WEST POINT — Loyalty was the issue Monday as the Clay County Board of Supervisors struggled to choose an insurance provider for the county. On one side were those loyal to the county”s longtime insurance carrier. On the other were those loyal to saving tax dollars.
Lyon Insurance, which sells OneBeacon Insurance policies, sought to usurp Clay County”s 20-year insurance provider Galloway- Chandler-McKinney Insurance, which sells Travelers Insurance policies. Gil Lyon of Lyon Insurance entered a bid of $137,000 Aug. 26 while Steve McKinney entered an initial bid of $178,000 that was later reduced to $156,000.
The board put off making a decision until Monday, the day before its previous insurance policy was due to expire, and risked going uninsured Tuesday if a decision wasn”t made.
Once in open session Monday, the two insurance providers jousted as they made their cases. Ultimately, the board split down the middle after District 4 Supervisor Shelton Deanes recused himself from the entire process to avoid a conflict of interest because his daughter works for One Beacon Insurance. That left District 1 Supervisor Lynn Horton and District 2 Supervisor Luke Lummus siding with GCM and Travelers while District 3 Supervisor R.B. Davis and District 5 Supervisor Floyd McKee opted for Lyon”s One Beacon policy.
Chancery Clerk Robbie Robinson pointed out that state law does not mandate municipalities contract with the low bidder when selecting insurance policies.
With Deanes unavailable to break the tie Monday, board attorney Lee Coleman recommended the board enter executive session to discuss the decision in private. The county could have wound up without insurance Tuesday had the deadlock persisted, but one of the bidders made the decision for the board.
“When we got in (executive session) we all got kind of heated up arguing,” said McKee. “Then McKinney knocked on the door and said he would withdraw his bid.”
With GCM out of the running, the contract fell to Lyon by default.
McKee said going with Lyon and OneBeacon was the right move regardless of whether GCM and Travelers stuck with its original bid or its revised bid.
“(GCM) wanted to come back and present a second bid at $156,000 (Monday). I told them ”No.” We were going with the first bid they presented,” he said.
McKee said the board has contracted for insurance with GCM over Lyon several times although GCM wasn”t the low bidder. He says the policies for public liability, fire and casualty, public officials protection and employee benefits liability are “the same thing” for both companies.
Horton explained his decision to stick with GCM was motivated out of loyalty to the company, which stuck with Clay County in recent years despite paying major claims on the county”s behalf.
“We had some accidents. We had a major accident and (GCM) hung in there with us. They paid out some huge claims and took care of business,” said Horton.
He wouldn”t comment on specific instances but Robinson confirmed Travelers has paid $2,013,600 over the past five years in court settlements. In one case, $500,000 was paid to the family of a Una woman who was decapitated by a wire strung across a county road as county workers attempted to right a piece of heavy equipment which slipped off a flatbed truck. Another involved an undisclosed settlement paid to former Clay County Sheriff”s Deputy Joe Huffman, who claimed wrongful termination for being fired after arresting a relative of a former county supervisor.
Although he recused himself from Monday”s vote, Deanes said Friday he would have voted to contract with OneBeacon.
“If I could have sat in that board room I would have voted for Lyon because it”s cheaper,” he said. “I”m looking at how to save the taxpayers money.”
He said Travelers was simply doing what it was supposed to do in paying the settlements and deserved no special treatment.
Furthermore, he said contracts awarded to Travelers in the past despite lower bids submitted by OneBeacon would have yielded much smaller savings.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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