Liability Can Be Managed

In our meeting on January 7, Mayor Filner identified "liability" as the key impediment to issuing the Balboa Park permit for EarthFair 2013.

"We have a 23-year record of no insurance claims and no significant damage or incidents," EarthWorks founder Carolyn Chase pointed out. "We have worked around other significant construction projects. If we can get insurance, the permit should be issued."

We received this assessment from an insurance professional that was copied to Mayor Filner:

"I specialize in placing hard to risk insurance as a wholesale broker and work with many retail insurance broker/agents in San Diego. I’m confident we can insure Earth Day but would need an outline of what the City is requiring before we can proceed. "

San Diego EarthWorks calls upon the city to issue the insurance requirements so the liability issues can be resolved and the permit issued.

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Date: January 9, 2013 8:00:31 AM PST
To: Carolyn Chase
Cc: "BobFilner@sandiego.gov", "scottsherman@sandiego.gov"
Subject: Earth Day Insurance Help

Carolyn,

It was great speaking with you yesterday. As discussed, I’d love to help solve whatever insurance issues you are facing so we can get Earth Day permitted.

I’ve gone through the information on your website and it certainly seems that you have addressed whatever concerns have been raised regarding Earth Day this year. I’m assuming you have been given insurance requirements from the City and have met those requirements through traditional insurance avenues. I’m a bit confused as to what the new problems are this year. I realize there is construction taking place and the City may feel they have an increased exposure as a result of this but in simplest terms they should be increasing the insurance requirements on Earth Day if they are concerned with higher liability due to the construction operations. A combination of higher limits along with additional insured status provided to the City would solve just about any potential problem. The City’s risk management department should be aware that they can easily push liability onto Earth Day and protect themselves through several contractual and risk transfer methods.

From my understanding there have been no claims against Earth Day over the last 20+ years and this tract record certainly helps evidence a clean record for the event and will help in obtaining additional insurance coverage should the City decide this is needed.

I specialize in placing hard to risk insurance as a wholesale broker and work with many retail insurance broker/agents in San Diego. I’m confident we can insure Earth Day but would need an outline of what the City is requiring before we can proceed. Again, I’m assuming the construction taking place and the subsequently liability associated with bringing 50,000 people into the park is the main issue. Please rest assured this is easily insurable and coverage could be arranged to protect both Earth Day and The City of San Diego equally. To deny a permit due to concerns over getting sued seems a bit shortsighted. Ultimately it will be up to the City to decide what they want to see from an insurance standpoint if they feel that your past insurance requirements no longer adequate.

I’m more than willing to assist once we have some direction from the City but can’t imagine a scenario where we can’t properly insure everyone’s exposure for this one day event. Remember, I’m a taxpayer in San Diego too. I wouldn’t want the City left exposed but really don’t see a problem getting this done correctly.

Let me know how I can help.

Regards,

Troy Cockrell, Vice President
R-T SPECIALTY INSURANCE SERVICES, LLC
CA license# 0G97516

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