Name: Audit: City paid $220M to settle claims over nine years, averaging nearly $25M a year
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Audit: City paid $220M to settle claims over nine years, averaging nearly $25M a year

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Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement A new audit says San Diego could significantly reduce the nearly $25 million a year it spends on lawsuit payouts if it invests in better employee training, deeper analyses of risks and proactive moves like fixing damaged sidewalks in key areas.The audit found that San Diego spent $220 million total over nine fiscal years, from 2010 to 2018, handling about 20,000 claims and lawsuits filed during that time.Most of the money went to payouts, but $45 million was spent on outside legal counsel and subject-matter experts in more than 13,000 cases where the city avoided making any payout to people who filed the claims and suits.The 111-page audit recommends the city adopt a more centralized, analytical approach to preventing police misconduct, sidewalk falls, water main breaks and collisions involving city vehicles. Of 20,000 total cases filed, only 313 ended with payouts higher than $50,000. And only 16 cases cost the city more than $1 million. AdvertisementThat led auditors to conclude that studying and fixing the highest-risk situations could yield significant savings.A key recommendation was to focus repairs of damaged sidewalks in high-volume pedestrian areas.“Damaged sidewalk locations in higher pedestrian usage areas are nearly four times more likely to cause a liability than locations in lower pedestrian usage areas,” the audit says.Sidewalk repairs accounted for $14.7 million of the payouts during the nine-year period analyzed. That’s less than the $20 million paid out for water main breaks, $39 million for city vehicle collisions and $40 million for civil rights violations, including sexual harassment.Cases involving police also reached nearly $20 million in costs over the nine years. The city paid out $6.8 million in false arrest cases and $12.9 million in physical assault cases, most of which involved police.Sidewalk repairs got more attention in the report, partly because they have been steadily rising in recent years. The city paid out $2 million in sidewalk damage suits in fiscal 2018 alone, sharply up from the $778,000 it paid out in fiscal 2010.In addition to prioritizing high-volume areas, the audit says the city should analyze other trends for sidewalk injuries to gain a deeper understanding of the risk factors.By comparison, payouts in collisions involving city employee vehicles remained mostly steady. The number of collisions ranged from 172 to 285 over the nine years, with no upward trend over time.The audit recommends more frequent and more thorough training of employees who use city vehicles. Workers who drive city trash trucks only get trained upon hiring, with no follow-up courses, the audit says.The city also should study where, when and how the collisions are occurring, which could help reveal ways to reduce the number of crashes, the audit says.While San Diego has a Public Liability Loss Recovery Division with 20 full-time employees and a $2.3 million annual budget, the audit says more rigorous and coordinated oversight is needed.Recommendations in the audit include hiring a citywide risk management expert and creating a risk oversight committee.The goal is ending the city’s decentralized approach, where different departments handle lawsuit risks in a variety of ways with no coordination and no comprehensive analysis, the audit says.Government agencies that have taken similar approaches to what the audit recommends include Los Angeles County, the University of California and the city of Edmonton, in Alberta, Canada.The audit says those cities have reduced costs and risks with more centralized and proactive approaches to liability that the audit calls “enterprise risk management.”Kris Michell, the city’s chief operating officer, agreed to make all the changes recommended in the audit by December 2021. She noted in a nine-page response that many of the changes already are partially underway. Some of the city’s costs are mitigated by the public liability insurance it buys. The audit says the city paid about $45 million for such insurance during fiscal years 2014 through 2018 and received more than $120 million to help cover payouts and other litigation expenses.Much of the litigation costs are covered by the city’s general fund. But some are covered by the city’s water and sewer ratepayers, including water main breaks and collisions involving vehicles used by the city’s Utilities Department. Get Essential San Diego, weekday mornings Get top headlines from the Union-Tribune in your inbox weekday mornings, including top news, local, sports, business, entertainment and opinion. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Show Comments Load More Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisement AdvertisementAdvertisement

Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement A new audit says San Diego could significantly reduce the nearly $25 million a year it spends on lawsuit payouts if it invests in better employee training, deeper analyses of risks and proactive moves like fixing damaged sidewalks in key areas.The audit found that San Diego spent $220 million total over nine fiscal years, from 2010 to 2018, handling about 20,000 claims and lawsuits filed during that time.Most of the money went to payouts, but $45 million was spent on outside legal counsel and subject-matter experts...

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San Diego Union-Tribune Reporter David Garrick covers San Diego government and politics from all possible angles and then some.

David Garrick

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The San Diego Union-Tribune, the region's leading news source since 1868. Follow our journalists, too: http://j.mp/UTstaff

Audit: City paid $220M to settle claims over nine years, averaging nearly $25M a year

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