Risk Management Team

The discipline of Risk Management has always been important to business and government.  Although safety is often the first thing people think of when they hear the term "risk management", safety is but one of several important components to determining, analyzing and responding to known and unknown risks. Risk management has two primary functions – Loss Financing and Loss Control.  As organizations grow, traditional insurance is no longer the primary loss financing technique.  For example, the City of Olathe has elected to self-insure the workers’ compensation risk, assuming the first $350,000 of any single occurrence involving an employee injury.  Other loss financing techniques include large deductibles, contractual transfers of risk and hold harmless and indemnification provisions.  Nearly every contract or agreement includes some form of loss financing strategy.  Loss control has two major components – Loss Prevention and Loss Reduction.  Loss Prevention stresses the simple philosophy that you don’t have to pay for losses that don’t occur.  The activities of the City Safety Committee are vital to successful loss prevention.  It is also important for risk management to continually evaluate and analyze risk.  A risk manager must understand all City operations and be involved any time operational changes are considered. Unfortunately, losses do and will continue to occur.  Loss Reduction is the second component of loss control, and focuses on mitigating the exposure to City assets for losses that have occurred.  This can be accomplished by subrogating against third parties, prompt and fair claim administration and the effective communication and negotiation with insurance companies. The function of Risk Management may not be glamorous or exciting, but it plays an important role in the overall operational success of the City.  City employees are an important part of the City’s Risk Management team.