Every so often the board of supervisors has citizens who get on the agenda to talk about damage to their vehicles due to issues with the county roads.
Recently, the board voted to fix a vehicle that received damage to the oil pan after a citizen ran over a huge rock that was alleged to have been chunked out from under a county bush hog. Three of the supervisors (Mickey Long, Paul Mosley and Troy Smith) were in favor of passing a motion to pay for the damage.
Typically, the board refers citizens to the county insurance agent to make the claim, but in this case, since the damage was less than the deductible, they voted to reimburse. Two of the supervisors (Darrick Marshall and Lorenzo Carter) were not in agreement with this because they have had constituents who have received damage and did not get their vehicles repaired.
Each issue in that nature that goes before the board is determined on a case by case basis with several issues have to be determined such as; Was the county at fault? Was the county negligent? Did the insurance company determine if the county was negligent or not?
In the other cases, the citizen was referred to the county insurance carrier and those cases determined the county was not negligent, therefore did not pay. In this case on Monday, three of the supervisors determined that the county employee was negligent and made the determination to reimburse for the damages. Working with the public, there is always going to be instances where a decision has to be made and someone will not like it, but in this case, I have to agree with Supervisor Marshall who clearly was not happy with the decision.
Marshall had no problem reimbursing for damage to a vehicle of this individual, but did have a problem when his constituent wasn’t reimbursed and felt the county was at fault for that damage as well. However, in the case of his constituent, the insurance made the determination.
Another gentleman spoke to the board about windshield damage from dump trucks, however, those dump trucks belonging to Dunn’s Roadbuilders were on a state aid road and this man was getting no response from Dunn’s about his damage. In this instance, it wasn’t a county issue but yet, there have been county residents who have received windshield damage from Dunn’s dump trucks with no luck. The supervisors are only responsible for damage received by county equipment.
The county’s policy is when a citizen receives damage from a county vehicle or equipment, they need to contact the County Road Department located at the Central Maintenance Facility on West Donald Street. They will sign an affidavit certifying the date, time and location of the alleged damage; then they will have to go before the board of supervisors who will then make the determination to turn it over to the county insurance carrier or make the decision to reimburse or not in the meeting.
There has to be a protocol and criteria for the board to follow in these situations and the supervisors are the ones who have to answer their constituents.
In this case, Marshall was right to be upset with the situation. Most constituents who have received damage and out of pocket expenses do not really care about protocol or criteria, they want their vehicle repaired.
