Members of the Plymouth Common Council held a discussion on the insurance renewal and IT Services during their meeting Monday evening.
City Attorney Sean Surrisi told the council the last couple of years the mayor has had an insurance committee that meets monthly. Councilman Don Ecker and Robert Listenberger serve along with Utility Superintendent Donnie Davidson, Police Chief Dave Bacon HR Manager Jen Klingerman, the City Attorney, and Bryan Howard from US Granules as the citizen member.
Surrisi said the committee has had a lot of positive discussions over the last couple of years and they have learned a lot about the insurance program. The brokers with Gibson Insurance lead the discussion and work with the city in developing the monthly topics.
Surrisi said his office is managing the insurance program on a day-to-day basis and he feels he understands the coverages much better due to the meetings. The bulk of the city’s coverage renewal in June except for health insurance and the pollution coverage for underground storage tanks that renew on a separate schedule.
This renewal is addressing the city’s various liability coverages including workers’ compensation and property insurance. Surrisi said overall they saw a 6.04% increase in June which is very competitive.
The one caveat he said is the privacy liability coverage which provides cybersecurity coverage. The annual premium is at the same rate that the city had last year. Surrisi said Gibson was able to get the city an extension of coverage for three months, through August although part of the conditions of getting the renewal long-term is the city must implement some IT services with the use of an IT Consultant. Once the consultant is in place they will meet with Gibson and the insurance carrier to see what additional steps the city needs to take to make sure they have the protection need for cybersecurity.
That led to another discussion about IT Services for the City of Plymouth.
Surrisi said they’d received some additional proposals from a couple of providers a few months ago making the comparisons more equitable and looked at full-service plans as well as ala carte hourly fees for additional services.
Committee members Jeff Houin and Shiloh Milner said they wanted to meet again and review the new proposals and make a recommendation at the next council meeting on Monday, June 27th.
Surrisi said the city needs to get someone engaged because they will only have a month or two to get the cybersecurity system in place before the insurance falls off at the end of August.
