Little did Ron Hayes dream when he worked as a high school teacher, manager of a property-casualty insurance agency and later as a university athletic fundraiser that his skills would so perfectly suit him for a career in public risk management.

After his fundraising stint, when Mr. Hayes–incoming president for the Public Risk Management Association–was offered the job of risk manager for the town of Sulphur, La., his first question was, “What's a risk manager?”

He spent four-and-a-half years “in the trenches,” learning about the exposures facing the city, as well as how to mitigate and insure them. But it wasn't until he began his tenure as risk manager for the nearby Calcasieu Parish School Board in 1999 that he was able to meld all of those skills.

Today he is responsible for the welfare of some 30,000 students and more than 5,000 employees, handling a job that is “constantly changing. We have pre-K-to-12th grade, and we are the biggest employer by far in the parish, and most of our employees have families, and a lot of them are included in our group insurance plan.”

He added that “pretty much, when our hearts beat here in this system, the blood rushes out throughout the community.”

This was evidenced after Hurricane Rita in 2005, which struck the area–located on the Gulf side of the state–about a month after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. What's more, he said, 3,500 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina were staying in the Lake Charles Civic Center.

All had to be relocated, as there was mandatory evacuation of the parish, he explained. Some arrived back three days later, while Mr. Hayes–llike many others–wasn't able to return for eight days. Meanwhile, the community was dispersed all over the country during recovery efforts.

“But when the superintendent announced to the media that the schools would be open on a certain date,” he recalled, “the community came back by that date. Only 24 days after the storm, the community was back in business, and life went on.”

Through this experience and others, Mr. Hayes said one of the biggest lessons he has learned is the importance of PRIMA for the public risk manager.

“If they have a problem, there's someone who has been there who can help them,” he said. “They will have something in place that worked, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You have experts in any area that you can call for advice.”

He stressed that because of the number of elements involved–including security, liability and coverage issues–”networking with your peers can be invaluable at a time of crisis.”

Mr. Hayes said PRIMA's biggest challenge this year will be the impact of the economic crisis. “The first issue is the [PRIMA] conference and attendance”–which, he noted, is down from last year thus far. “In this economic time, we're seeing a reduced conference registration. Across the association world, they're seeing 20-to-30, up to 50 percent less participation.”

Not being able to attend the conference because of budget cuts will have a negative impact on public risk managers, according to Mr. Hayes, “because there's so much information. There are networking opportunities, new products and an exhibit hall where vendors exhibit what they have.”

He noted that 80 high-level presentations are in the conference lineup. Topics are chosen by a review committee that spends a day going through all the suggested topics–about twice the number submitted as the number chosen. Many other activities are being offered as well.

“It's almost like when there's the greater need, there's less chance to take advantage of the information because of the funding [budget cuts],” he lamented.

While PRIMA is not seeing the same number of registrants as last year, “we're holding our breath, hoping that the falloff will not be too dramatic.”

If attendance is strikingly low, he said, “that will have a dramatic effect on the revenues we use to fund the national PRIMA office and the national PRIMA operation, so all of this has a ripple effect.”

Mr. Hayes noted that “our biggest dream would be to match the number from last year. If not, we hope the difference will be minimal and something we can handle budget-wise.”

CHALLENGES AHEAD

One of the biggest issues facing risk managers in the public sector, he said, is natural disasters. “Because I don't care where you are, there is a threat. There are hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes in the West, tornadoes and floods in the Midwest, and there are droughts as well.”

These ongoing threats mean public risk managers are becoming “more and more important,” he said. “It is so important to have precautionary measures in place–a crisis management plan–all of these things have to be in place.”

Not only are risk managers in the public sector being squeezed by shrinking budgets, some are facing insurance rate hikes as well.

Last year, he said, was a benchmark for catastrophe losses because of the earthquake in China, hurricanes and wildfires.

“You factor in the losses the insurance industry absorbed because of all that–they've got to get some of that money back,” he said. “In the past, this money was reclaimed by investment opportunities. Now, however, the only place to go for revenue is the client.”

The result is that “we've got the budget cut on one hand, and the challenge of products we can afford on the other hand, to keep our system adequately protected.”

To help keep pricing down, he noted, “we have a Louisiana insurance school group of about 10 schools that has pooled together for a casualty pool for the liability products that we purchase. When we go to the carrier, we have a bigger stick.”

Because of premium increases, he added that self-insured retention “is being discussed by a lot of people. You do it to find something affordable. We had to raise the self-insured retention on our workers' comp this year.”

The effects of budget cuts, disasters and price hikes “will hit somewhere,” he said, “which is why it's so important that risk managers at least be at the table where all the key decision-makers are, because the input, ultimately, will come back to you.”

Those decision-makers will want to know “what they can do, how much it costs, if [the cost] is reasonable, and if they're protected.” Mr. Hayes warned that “if you're not there to give that input and they go in a different direction, it could be devastating financially or any other way.”

It's crucial that risk managers have wide support throughout their organizations, “because if they're leaving you out of the planning process, there could be a huge gap that develops and it could be more expensive,” he added.

STATE OF RISK MANAGEMENT

Because of the added pressures on municipalities, Mr. Hayes said he believes risk managers' input and skills are becoming more of a part of the planning process. “I hear them talking about the board, requests from the media, etc. We need to preach our message to the folks who need to hear it–especially now.”

In the past, the risk manager was seen more as a “buffer.” When something happened, the risk manager's job was to “defend what was done, tell them why we did it and answer the questions.”

In other words, the risk manager was a “buffer between the critique of the incident and the decision-makers,” he said. “I think those days are gone, because when the challenge develops, everybody is going to be accountable.”

No more is it merely a question “of the risk manager standing at the microphone defending it to the media, but the employer, the employee, the legal counsel, the broker and others, all standing up and contributing,” Mr. Hayes explained.

PERSONAL CHALLENGES

In his own position, Mr. Hayes said the biggest challenge is the security of the schools and the safety of the students and teachers.

He noted that times have changed, as no longer can a parent arbitrarily pick up a child and take them out to lunch, while a school administrator cannot simply hand a student with a headache an aspirin.

Now, he said, security is a key concern. One of the events that shaped him in his career, he added, was the Columbine incident in Colorado in April 1999, when two students massacred 12 fellow students and a teacher, while injuring 21 others, “which happened three weeks into my job–the biggest tragedy in the American school system.”

After this, he said, “from that point forward, the position of risk manager became a lot more serious. It became a lot more important to have a crisis plan in place. I know that across the country, there have been enormous efforts, many hours and dollars spent to improve the atmosphere for a safe learning environment in the schools.”

Schools have installed security cameras and have “more and more eyes to watch the parking lots, to watch the doors accessing into the campus,” he said. “We have lockdown drills, shelter in place drills, fire evacuation drills–we have these drills because of the unknown and what might be out there.”

In his parish, he added, “we have had examples of noncustodial parents showing up at school, wanting to take possession of a child, which by court edict they don't have possession of. We've had the inebriated adult showing up for whatever reason–to get his or her child, or just to vent.”

In one incident, he recalled, an inebriated person broke into a school, vandalized some computers and passed out under the desk of a kindergarten teacher at about 6:15 a.m. When the teacher entered the room about an hour later, she saw “two legs sticking out from under her desk. She made a hasty exit of the room and called 9-1-1.”

In situations like this, contingency plans are critical, he said, because neither the situation nor the reaction can be predicted.

To prepare for the unexpected, according to Mr. Hayes, possible scenarios and responses are discussed. “If you've talked about it, you're going to remain calm,” he said. “If you can remain calm and think, and follow the procedures, your chances of handling the crisis are significantly improved, as opposed to panicking.”

Mr. Hayes added that “we've advanced beyond that, thanks to risk management practitioners throughout the country.”

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