The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

 

Published September 12, 2018

$1,000,000 insurance requirement fails

OSAGE BEACH – A controversial proposed ordinance that would require contractors working in the city to have at least one million dollars insurance, among other things, died last week due to the lack of a second to the motion.

The first reading was approved in August with Aldermen Kevin Rucker and Phyllis Marose voting against the proposal.

According to City Attorney Ed Rucker, the idea was suggested by Alderman Jeff Bethurem (Bethurem works in the insurance industry).

Currently those who wish to do business in the city are required to obtain a Contractor’s license. The city ordinance, which was passed by the board in 2015 states:

“No license as a contractor shall be issued to any firm, person or corporation without proof of general liability insurance in the form of a Certificate of Insurance providing for limits of not less than three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000.00) for a single incident. Said coverage shall be kept in full force and effect for the duration of the contractor license.”

Bethurem argued that the $300,000 is not enough and should be raised to $1,000,000 and that contractors need to prove that the insurance is valid for as long as the contractor has a license.

He said that when a contractor obtains a city license, they have to prove they have insurance at the time of the issuance of the license but that insurance can be done away with the next day by the contractor or the insurance company and the city would have no knowledge of it.

The proposed change in the ordinance would force the insurance company to notify the city if the insurance lapses or changes and the city would be named on the policy as additional insured

Several contractors voiced their opposition to the bill at last week’s Board of Aldermen meeting, along with Aldermen Rucker and Marose.

During the discussion on the bill, City Administrator Jeana Woods said that her staff had checked and found that there are other ways to track the insurance (and if it lapses) that the city might be able to do rather than make Bethurem’s idea law.

She said that she found only one other city in the state that does this (Kansas City).

Those who voiced their opposition to the proposed ordinance had no effect on Bethurem, who (after the discussion was complete) immediately made a motion to approve the second reading of the bill.

When Mayor John Olivarri called for a second to that motion, silence filled the room. With no second to the motion, the bill died.

The board wants city staff to look into what Woods said about tracking the insurance to see if that is a feasible alternative.

A clearly unhappy Bethurem quickly began questioning why city staff waited till the second reading to bring up alternatives when the idea had been around for several months and should have been mentioned before now.

City staff will gather more information about alternatives and inform the board in the future on their findings.

If the results are not a feasible alternative, the measure may be brought back to the board for approval a second time.

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