2019 Safety and Loss Control RecognitionAwards

Keeping the Winning Trend

By Lynn Bren, SDPAA Director of Member Services

Trips and falls, law enforcement chases, employment related decisions, playgrounds, and pools… all of these things have something in common; they create risks that may be unique challenges for our Members. The South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance offers several opportunitiesforlosscontroloptionstohelpourMembers navigate through these and many other risk management challenges daily.

TheSouthDakotaPublicAssuranceAlliancepartnerswith the SDMLWorkers Compensation Fund to sponsor safety awards which are presented to our Members each year.

2019 Jim Fjerestad Memorial Safety Leadership Award

PriortoJuly7,2015theawardwastitledtheSouthDakota SafetyandLossControlAward.In2014JimFjerestadwas the recipient of this award. Jim was an employee of the CityofBrandon,whosepassionforsafetyandlosscontrol spread well beyond the City. Jim recognized that smaller communities would benefit from the information and advice that he was providing the employees in Brandon, and invited employees from those surrounding communitiestotheCity ’ssafetyandlosscontrolmeetings. ThisinitiativetakenbyJimwasselflessandinspiring.Jim passed away July 7, 2015. The award was renamed “The Jim Fjerestad Memorial Safety Leadership Award” to honor the dedication shown by Mr. Fjerestad.

Those interested in nominating someone who exhibits a strong passion for safety and loss control can do so via nominating forms which are found on the Safety Benefits, Inc. website.The time for nominations generally closes in the late summer, as the awards are given to the recipients during the annual conventions which, this year started in September 2019. There are two award winners selected each year.

Oneofthisyear’srecipients,FranklinMaynard,Southwest District Emergency Manager from Fall River County, was noted as having “a goal of getting full participation of all departments in the County ’s safety and loss control program.Throughhiscoordination,thathashappened.… ” Unfortunately, Mr. Maynard was unable to accept his award in September at the County ’s Annual Convention, but he was still honored for his hard work and accomplishments.Through his work with Safety Benefits, Fall River County started out with a Bronze LevelAward, then 4 Silver and ultimately a Gold Level award last year. At the County Convention, they received their second Gold Level and their first Platinum Level awards.

The second recipient of the 2019 Fjerestad Memorial Safety Leadership Award is Chris Newman, Building Inspector for City of Huron. The nomination form noted that Chris is the chairperson for the Employee Safety Committee. The form cited one of the reasons for Chris’ nomination was “Chris attends all training available to be the best in his position, and to help others get the required training to be the …safest employees. ” This is one of the traitsthatourFjerestadawardwinnersemulate,adesireto ensure everyone’s safety.

Doug Kirkus (L), Safety Benefits, Inc presents Chris Newman (R), City of Huron with the Jim Fjerestad Memorial Award.

2019 Safety and Loss Control Recognition Awards

By Lynn Bren, Director of Member Services, South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance

In addition to individual recognition, all Pool Members have the opportunity to achieve recognition via Safety and Loss Control Recognition Awards. There are four levels: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Bronze level recognition requires Memberstoputintoplaceten safety or loss control practices such as having safety and personnel manuals and providing and attending training exercises.

Silver level recognition is achieved by completing the ten Bronze level requirements, and then nine additional requirements. The additional requirements include items such as appropriate contracts in place with vendors, and adopting the twelve critical law enforcement policies recommended by the South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance.

MemberscanreachtheGoldlevelbyattainingtheBronze and Silver level requirements, and then six additional loss control and safety measures. The additional requirements include appointing a formal Safety Committee or appointing a Safety Coordinator, and documenting complaintsfromcitizensandtheMember’sresponsetothe same.

PlatinumlevelrecognitionisgiventothoseMemberswho have achieved gold level recognition and a combined three-year loss ratio of less than 60% for the pools to which they belong. The 2019 Safety and Loss Control recognition awards at each level are as follows:

Platinum

Aurora County Hwy Beadle County Hwy Brookings Municipal Utilities Brookings County Brown County Clay County Custer Custer County Dakota Dunes CID Davison County Deadwood Dell Rapids Edmunds County Elk Point Fall River County Hot Springs Huron Hutchison County Hwy Hyde County Hwy Lincoln County Miner Conservation Dist. Marshall County Mitchell Pierre Spearfish Valley Springs Vermillion Volga

Gold

Aberdeen Lake County

Aurora County Hwy Beadle County Hwy

Lawrence County Lead Brandon Lead-Deadwood Sanitary Dist. Brookings Municipal Utilities Lincoln County Brookings County Madison Brown County Marshall County Clark County Hwy McCook County Hwy Clay County Meade County Hwy Codington County Hwy Miller Codington County Maint. Miner Conservation Dist. Custer Minnehaha County Custer County Mitchell Dakota Dunes CID Pennington County Bldgs & Grnds Davison County Pennington County Hwy Deadwood Pierre Dell Rapids DeSmet Edmunds County Elk Point Fall River County Fort Pierre Garretson Hot Springs Huron Hutchison County Hwy Hyde County Hwy Sanborn County Hwy Sioux Falls Spearfish Spearfish EmergencyAmbu Dist. Valley Springs Vermillion Volga Watertown Watertown Municipal Utilities Winner Yankton

Bronze

Baltic

McPherson County Beresford Moody County Hwy Bon Homme County Oglala Lakota County Hwy Brule County Perkins County Charles Mix County Philip Day County Hwy Roberts Conservation Dist. Douglas County Sturgis Ethan Sully County Faulk County Gary Sully County Hwy Tripp County

Grant County Turner County Hwy

Gregory County Hand County Hwy Hanson County Hughes County Lincoln Co. Conservation Dist. Wagner Wall Walworth Co. Courthouse Walworth County Hwy Webster

The South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance offers Loss Control Surveys to all of their Members. Additionally, Members have access to sample policies and manuals, as well as online and in-person training opportunities for law enforcement and administrative employees. If you would like more information about the Loss Control and Safety information or training opportunities available please go to our website at www.sdpaaonline.org or call our office at 800-658-3633 Option 2.