Public Risk August 2019

PUBLISHED BY THE PUBLIC RISK MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION AUGUST 2019

Las Vegas Risk Manager Named 2019 Public Risk Manager of the Year

MEET JAMES CURBEAM, CPCU, AIC, ARM, MBA

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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

LEVERAGING ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT IN THE FOUR PHASES OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PAGE 11

BEST PRACTICES IN THE PREVENTION OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND MOLESTATION

PAGE 16

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AUGUST 2019 | Volume 35, No. 7 | www.primacentral.org

CONTENTS

The Public Risk Management Association promotes effective risk management in the public interest as an essential component of public administration.

PRESIDENT Scott J. Kramer, MBA, ARM County Administrator Autauga County Commission Prattville, AL PAST PRESIDENT Jani J. Jennings, ARM Risk Manager City of Bellevue Bellevue, NE PRESIDENT-ELECT Sheri D. Swain Director, Enterprise Risk Management Maricopa County Community College Tempe, AZ DIRECTORS Forestine W. Carroll Manager of Risk Management Memphis Housing Authority Memphis, TN

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Las Vegas Risk Manager Named 2019 Public Risk Manager of the Year

MEET JAMES CURBEAM, CPCU, AIC, ARM, MBA

By Teal Griffey, MBA

Lori J. Gray, RMPE Risk Manager County of Prince William Woodbridge, VA JamiAnn N. Hannah, RMPE Risk Manager City of Gallatin Gallatin, TN Laurie T. Kemper Sr. Risk Management Consultant City/County Insurance Services Salem, OR Michael S. Payne, ARM, HEM Risk Manager City of Fresno Fresno, CA Melissa R. Steger, MPA Asst. Dir., WCI & Unemployment Ins. University of Texas System Austin, TX NON-VOTING DIRECTOR Jennifer Ackerman, CAE Chief Executive Officer Public Risk Management Association Alexandria, VA EDITOR Teal Griffey, MBA Manager of Marketing and Communications 703.253.1262 • tgriffey@primacentral.org ADVERTISING Teal Griffey, MBA 703.253.1262 • tgriffey@primacentral.org

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Leveraging Enterprise Risk Management in the Four Phases of Emergency Management

By Wendy Morton-Huddleston, CGFM, PMP

and Bobbi-Jo Pankaj, CGFM, PMP, CRMP-Fed

IN EVERY ISSUE

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Best Practices in the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse and Molestation

By J. Brett Carruthers, CSP, RSSP

Public Risk is published 10 times per year by the Public Risk Management Association, 700 S. Washington St., #218, Alexandria, VA 22314 tel: 703.528.7701 • fax: 703.739.0200 email: info@primacentral.org • Web site: www.primacentral.org Opinions and ideas expressed are not necessarily representative of the policies of PRIMA. Subscription rate: $140 per year.

Back issue copies for members available for $7 each ($13 each for non-PRIMA members). All back issues are subject to availability. Apply to the editor for permission to reprint any part of the magazine.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PRIMA, 700 S. Washington St., #218, Alexandria, VA 22314.

Copyright 2019 Public Risk Management Association

| 4 NEWS BRIEFS | 19 ADVERTISER INDEX

AUGUST 2019 | PUBLIC RISK

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Public Risk Management Association

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MESSAGE FROM PRIMA PRESIDENT SCOTT J. KRAMER, MBA, ARM

raditional risk management viewed risk as a series of single decisions. Each risk stood alone and was not related to the others. Optimizing risk management individually in each department meant optimizing risk management to the local government entity.

Traditional risk management strategies were comprised primarily of buying insurance that was inexpensive enough, so that retained risk could be managed for as little cost as possible internally. With so much focus on the budget and managing expenses, the standard marching orders for a risk manager within local government were, in essence, “Here is your budget.

Buy the cheapest insurance possible. Keep what you save for safety programs and manage what risk you retain. And, by the way, don’t let anything bad happen.”

When the financial crisis occurred a decade ago, businesses recognized that an integrated approach to risk management could identify and mitigate such events. This was the motivation and interest in enterprise risk management (ERM). The evolving view of what risk management represents began with the traditional goals of reducing costs and reducing/avoiding/transferring risk to the more contemporary vision of maximizing revenue at reasonable risk to add value, the basis of an ERM framework. A better definition may be the discipline by which an organization in our industry assesses, controls, finances, and monitors risk from all sources to increase the organization’s value.

The ERM revolution continues to affect us today with opportunities for our profession to make a difference—“a bigger seat at the table” (quoting a recent keynote speaker of the PRIMA Annual Conference).

“

I attended PRIMA’s ERM training

and it was very helpful in explaining the roles of ERM implementation and where each organization’s

departments fall under those roles.

The more knowledgeable you become in this subject matter, the more dependence senior management will rely on your expertise.

This, in turn, adds value to your entity, but also to our profession. The use of insurance to hedge such risks as lawsuits or natural disasters has worked in the past and continues to work today as a useful risk management tool. However, learning other tools in the risk management toolbox will create value in local governments, as we continue to work with the demand for more services at the same costs. In the end, a blend of traditional and enterprise risk management in most entities will realize the best value.

“

T

Evolving View of Risk Management

PRIMA’s next Enterprise Risk Management training is November 13–14, 2019 at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans.

Sincerely,

Scott J. Kramer, MBA, ARM PRIMA President 2019–2020 County Administrator Autauga County Commission Prattville, AL

Register at primacentral.org/ ermtraining

AUGUST 2019 | PUBLIC RISK

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NEWS BRIEFS

NEWS Briefs

AN EARTHQUAKE’S IMPACT CAN BE PREDICTED – BUT ONLY AFTER IT HITS Over the next week, Southern California has only a 27% chance of experiencing a third earthquake greater than magnitude 6, but a 96% chance of going through a tremor of magnitude 5 or higher.

Those precise probabilities were generated by scientists at the United States Geological Survey (USGS), using models based on longstanding principles of seismic behavior and decades of data on aftershocks from earthquakes.

But the same predictive power does not extend to forecasting when and where earthquakes will strike in the first place, experts acknowledge.

“Even if it’s a theoretical possibility, it may be a practical impossibility,” said Andrew Michael, a California-based geophysicist at the USGS. A powerful 7.1 magnitude quake shook the remote town of Ridgecrest in the Mojave Desert on Friday evening, a day and a half after a 6.4 magnitude temblor was recorded in the same region.

On average, a quake is followed by an even stronger tremor only about 5% of the time, though it happens more frequently in areas with significant geothermal activity, like the Mojave, according to Michael.

The USGS first began offering public aftershock forecasts in the 1980s, Michael said.

The models rely on basic laws governing earthquake behavior that have been known for the better part of a century, experts said.

The typical shallow earthquake creates a series of aftershocks that diminish exponentially,

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PUBLIC RISK | AUGUST 2019

with each successive day bringing half as many tremors. In addition, the frequency of earthquakes drops as the magnitude increases—a region will have 10 times as many magnitude 6 quakes as magnitude 7, Thomas Heaton, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology, said in an email.

“There is now a catalog that stores the locations, sizes and times of millions of past earthquakes,” he said. “It is quite straightforward to characterize the statistical behavior of these events.”

The current model used by USGS predicts the number and size of aftershocks based on the largest earthquake, or mainshock. But seismologists believe aftershocks behave more like the spread of a disease in an epidemic, Michael said.

Just as each sick patient can infect others, so too can each aftershock in turn create its own subsequent aftershocks.

Michael said the USGS is perhaps a year away from adopting a newer model that incorporates that theory in making public forecasts. Eventually, he said, the hope is that officials will be able to predict how much shaking a particular town might experience in the aftermath of a quake, so people can be better prepared.

But predicting a big quake in the first place remains out of reach. The best seismologists have been able to do is to use historical data to predict how likely it is that an earthquake of a certain magnitude will hit a particular region over a period of time.

That forecast is crucial for establishing safety standards in building codes, for instance. But it will not help warn a city’s residents that a quake is imminent.

“The problem is the earth is a complex thing,” said Christopher Scholz, a professor emeritus at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Scholz noted, for instance, that the 1999 Hector Mine quake in the Mojave Desert was thought to have been triggered by a 1992 quake. That seven-year gap is but a fleeting moment in geological terms.

Federal and state officials hope a new system that alerts residents when shaking is detected might give people a few seconds to seek shelter, say, or stand in a doorway.

“I work on the physics of the rupture process and I have become convinced that the physics is in a class of phenomena that are called ‘chaotic,’” Heaton said. “If this is true, then we will probably never predict earthquakes.”

STATE LAWMAKERS SEEK TO CLOSE MARITAL RAPE PROSECUTION LOOPHOLES

As of Monday, Minnesotans who rape their spouses can be charged with sexual assault, following the repeal of a statute that had previously made it difficult to prosecute such cases.

The legislative change, approved unanimously

by Minnesota lawmakers and signed by Gov. Tim Walz in May, was pushed by Jenny Teeson, who discovered she had been drugged and sexually assaulted by her now ex-husband only after finding video of the incident on her laptop.

Teeson gave the video to law enforcement, who charged her husband with third-degree criminal sexual assault. But prosecutors later dropped that case due to the state’s “voluntary relationship” clause, which stated that “a person does not commit criminal sexual conduct … if the actor and complainant were adults cohabiting in an ongoing voluntary sexual relationship at the time of the alleged offense, or if the complainant is the actor’s legal spouse.”

Teeson’s husband eventually pleaded guilty to invasion of privacy and served 30 days in jail.

Teeson later went public with her story, prompting lawmakers to call for a repeal of the statute.

promote maintenance of the family unit and be in the best interest of the complaining witness.” In South Carolina, victims of marital rape must report their attacks within 30 days, and the assault must qualify as “aggravated force,” including the use of a weapon or physical violence of a “high and aggravated nature,” to be eligible for prosecution.

Efforts to repeal or update statutes have failed in other states. Lawmakers in Ohio have tried twice to change the state’s law, which prevents attackers from being prosecuted for spousal rape if there’s no threat of force, meaning a victim could be drugged and penetrated with no chance for legal recourse. State Reps. Kristin Boggs and Tavia Galonski, both Democrats, last

“

month introduced a third bill to change the law, which is currently awaiting a hearing before the House criminal justice committee.

It’s unclear if the effort will have success this time. At least one Republican signed onto the measure, and the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association supports the legislation after opposing previous iterations. But Boggs told the Associated Press that she’s not optimistic about its chances, despite her straightforward intentions in drafting it.

“Our rationale for introducing this legislation,” she said, “is simply that your legal relationship to another human being shouldn’t give you permission to rape them.”

It’s an antiquated, outdated piece of law that has no place in Minnesota, …I’m excited to get it removed from the books altogether so that everyone can get justice.

“

Marital rape is technically illegal in all 50 states, but some have legal exemptions that make it difficult to prosecute offenders.

Rep. Zack Stephenson, lead sponsor of the House bill

“It’s an antiquated, outdated piece of law that has no place in Minnesota,” Rep. Zack Stephenson, lead sponsor of the House bill, said after the chamber passed the legislation unanimously. “I’m excited to get it removed from the books altogether so that everyone can get justice.”

More than 18% of women and 8% of men have been victims of sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Marital rape is technically illegal in all 50 states, but nearly a dozen still provide some sort of legal loophole for people who rape their spouses.

In Virginia, for example, a perpetrator can undergo therapy in lieu of other punishment, provided “the court finds such action will

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PUBLIC RISK | AUGUST 2019

Las Vegas Risk Manager Named 2019 Public Risk Manager of the Year MEET JAMES CURBEAM, CPCU, AIC, ARM, MBA

T

BY TEAL GRIFFEY, MBA HREE YEARS AGO, WHEN JAMES CURBEAM, CPCU, AIC, ARM, MBA, was hired by the Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD) the risk management department was only a mechanism for purchasing insurance and confirming insurance requirements for contracts.

Curbeam would change all that, and in doing so would go on to win 2019’s Public Risk Manager of the Year award.

LAS VEGAS VALLEY WATER DISTRICT

The Las Vegas Valley Water District is a governmental subdivision of the State of Nevada and a quasi-municipal corporation created by a special act of Nevada Legislature in 1947.

LVVWD provides water to more than one million people in Southern Nevada and employs more than 1,400 regular full-time staff.

The District is one of the seven-member agencies that make up the Southern Nevada Water Authority, a regional agency formed in 1991 to address Southern Nevada’s unique water needs on a regional basis. This includes The Springs Preserve, a 180-acre non-gaming cultural and historical attraction designed to commemorate Las Vegas’ dynamic history and to provide a vision for a sustainable future.

As the risk manager for the LVVWD, Curbeam’s responsibilities include the creation and

implementation of an enterprise risk management program, oversight of self-insured workers’ compensation claims management, management of liability and subrogation claims, procurement and administration insurance program, and determining the terms and conditions for all District contracts relative to risk issues.

REVITALIZING RISK MANAGEMENT

In 2016, James Curbeam had the monumental task of turning the insurance-based risk management position into a valuable enterprisewide role that would benefit the organization, LVVWD, and the water utility industry.

First, Curbeam knew how important it was to get the executive and senior management team buy-in for a complete, up-to-date risk management program. He scheduled one-on-one sessions with each member to understand each area’s risk concerns.

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2019 PUBLIC RISK MANAGER OF THE YEAR: MEET JAMES CURBEAM, CPCU, AIC, ARM, MBA

“

The award means I’m doing things

the right way, that others are appreci-

ating what we’re doing here at the Las Vegas Valley Water District, and that I

have a supportive executive and senior

“

management team that is looking to be best in class.

James Curbeam, risk manager for the Las Vegas Valley Water District

“I met with every director personally when I first got to LVVWD to learn what their challenges were, how they interacted with risk management in the past, and what they would like to see different. I like to have personal contact with my internal customers so I have that face-to-face contact, that way you can really see the expression when you’re talking to people versus just assuming what you think you see through an email,” says James Curbeam Curbeam’s next step was to hire a risk management officer and transition the management of workers’ compensation from safety to the risk management department. The risk management officer’s key role is to monitor the District’s third-party administrator (TPA). A new first-fill prescription program was implemented for medication prescribed to employees. This resulted in employees being able to fill prescriptions without any out-of-pocket expense while managing pharmacy utilization to maximize LVVWD discounts.

Risk management also improved the post-injury contact process by communicating with the injured employees the same day as the injury is reported. The risk management department’s

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PUBLIC RISK | AUGUST 2019

collaborative approach with safety and other departments has contributed to the LVVWD’s reduction in claims.

James Curbeam also worked with LVVWD’s IT department to procure a Risk Management Information System (RMIS). With IT’s help, Curbeam converted multiple departments from home-grown IT applications to a conventional cloud-based system. Through this change, risk management procured the IT department a return on investment on the RMIS software and will act as a key tool in developing a total cost of risk for the organization.

Also, Curbeam approached the organization about developing a holistic method to risk with an enterprise risk management (ERM) program. Upper management proved enthusiastic, and James is now the Chair for the new ERM Committee.

INTRODUCING ERM TO THE DISTRICT

With his previous experience in the energy sector, James Curbeam believed an enterprise risk management system could be implemented within the organization. “James has a vision for the big picture of what the risk management

world could be,” Jim Barber, senior purchasing analyst, LVWD and Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) says. Curbeam worked collaboratively with the 15 departmental functions throughout the organization and formed an ERM Committee to bring the idea of ERM to the rest of the organization.

To help guide the ERM Committee in its initial interviews with the supervisors throughout the 1,400-employee organization, Curbeam and his team developed two tools: the Business Activity Matrix and the Risk Assessment Questionnaire.

Both tools have been instrumental in shaping the foundation of the ERM program.

• The Business Activity Matrix is an analysis tool that capsulizes each workflow process by function and activity in each of the 15 departments.

• In support of the Matrix, the Risk Assessment Questionnaire was designed to understand the overall enterprise risk exposure and mitigation efforts. It contains a process that enables respondents to identify their risk against threats and vulnerabilities with an additional self-assessment.

As part of the implementation of ERM, Curbeam encountered an issue of timely notification of accidents to the risk management department.

A five-day wait was causing concerns for risk management in resolving third-party claims. The risk management department developed a process for reporting that decreased the average accident notification time to about one hour.

Curbeam continues today moving his District toward an all-inclusive approach to risk management, but it’s not just his organization that he is bringing these ideas too—it’s also the water utility industry he’s interested in modernizing.

CREATION OF THOUGHT LEADERSHIP LAB

When James transitioned to the water industry in 2016, he realized networking and educationsharing opportunities were lacking compared to the insurance and power industries. To fill this need Curbeam worked with Allied Public Risk to develop a networking forum, aptly named the Thought Leadership Lab. This platform, situated within American Association of Water Distribution & Management, brings together like-minded risk management professionals for purposes of peer networking and collaboration. The lab’s key deliverables include sharing best-practices, engaging in joint research, discussing emerging trends, identifying actionable innovation, and formulating heightened standards, and more.

WINNING PUBLIC RISK MANAGER OF THE YEAR

At PRIMA’s 2019 Annual Conference James Curbeam was awarded PRIMA’s most prestigious award, Public Risk Manager of the Year. Curbeam’s colleague LVVWD and SNWA’s Information Security and Compliance Coordinator, Matthew Beatty, thinks the award is well-deserved. “It does not surprise me that James received the award for Public Risk Manager of the Year. He’s very outgoing, very positive, he gets out in the public, attends many workshops to stay abreast of what’s going on, introduces a lot of those new concepts to the District, and is continually moving LVVWD forward in a risk management posture.”

“

It should come as no surprise that James Curbeam himself took a more holistic view of his award, “The award means I’m doing things the right way, that others are appreciating what we’re doing here at the Las Vegas Valley Water District, and that I have a supportive executive and senior management team that is looking to be best in class.”

PRIMA congratulates James Curbeam on the exemplary work he has done for the risk management profession, and Las Vegas specifically, and we look forward to seeing what the future brings!

Teal Griffey, MBA, is the Manager of Marketing and Communications for PRIMA.

His ideas are starting to permeate

throughout the water utility spectrum.

His ideas on how to take a more

holistic approach to evaluating an organization’s risk is a fairly new concept for water agencies.

“

To support the program, Curbeam procured an ERM module in the new Risk Management Information System (RMIS), which will streamline tasks, notifications, develop metrics, and create a centralized repository of information, which will allow for standardizing of analyses and reporting.

Keely Brooks, climate change policy analyst, Southern Nevada Water Authority

Curbeam also partnered with a prominent university housing one of the largest risk management & insurance departments in the United States. This university will be assisting the Thought Leadership Lab with applied research, and the Lab will provide its risk management students with practical business experience.

Learn more about the Thought Leadership Lab here: www.aawdm.org

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LEVERAGING ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT IN THE FOUR PHASES OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT Integrating Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), strategy, communications, and culture are vitally important when addressing emergency management situations.

It is imperative public sector professionals manage risks with a portfolio view. This article discusses ERM practices related to the four phases of emergency management including mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery and the nexus to ERM.

BY WENDY MORTON-HUDDLESTON, CGFM, PMP AND BOBBI-JO PANKAJ, CGFM, PMP, CRMP-FED

S

OUND ERM PRACTICES MUST BE FORWARD-LOOKING and designed to help leaders make better decisions, identify threats, and to raise awareness to previously unknown opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government operations.

This is especially true with the recent rise of natural and man-made disasters in the United States. The United States tallied a record high bill of $306 billion in 2017 for weather and climate disasters, which included 16 disasters with damage exceeding a billion dollars each. That amount tied 2011 for the number of billion-dollar disasters,1 but was much higher than the previous costliest year of $215 billion in 2005.

A discipline like ERM needs to be integrated into each phase and in every conversation around emergency management. Through adequate risk management, agencies can

concentrate efforts toward reducing the impact and exercising prevention strategies such as mandatory evacuations to reduce harm to citizens and to mobilize humanitarian efforts.

FIGURE 1: 2017 1 BILLION-DOLLAR NATURAL DISASTERS

The 16 individual billion-dollar disasters included eight severe storms, three tropical cyclones, two flooding events, one wildfire event, one drought, and one freeze event and resulted in the deaths of 362 people and had significant economic effects on the areas they affected.

During such disasters, ERM practices are beneficial during preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery across agencies and communities. For example, forward-looking management decisions and balancing risks and the immediate need for resources and financial assistance enhances value to the taxpayer.

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LEVERAGING ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT IN THE FOUR PHASES OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Also, a holistic approach across the extended enterprise such as collaboration across federal, state, local and private sector organizations to ensure access to a wide range of resources.

ERM does not eliminate risk, but helps you prepare for uncertainty, including the uncertainty of when and where the next emergency will occur. Emergency management can consist of assessing the risk for a natural disaster like a hurricane, wildfire or flooding or an information technology disaster like a cyber-attack that requires ransom for data access. Organizational leaders need to be prepared for many aspects of emergency management.

HOW CAN ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT HELP?

ERM helps to address the need for horizontal and vertical communication channels to facilitate transparency and informed decisionmaking. ERM puts a structure in place to look at the risks posed by likely events, helps to develop a risk-based approach to focusing on reducing the impact of the events, prepares for the risks that cannot be eliminated, and puts a plan in place to reach out and recover appropriately when the emergency events do occur.

There are many approaches that can be followed to implement effective ERM. This article will focus on the following seven ERM elements: Establish the Context (#1), Initial Risk Identification (#2), Analyze and Evaluate Risk (#3), Develop Alternatives (#4), Respond to Risk (#5), Monitoring and Review (#6) and Continuous Risk Identification (#7) and how those elements can be infused in the four phases of emergency management.

PHASE 1: Mitigation involves preventing future emergencies or minimizing their effects.

Mitigation activities can include any measures that reduce the chance of an emergency happening or reduce the damaging effects of unavoidable emergencies.

Agencies must spend time and energy on reducing the likelihood or impact of the risk or with transferring the risk by leveraging insurance. One of the primary functions of mitigation planning is to enable the organization to identify risks prior to a disaster to directly limit the impact of a disaster should one occur.2 In FEMA’s Strategic Plan, it states insurance is an effective tool to transfer risks away from disaster survivors and enable rapid recovery. Experience has shown repeatedly that individuals, communities, and businesses that manage risk through insurance recover faster and more fully after a disaster.

According to an independent study in 2018 by the National Institute of Building Sciences3 every dollar the Federal government invests in mitigation saves taxpayers an average of $6 in future spending.

ERM ELEMENTS: In the mitigation phase of emergency management, organizations should focus on ERM elements #3 and #5.

• Analyze and Evaluate Risk – consider the causes, sources, probability of the risk occurring, the potential positive or negative outcomes, and then prioritize the results of the analysis. You must identify, analyze, and evaluate your risk in order to move toward mitigating them to an appropriate level.

• Respond to Risk – make decisions about the best option(s) among a number of alternatives, and then prepare and execute the selected response strategy.

PHASE 2: Preparedness takes place before an emergency occurs and can include plans or preparations made to save lives and to help response and rescue operations.

Building a culture of preparedness in communities everywhere is essential. As the average number of major disaster declarations has steadily increased, rising from an average of 24 per year in the 1980s to nearly 90 per year since 2010. There needs to be an increased focus on preparedness from a risk based approach.

According to4 CivicPlus, emergency preparedness saves lives. No matter how prepared your community becomes, you cannot prevent an unexpected local disaster, but you can prepare for one. Effective plans convey goals and objectives and are vitally important to prioritize planning efforts that address the respective threat or hazard.

In FEMA’s 2018–2022 Strategic Plan, building a culture of preparedness is one of three of5 FEMA’s overarching Strategic Goals in order to unify and further professionalize emergency management across the nation. FEMA’s plan stresses that every segment of our society must be encouraged and empowered with the information it needs to prepare for the inevitable impacts of future disasters.

ERM ELEMENTS: In the preparedness phase of emergency management, organizations should focus on ERM elements #1, #2 and #4.

FIGURE 2: MAPPING OF THE SEVEN ERM ELEMENTS TO THE FOUR PHASES OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

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MITIGATION

PREPAREDNESS

RESPONSE

RECOVERY

Analyze and Evaluate Risk (#3) Respond to Risk (#5)

Establish the Context (#1) Initial Risk Identification (#2) Develop Alternatives (#4)

Respond to Risk (#5)

Monitoring and Reviewing (#6) Continuous Risk Identification (#7)

PUBLIC RISK | AUGUST 2019

• Establish the Context – understand and articulate the internal and external environments of the organization. Plans should be developed through the analysis of risks, operational assumptions, and resource demands.

• Initial Risk Identification – use a structured and systematic approach to recognize where the potential for undesired outcomes or opportunities can arise. This includes working with the emergency management community to encourage proactive risk assessments.

• Develop Alternatives – systemically identify and assess a range of risk response options guided by risk appetite. This includes having a dedicated effort by the whole community to educate the public regarding their risks and developing methods to mitigate the impact of those risks.

PHASE 3: Response involves putting preparedness plans into action and takes place during an emergency. It can include actions taken to save lives and prevent further property damage in an emergency situation.

Response encompasses the activities that address the short-term, direct effects of an incident. Response also includes incident mitigation activities designed to limit the loss of life, personal injury, property damage, and unfavorable6 outcomes.

During Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi Power was able to restore power to all customers that could accept it in 13 days, which was half the time that was originally projected. Their response showcased the importance of having an effective organizational response ready for such disasters.

business, or other entity to conditions the same or better than existed before the emergency event.

The recovery phase requires balancing the more immediate need to return the community to normalcy with the longer-term goal of reducing future vulnerability. Recovery includes the reactions and risk response to disasters which vary depending on the incident. Recovery efforts are primarily concerned with actions that involve rebuilding destroyed property, re-employment, and the repair of other essential8 infrastructure.

Successful recoveries are dependent on what happens during the first three phases of emergency management. Even with this increased focus on mitigation, preparedness, and response, disasters will still occur and recovery will still be required. Those organizations that have invested in the continuous risk identification and specifically in recovery planning are shown to not only minimize losses and costly interruptions, but also have been able to provide essential emergency services to their customers.

ERM ELEMENTS: In the recovery phase of emergency management, organizations should focus on ERM element #6 and #7.

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ERM ELEMENTS: In the response phase of emergency management, organizations should focus on ERM element #5.

• Respond to Risks – make decisions about the best option(s) among a number of alternatives, and then prepare and execute the selected response strategy.

PHASE 4: Recovery takes place after an emergency and seeks to return the community,

• Monitoring and Reviewing – evaluate and monitor performance to determine whether the implemented risk management options achieved the stated goals and objectives.

• Continuous Risk Identification— is an iterative process, occurring throughout the year to include surveillance of leading indicators of future risk from internal and external environments.

WHAT MORE CAN BE DONE?

It is important to remember that effective planning and response for all types of emergencies is achieved by coordination and cooperation of many groups and individuals throughout the four phases of emergency management described above.

management processes, but more can be and needs to be done due to the increased velocity and severity of disasters. We need to think about the broader application of ERM, specifically the 7 elements of ERM described above, and how this discipline can be applied to better reach the goal of mitigating, preparing, responding and recovering from emergencies.

We need to continue to discuss how ERM can help in the achievement of a true portfolio view of an agency’s objectives (strategic, reporting, operations and compliance) to prepare for emergency management events.

Wendy Morton-Huddleston, CGFM, PMP is a Principal at Grant Thorton LLP. Bobbi-Jo Pankaj, CGFM, PMP, CRMP-Fed is a Director at Grant Thornton LLP. ENDNOTES 1 NOAA. (https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/ national-climate-201712) 2 FEMA’s 2018-2022 Strategic Plan (https://www.fema.gov/media-librarydata/1533052524696-b5137201a4614ade5 e0129ef01cbf661/strat_plan.pdf) 3 The National Institute of Building Sciences report today “Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves,” on Jan 2018 (https://www.nibs.org/ page/mitigationsaves) 4 CivicPlus 8 Tips for Local Government Community Emergency Preparedness 5 FEMA’s strategic plan (https://www.fema. gov/media-library-data/1533052524696b5137201a4614ade5e0129ef01cbf661/ strat_plan.pdf) 6 St. Louis. County Missouri – Law and Public Safety-Four phases of emergency management. (https://www.stlouisco.com/LawandPublicSafety/EmergencyManagement/ TheFivePhasesofEmergencyManagement) 7 Success Stories: Strong Partnerships for Stronger Community Resilience (http://www.resilientus.org/wp-content/ uploads/2013/09/Strong-Partnerships-forStronger-Community-Resilience.pdf) 8 St. Louis. County Missouri – Law and Public Safety-Four phases of emergency management. (https://www.stlouisco.com/LawandPublicSafety/EmergencyManagement/ TheFivePhasesofEmergencyManagement)

Those who specialize in emergency management have made strides with incorporating some ERM elements into their emergency

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ENTERPRI

E

R M

EMENT AG

SK MAN I R E S

Evaluate Educate Elevate Create an Organizational Culture that Proactively Manages Risk ATTEND PRIMA’S 2019 ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT TRAINING!

NEXT TRAINING November 13–14, 2019 Hyatt Regency New Orleans

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BEST PRACTICES IN THE OF

PREVENTION CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND MOLESTATION

BY J. BRETT CARRUTHERS, CSP, RSSP

T

HIS IS A DIFFICULT TOPIC TO DISCUSS. The numbers demand attention. By one estimate, as many as 4.5 million American students will experience sexual misconduct by an educator sometime between kindergarten and their senior year in high school. During a single recent year, more than 780 teachers or school employees were accused or convicted of sexual relationships with students.

These statistics show the stark reality insurers and the school community face in addressing inappropriate actions and behaviors in the school community. Success requires a change in human behavior— significantly more difficult than mitigating physical hazards.

Public sector exposures are affected by external forces. In today’s world with legislation to “correct past wrongs”, juries are sympathetic to the victims, regardless of the evidence. Large verdicts against school districts encourage litigation. General Liability and Excess coverages are being taxed by this type of claim.

This article describes the way the New York Schools Insurance Reciprocal (NYSIR) and its management company sought out answers and best practices in this area through an evidence-based symposium. The symposium brought together mental health experts, researchers and front line law enforcement experts. From the Symposium rose a host of best practices for school districts and others to study and implement.

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PUBLIC RISK | AUGUST 2019

WHAT DID WE LEARN PART ONE – MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES

Lemuel Shattuck, a teacher in Massachusetts stated, “Every child should be taught early in life, that, to preserve his own life and his own health and the lives and health of others, is one of the most important and constantly abiding duties.” Lemuel was a teacher at the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts and wrote this in 1850. This is not a new challenge, but a lingering one.

Consider the following from Vera.org: • Children living with a mental illness, learning disability or physical disability are more than twice as likely to report childhood sexual abuse as their peers.

• Children with mental illness or intellectual deficiency are 4.6 times more likely to be victimized than their peers.

These are sobering statistics and highlight the significant challenge before us. There is a need to move from mental health illiteracy to mental health literacy. This transformation must involve educators and students and include a pathway to educate both groups. They need to know more about: • Mental Illness • Confront the Myths, Misunderstandings and Fear • Stigma, Shame and Embarrassment of Mental Illness We have not embraced mental health issues as a public health crisis—which one can argue that it is. If we paid the same attention to mental illness as we have with AIDs, Cancer and Smoking, maybe we have a different picture. Look no further than the number of students in schools who are classified as “Emotionally Disturbed.” How fast are these numbers rising? More importantly what is being done to address this situation and what is the price tag for those services?

What we have learned is we have an endangered population of students who need help. We lack a solid understanding of mental illness and the avenues available for treatment and care.

WHAT DID WE LEARN PART TWO – CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE RESEARCH

In the past year, 43.5 percent of young victims first reported sexual abuse to friends or a family member. School authorities were a close second at 42 percent. This is a vivid example of the importance of having a trusting relationship with at least one adult in a young person’s life.

Research has shown that the annual cost of Child Sexual Abuse has an economic burden of $9.3 billion.

The number of child sexual abuse incidents in the U.S. has declined significantly from 1990 to 2010 (62%). However the declines since 2001 have been relatively modest. Dr. Elizabeth Letourneau stated, “So we are doing something right. Now the focus must shift to primary prevention. Can you imagine how much further we would be if we spend as much money on prevention as we do on punishment?”

What we have learned is that research and programming must focus more on the victims and child sexual abuse prevention and awareness programs. These must: • Recognize potentially abusive situations • Resistive abusive overtures • Report previous/ongoing abuse Similar to the mental health situation, stigmas must be broken down. These victims did nothing wrong. Society and those in roles of prevention and action must be open, caring and have empathy when these victims find the strength to come forward and confront this evil.

WHAT DID WE LEARN PART THREE – THE WHO?

Clinton Van Zandt brought his years of experience and his personal experience as a childhood kidnap victim shed light on the “monsters lurking in plain sight.” In the United States, there are over 875,000 registered sex offenders. This poses a significant challenge to society in general and more specifically public school districts. To put this into perspective, in my community there are 181 registered sex offenders, or one for every 270 citizens—frightening.

These predators carefully target and groom their victims. According to the website LiveSecure.org, the following are danger signs: • Lonely Children • An “adult” who becomes a “peer-like” friend • The adult want to travel with the child and gives expensive gifts • The child wants to talk only to this adult • The child hides notes, gifts and other items related to the adult These individuals work to place themselves in positions of trust (coaches, teachers, bus drivers and teacher aides). A reported 1 in 10 students have been victims of sexual molestation by school employees. This creates a dangerous equation: Very Caring + Very Generous + Very Smooth = Extremely Dangerous. School employees and administrators must continually monitor adult-student relationships and their boundaries.

According to the Digest of Education Statistics, there were 1.35 million student sexual assaults in 2017 (12 to 18 year olds); the average offender age was 28 and 57 percent of offenders were male while 56 percent of victims were female.

WHAT DID WE LEARN PART FOUR – GANGS AND SEX TRAFFICKING Gangs have changed their business model and are now focusing on areas with lower risk and higher rewards. Gang and human trafficking expert Moses Robinson, one of the first School Resource Officers in the Rochester City School District has seen this come full circle. Gangs are moving away from higher risk activity and moving to human trafficking and prostitution.

According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention there were 466,000 missing children in 2017 and 2.8 million children living on the streets. These individuals become easy prey for gangs to exploit and an ample supply to keep this pipeline flowing in what has become a $32 billion industry.

They have fallen through societal cracks into a world with little community awareness and knowledge. In this world they are low risk and expendable according to Robinson. This exploitation is taking place in all communities—often in plain sight, but goes unrecognized as these victims have no voice.

AUGUST 2019 | PUBLIC RISK

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BEST PRACTICES IN THE PREVENTION OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND MOLESTATION

This creates a huge opportunity to confront the many sides of this problem from mental health to gangs.

MENTAL HEALTH REMEDIES There is a need to increase the mental health literacy and not the continued path of mental health illiteracy. This need must be addressed on two fronts—the educator and the student. The pathway for both groups is to educate both to make them informed consumers. Schools need to provide: • Training to recognize problems and helpseeking behavior • Knowledge to reduce the stigma/barrier to seek treatment • Information and skills to students to serve for a lifetime Providing Mental Health First Aid courses for staff and students is a powerful training which can make a big difference. Ongoing training in suicide awareness and prevention is essential. Finally, looking at additional student and staff supports including the use of social workers; specially trained counselors and psychologists doing counseling.

RESEARCH REMEDIES There is a lot of activity in this area. Keeping abreast of the most current research is important and can aid in developing programming which can assist your school community. Look for partnership opportunities with local colleges and universities in this area.

There is a need to understand your school community and culture. Does the culture need to change? Do you have a culture of respect? Are you creating a climate of respect? These questions are difficult to ascertain, but essential in making adjustments to prevent potential victimization.

IDENTIFICATION REMEDIES Developing strong policies and procedures in this area is a keystone. Establish strong policy on student/ adult relationships is essential and must be shared with all staff. Additionally, awareness training for senior and building administration in recognizing improper adult relationships and grooming is vital. Strengthening hiring and termination procedures—strong background and reference checks and eliminating silent resignations is critical.

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PUBLIC RISK | AUGUST 2019

GANG AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING REMEDIES Knowing and understanding the gang activity, real or perceived in your school community is essential. Expand your relationships with local law enforcement and involve them in gang awareness training for staff and parents.

Monitor homeless and migrant students. Most areas have regional human trafficking programs working to identify and shut down these illicit operations. Invite these groups to speak to your staff and parents as well. Inform these groups or local law enforcement if you suspect something.

In order to be successful we must remember the words of Ovid, “Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.” We must endeavor to be persistent and have courage as Twain once said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not the absence of fear.”

J. Brett Carruthers, CSP, RSSP is the Vice President of Risk Management for Wright Public Entity and the Director of Risk Management for the New York Schools Insurance Reciprocal (NYSIR).

REFERENCES Finkelhor, Ormrod, Turner, & Hamby (2012).

Child and youth victimization known to police, school, and medical authorities.

OJJDP Bulletin, April, 2012.

Letourneau, Brown, Fang, Hassan, & Mercy (in press). The Economic burden of child sexual abuse in the United States. Child Abuse & Neglect.

“

WHO (2009). Global health risks: Mortality and burden of disease attributable to selected major risks.

Finklehor, D., & Jones, L. (2012). Have sexual abuse and physical abuse declined since the 1990s?

Letourneau, E. J., Harris, A. J., Shields, R. T., Walfield, S. M., Ruzicka, A. E., Buckman, C., Kahn, G. D., & Nair, R. (in press). Effects of juvenile sex offender registration on adolescent well-being: An empirical examination. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. Caldwell, 2016. Quantifying the decline in juvenile sexual recidivism rates. Psychology, Public Policy, and the Law. Chaffin, 2008. Don’t shoot: We’re your children. Child Maltreatment.

Hanson, Harris, Letourneau, Helmus, & Thornton (2018). Reductions in risk based on time offense-free in the community: Once a sexual offender, not always a sexual offender. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. Finkelhor, D., Asdigian, N., & DziubaLeatherman, J. (1995). Victimization prevention programs for children: A follow-up.

American Journal of Public Health.

Taylor, B. G., Stein, N. D., Mumford, E. A., & Woods, D. (2013). Shifting boundaries: An experimental evaluation of a dating violence prevention program in middle schools.

Prevention Science.

Foshee, Bauman, Arrianga, Helms, Koch, & Linder. (1998). An evaluation of Safe Dates, an adolescent dating violence prevention program. American Journal of Public Health.

Letourneau, E. J., Schaeffer, C. M., Bradshaw, C. P., & Feder, K. A. (in press). Preventing the onset of child sexual abuse by targeting young adolescents with universal prevention programming. Child Maltreatment.

Every child should be taught early in life, that, to preserve his own life and his own health and the lives and health of others, is one of the most important and constantly abiding duties.

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WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US?

Lemuel Shattuck, a teacher in Massachusetts

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