City work comp history ‘very good’

By Danica Baker
Herald Staff Writer

Sat, May 17 2008

— CLINTON — In a presentation to the Internal Operations Committee this week, Fire Chief Mark Regenwether described the city’s workers compensation loss history as very good.
Regenwether said members of the city Safety Committee met with a representative of the Iowa Municipalities Workers Compensation Association last week to review Clinton’s loss record. He said the city experienced an “extremely low” record from 2004 to 2005, which garnered the city a discount on coverage premiums. He said the loss record rose in the fiscal years 2005-2006 and 2006-2007, but noted the record for 2007-2008 is going down again. Regenwether said the IMWCA offers rate quotations based on a three-year loss record average and the city’s premium costs should remain approximately the same.
He remarked that while loss record numbers fluctuate, the city is doing very well right now. He said the IMWCA rep suggested the city perform safety audits, which Regenwether noted the Safety Committee already does, but decided to relegate the work down to the committee members, who will then report the findings to the department head and the full committee. He said he believes a Human Resource Department will help the effort tremendously and make one city department responsible for the task, currently undertaken by himself and Transportation Director Dennis Hart.
Regenwether said the committee will continue to meet regularly on a monthly basis and noted the committee has begun planning a safety appreciation day to be held in August. City Administrator Gary Boden pointed out the numbers provided in a chart outlining the loss record may reflect multiple compensation counts for one person. Regenwether agreed, saying that in past years some employees have had multiple reports.
He said the incidents are being documented well, so habitual incidents can be tracked.
Second Ward Councilman Mike Kearney issued a concern that some city employees are not in good shape, which leaves them vulnerable to a higher number of reported incidents. He suggested the city consider offering incentives for employees to improve their health or requiring the less fit employees to be on a health regimen following their annual physical. Regenwether said he was unsure about other city departments, but said the fire department can require firefighters to follow a health regimen to become more physically fit. He added that firefighters are required to perform a minimum of one hour of exercise per day. Regenwether remarked that city employees are offered access to the exercise facilities at the Ericksen Community Center at no cost.