Bad Management or Bad Luck

Recently through a public disclosure request, I received information on Mason County's record of tapping into the Washington Counties Risk Pool. I thought you might be interested in this also.

But first what is the Risk Pool? Mason County joins with 27 other Washington counties in an insurance pool tapping into it as required to cover lawsuits and accidents. Over the last seven years our premiums have gone from $492K to $579K an 18% increase.

I found it interesting that for Mason County the deductible is $10K but many other counties in the pool have a much higher deductible - $100K to $500K. I don't know about you but in our family we have a very high deductible for our car insurance which lowers our annual premiums and, I think, makes us more careful drivers. For sure it keeps us from calling the insurance company when we have a chip in the windshield.

Why would the county need such a low deductible? But there I go thinking that the county should be treating our tax dollars as if they are limited.

Then I did a little more digging and found that in Mason County, given our current record for managing risk, it's probably a good economic decision to have a very low deductible. We had a whopping 226 cases paid out and closed during this seven year period.

Some of the cases were big dollars. In 2004 the risk pool closed a claim that totaled $1,407K (yes that could also be stated as $1.4 million). Another one came to $348K and $251K. You get the picture? Over the period I requested, Jan 2004 through February 2010, the Washington Counties Risk Pool closed claims totaling $3.5M for Mason County. We paid premiums which were less at $3.1M. Not a bad deal for Mason County. But a bad deal for others in the pool because it's making their rates increase.

Why aren't the other counties trying to get Mason County ejected from their pool? Mason County is a bad risk in a risk pool or so it appears to this taxpaying citizen who votes.

So I ask you does Mason County have bad management or bad luck?