Benjamin Franklin told us that, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.

Insurance companies limiting their payouts could be added to that idiom.

And that’s what Sequoyah County, as well as many other Oklahoma counties, are now facing with the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma- Self Insured Group (ACCO-SIG).

While it sure doesn’t hurt to have a county commissioner serving as president of the ACCO as Sequoyah County’s Jim Rogers, it turns out it doesn’t really help either, at least when it comes to insurance.

“We just got information this week our annual coverage that was a maximum $2 million per year, it just got lowered to $1 million a year,” Rogers told his colleagues at their weekly meeting last Monday.

When pressed to ensure everyone understood the implications, Rogers conceded that for claims in excess of $1 million, the remaining balance “is on us.”

“That’s for one year,” Rogers emphasized.

“That’s for one case,” said District 2 Commissioner Beau Burlison, punctuating the point.

So, in the case of a $3 million lawsuit against the county, “we’re done for the year,” Rogers said bluntly. “$1 million, and we’ve got to make up the other $2 million by a sinking fund. It goes back on the taxpayers’ back.”

Then District 1 Commissioner Ray Watts quipped, “Our sinking fund’s sunk.”

While the potential impact to the county and to taxpayers is sobering, Rogers took heart that the county, in general, and the sheriff ’s office, in particular, are proactive in their approach to possible liabilities.

“We have one of the premier jail operations in the state,” Rogers praised, “and that’s attributed to several different things — the sheriff, the undersheriff, a good jail administrator, good personnel, the fact that we’re getting our jailers’ more pay. That’s why we try hard on our end to make sure that we get qualified people in there. It’ll benefit us in the long run.”

But even with Sequoyah County doing its part to limit its exposure in a litigious society, its annual coverage was summarily reduced. But, as Rogers pointed out, “some counties got lowered to $500,000 a year,” which was a insurance stipulation for them to get coverage.

“Our [sheriff ’s] department is proactive, and we appreciate that,” Burlison said, “but I don’t think everybody is [proactive]. I don’t know how to get everybody on the same page, but we’re doing our part.”

An example of the county doing its part was reported by Jail Administrator Jeremy Day, who told the commissioners that additional safety railing is being added at the jail “around the top of every one of our pods to mitigate some risk in the future,” which many would agree, given the cost, is still cheaper than a lawsuit.

With that in mind, Rogers said this is a trend more counties are being encouraged to embrace.

“We have a new law enforcement liaison that’s going to be going around to all the jails. He’s been in the business for 20-something years, but what everybody needs to understand is, it’s not that we’re trying to bring somebody in to tell you how to do things. We’re trying to bring them in to share their ideas. It got to the point that we had to take that step, or they weren’t gonna insure us. We have to show the reinsure that we’re taking steps to try to improve the situation. If we don’t, they’re just going to kick the chair out from under us. It’s gotten really serious,” Rogers said.

“So we’re at a breaking point right now, that if we don’t get things turned around in certain counties, those counties we’re not going to be able to insure them. Normally, we’d have already had our premiums taken care of for property liability, but we had to keep going to the table to negotiate with them just to even get them to step up and agree to re-insure. It’s gotten to a point now that if things don’t change and it falls back on the county’s back, that’s not going to be good. Because if we can’t get this company to re-insure us right now, it’s going to be hard to get anybody else.”

In other business, the commissioners awarded a bid for a brush truck for Sallisaw Fire Department to Banner Fire Equipment in the amount of $80,116.26. It was the only bid received.