DATE: September 21, 2021
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Hollis Magill, Director of Human Resources
SUBJECT: Approve Ordinance Adding Delegated Authority to Title 5, Claims Against the County
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
TITLE
Conduct the second hearing and adopt an Ordinance adding Section 5.02 - Delegated Settlement Authority to the Fresno County Ordinance Code delegating authority to staff to resolve, reject, and settle litigation against the County of Fresno for claims up to $50,000; and waive reading of the Ordinance in its entirety.
REPORT
There is no additional Net County Cost associated with the recommended action. Approving the Ordinance confirms the Board's authority to allow staff to manage and investigate claims of all types and consolidates previous Board actions so that authorities are effectively and efficiently memorialized into one document. This action increases settlement authority from $10,000 to $50,000 for the Director of Human Resources and minimizes occurrences of claims going before the Board of Supervisors. This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION:
The Board could choose not to approve the recommendation of the County Counsel and the Director of Human Resources but doing so would unnecessarily slow down response time on Settlement requests and continue to create additional work for staff and your Board.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This Ordinance has no fiscal impact.
DISCUSSION:
The first reading of this proposed Ordinance amendment was approved by your Board on September 7, 2021.
Resolution No. 93-313 delegated authority to the County Risk Manager to pay liability claims in the amount of $5,000, or less, and to the Director of Human Resources in the amount of $10,000, or less. Based upon 2017 amendments to the California Government Code, the Board approved Resolution No. 17-306 increasing settlement authority to the County Administrator up to $50,000 and reiterating the previous authority to the Human Resources Director and Risk Man...
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