Public risk managers need to follow the lead of their corporate counterparts and incorporate more enterprise risk management practices, the incoming president of the Public Risk Management Association contends.

"I think it's time to step up and get in on the planning of programs to give the perspective that some things need to be in place beforehand," said Katharine M. Peeling, risk management specialist with the Anne Arundel County public school system in Annapolis, Md.

Ms. Peeling noted that historically, public risk managers have been "brought in at the last minute to fix things"--and often the results are reactive rather than proactive.

Public risk managers should be involved in all planning processes because they understand the risk tolerance within their organization, she said, explaining that enterprise risk management is not nearly as prevalent in the public realm as it is in the private sector as a result of a different focus between the two.

"In private industry the bottom line and profits are very important, so they seem to move into things like ERM quicker--where you want to evaluate the risk and the opportunities," she explained. While public entities need to be fiscally responsible, "it doesn't drive what we do," she added.

Ms. Peeling said that because public risk managers have historically been the insurance buyers for public entities, "we were viewed as the person who just buys insurance." But as risk management has grown, she added, it has become obvious that to control the costs of coverage, "you have to be in on the planning stage so you don't get yourself into trouble, where you need the insurance."

Risk managers must put themselves in front of their organization's decision-makers and become more a part of the planning process rather than trying to fix things after the fact, she acknowledged.

"When I worked for the county government, we would have new public officials coming in wanting to meet everyone and find out what they do," she said. "That's when risk managers could get the most bang for their buck and take that as an opportunity."

PRIMA offers help to public risk managers with a briefing kit, available to members on the group's Web site, that provides tools on how to talk about what they do and how to bring value to the organization. "That's what I urge risk managers to do," she said, adding that while public risk managers are valuable, "they can be viewed as more valuable."

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