CARVER — Town Administrator Robert Fennessy and Assistant Town Administrator Elaine Weston are pleased to announce that the Town of Carver’s Risk Management Team was recognized at the Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) Annual Luncheon last week.
On Saturday, Jan. 21, Town Administrator Fennessy, Assistant Town Administrator Weston, Operations and Maintenance Office Coordinator Kari Boss and Select Board Chair Mark Townsend were presented with the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association’s (MIIA) Risk Management Award at the MMA Annual Luncheon. The award was presented to the Town of Carver by MMA Executive Director Geoff Beckwith. Also in attendance was MIIA Senior Risk Management Advisor Jilayne Mitchell.
“I would like to personally recognize and congratulate all members of our Risk Management Team for their diligent work in mitigating risk on behalf of the Town of Carver,” Town Administrator Fennessy said. “Their work, in collaboration with all town departments, has allowed the Town of Carver to establish meaningful risk management solutions which benefit our community greatly. I’d also like to thank the Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association for this recognition and all our departments whose participation in mitigation efforts was integral to us receiving this award.”
The award recognizes Carver’s Risk Management Team, which consists of Deputy Director of Operations and Maintenance John Woods, Assistant Town Administrator Weston, Office Coordinator Boss, and Town Administrator/Select Board Office Assistant Nancy Hubbard, for their work in proactively identifying issues and developing risk mitigation strategies.
The team meets quarterly, along with MIIA Senior Risk Management Advisor Mitchell, to determine what town officials need to do in order to mitigate risk town-wide. Through meaningful collaboration across all departments in town, the Town of Carver is able to successfully roll out trainings, safety inspections and discuss strategies throughout the year. As a result of the team’s work, last year the town earned $17,925 in insurance credits by participating in these no-cost training programs.
According to MIAA’s award letter, Carver was recognized with this award for their “consistently favorable loss ratio which the Safety Committee attributes to a town-wide focus on close collaboration across departments. By working together, the town has been able to proactively identify issues and develop risk mitigation strategies.
Department heads share a willingness to work together communicating and sharing ideas enabling them to establish meaningful risk management solutions.”
Carver’s Risk Management Team was created approximately 20 years ago with the purpose of continuing to offer safety training for employees. Originally it was heavily geared toward offering safety training for Department of Public Works employees, but in recent years Carver has extended the program to the integrated technology and public safety departments, general staff and public officials.
To date, policies recently developed/updated in collaboration with the Risk Management Team include:
- The Select Board Code of Conduct was recently updated to mitigate public official liability.
- The Carver Police Department updated its Code of Conduct, De-escalation and Use of Force policies and implemented a policy on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Bias.
- The Operations and Maintenance Office updated its Pothole Reporting Policy.
In addition to policy updates, the Town has also participated in numerous trainings and conducted safety inspections to mitigate risk. Trainings have included an Emergency Vehicle Operator Course and Snow Plow Operator Course to mitigate auto liability; cybersecurity training on phishing, ransomware and email compromises to mitigate general liability, and more.
Inspections have included roof and thermography inspections to mitigate property liability.
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