rockwood, president of the ICRMP board of trustees, said that in his 20 years on the board, ICRMP had sent a nonrenewal letters only three or four times.
“I don’t think there was any negativity between us and Canyon County,” Osborn said in the interview. “It was ‘Hey, I think you have some claims and issues with risk,’ and they are going to have to deal with that no matter who they go with.”
Canyon County must come up with a new insurance policy when its policy with ICRMP expires on Oct. 1. The insurance provider sent Canyon County a notice in May that it planned to end its insurance on Oct. 1.
This story was originally published September 14, 2022 at 11:31 AM.
